Attendees:
            Julienne Dean, Kathleen Flynn, Janet Walzer, Laurie Bryce, Ken Paul,
            Kath Thurston-Lighty, Robert Thurston-Lighty, Wing Ngan, Tom Pixton,
Ranjani Saigal, Chuck Munger, Kimberly Nyce
                       
Agenda:

  • Design Presentation - Wing Ngan
    • Wing presented three different designs, all using the "You are here" theme. Arrows were also a common design theme, to reinforce the primary function of the web site: to provide direction.
      • Dome Design. The dominant image is the MIT Dome. Wing reinforced the MIT dome's lines with additional curved graphical elements. The objective with this design was to use humor, while keeping the overall design clean and simple. The second level pages contain two pictures at the top that vary each time the user visits the page. The left picture will be of a person or persons, and the right will be of a MIT place.
      • Color & Arrow Design. The dominant graphic is a green arrow pointing to "You are here". Wing used color liberally and lots of smaller images to create a playful look, one which invites users to explore.
      • People and Place Design. The dominant images are the people and place combination, which changes each time the user visits the site. This helps create a sense of freshness. A green arrow is also prominent.
      • Community Resources. Wing and Kath identified a common set of links that should be available on every page. This is labeled "Community" and has three main links: Fun, Jargon, and News. The links are encapsulated in either an oblong or balloon graphics object which has an area reserved for text. This text is a short narrative of one of the topics accessible from the main links. The highlighted topic will change each time the user reloads the page. Issues discussed included:
        1. How to display "Community". Horizontally, on three lines ("COM-MUN-ITY") or vertically?
        2. The shape of the encapsulating graphic: oblong or balloon?
        3. Location of the Community Resources graphic; right, center, left, bottom, middle?
      • Other issues included
        1. Branding- the need to improve the branding on the first design.  Should the brand reflect more HR or more MIT?
        2.  The focus of the site is the individual employee. We suggested the "New Employees Orientation" should be read "New Employee Orientation".
        3. Navigation. Everyone liked that there were only 2 virtual levels to the NEO site. Concern over leaving the site and opening multiple windows. It was suggested to just open one external page when clicking on a link to an external site within NEO.
        4. Extending the design to print pieces was raised. This should not be a concern, as we plan to de-emphasize print. Current items have similar enough colors for now.
      • To proceed, Wing needs to know our primary design direction. He can consider incorporating specific aspects from other designs into our primary choice.
  • Site Map/Contents - Kath Thurston-Lighty
    • Kath wanted to create a sense of place with the web site. The site should have a personality that  personally speaks to the user.
    • The site was simplified and the content of some pages were absorbed into other pages. No content was lost. Names and topics were rewritten to be more accessible (i.e., less jargon, simpler).
    • Issues: 
      • NEO website name/tagline.
      • NEO website URL. Need something easy to type. "NEO" acronym is not meaningful. Other suggestions included "Hello" or "Welcome". This generic name may be an issue with other MIT web sites (e.g., student, parent, or alumni related), but conflicts can be avoided by using the HRweb.mit.edu prefix.
  • Communications
    • It is very important to get everyone's feedback/impressions on the design choices. Email is not necessarily the best way to share ideas; chains could get too long, and inboxes could get clogged.
    • The preferred method is to post comments on the NEO Wiki site
  • Action Items
    • Kath will provide some suggestions on the URL name.
    • Post comments on the NEO Wiki site
    • Provide design direction decision to Wing by 6/2/08 
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