Technology Task Force Meeting June 17, 2013

Meeting date: 
Monday, June 17, 2013

DRAFT

Simsbury Technology Task Force
Meeting held Monday June 17, 2013
Minutes


Pam Lacko called the meeting to order at 6:00pm.

In attendance were: Rick Bazzano, Andy Berling, Tom Cooke, Lisa Heavner, Laurel Hennebury, Martha Hogan, Annie Kelleher, Pam Lacko, Mark Orenstein, Ray Rosati, Paul Sarkis, Mahen Shukla and Eric Zamatis

On overview of the Town Website Focus Group Process and Findings were presented.

The findings were grouped into three categories - Content, Navigation, Look & Feel

The discussion and next steps were also grouped into those same three categories.

Next Steps:

Content
• Agreement on high level navigation standards needs to be made as soon as possible. This specifically involves opening content in a new tab (ex: PDF’s and any link that moves the user out of the Town’s website should open in a new tab)
• Develop guidelines for posting content on the website as well as a “checklist” of what to consider when posting (i.e. should be a Quick Link, should this item be included on a calendar on the website, does this item have a start and/or end date, etc.)
• Consider a “train the trainer” concept identifying one person on town staff (non-IT) who can train others, answer questions or concerns, help craft how something new should look on the website.
• Develop a one on one “hands on” training approach training a key person in each department responsible for posting website content. Use data from the focus groups as material to train with.
• When training department staff, present a comprehensive training approach including the use of other available tools such as Outlook where reminders and schedules can be entered notifying staff of changes that need to be made to the website. Other tools include analyzing the results of the website - Google Analytics that may contain information by department leading to post more information about a topic or set up a Quick Link as an example.
• Each Department should identify a list of keywords (common terms) beyond what is in the content they are posting and include those keywords in the post. (ex: value of my house, assessed value, notes vs minutes, etc.) This addresses the terminology issue that came out in the focus groups.
• Develop a checklist for testing newly posted content taking into consideration different browsers, looking at it from a “resident’s perspective”, making sure to test links and other aspects of the post. Consider other resources that may be able and willing to help test (ex: high school students, seniors, etc.)
• Each Department should develop an inventory of content and verify that all applicable content is posted on the website using the newly created guidelines.

Navigation

• Investigate whether the vendor search engine within the website can have layers within it to drill down quickly based on keywords
• Investigate whether the vendor search engine has the ability to auto suggest results while user is typing their search criteria
• Technology Task Force will look at FAQ’s to see if it’s valuable and if so, consider changing FAQ’s to “I want to…”

Look & Feel

• Continue to pursue adding a video on the website that talks about Simsbury as a town, maybe include video or pictures. Leverage things that may already be done by other organizations.
• Martha Hogan, Webmaster for the Board of Education, will look over the website from a graphics artist point of view and provide feedback about the colors used, font size and other user interface related aspects of the website. (the Task Force felt that working on the content and navigation issues were top priorities and would benefit the general public more, initially)

The meeting adjourned at 7:10pm