W3C

WSTF Teleconference on Home Page Considerations Related to News

20 Oct 2017

Attendees

Present
Brent, Sharron, Shawn, Laura, Norah, Eric, Judy, James
Regrets
Chair
Shawn
Scribe
Sharron

Contents


Background

Shawn: There was much focus in the new site prototype home page on featured resources, and news was lower on the page. We got confirmation in usability testing that we need more emphasis on what W3C and WAI is and does.
At the WSTF teleconference on 11 October, the question arose about the relevant priority of "News" on the home page. Judy had some input from her perspective, considering different users, and we wanted to get some shared understanding for the redesign as we go forward.

<shawn> previous prototype home page: https://w3c.github.io/wai-website/

<shawn> home page goals after UT: https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wiki/Redesign_-_October_Revisions#Home_page

<shawn> https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-wai-eo-site/2017Oct/0015.html

Judy: Can I get some background around why people would *not* want news featured more prominently?

<shawn> from Norah https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-wai-eo-site/2017Oct/0013.html

<shawn> https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wiki/Usability_testing_Oct_2017#Important:_Audiences_and_Tasks_not_included

Shawn: For usability testing, we asked for participants who had low to medium awareness, and we got people on the low end. We noted that this audience did not know W3C or WAI. We documented that the usability testing did not include people more familiar with what WAI is.
... we are addressing a huge range of audiences with the site and the home page. Some of those at TPAC would be interested in the news, but not the ones in usability testing.
... Highlights are different from news feed -- e.g,. we need Highlight on WCAG 2.1 for many months, but that's not our usual news feed for things such as recent publications

Judy: I am unfamiliar with the process of the redesign and so I would like to understand why news would not be desired as a prominent feature.

Laura: I am on the fence, don't know what came out of the user testing - News is the first link and then if it is pushed up on the page as well, it seems intrusive. The point is to feature EOWG resources and why would News be pushed up to the top as well?

Judy: What you are saying about featuring the resources seems more appropriate to a case in which you are showcasing the EOWG work. However, my understanding is that we want to show all of the dynamic work of all of the WGs within the context of the more agile W3C. In that case, we need to show all that is going on.

<shawn> goals for home page: https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wiki/Redesign_-_October_Revisions#Home_page

Laura: I see a similarity between that and the work at the LOC where we have a lot of dynamic work going on but News is featured on the Home page but further along.
... the most recent redesign has driven up home page traffic by 40%

Judy: And is a completely different type of org.

Norah: One thing that came our of the testing last week was the need to let people know who WAI is, what the work is about, and establsih identity, mission, purpose.

Norah: with the design that we had, the News was secondary, I would not have gone there on the Home Page and I tried to address those issues on the mockups I made. Looking at the LOC is a Trending feature that might be similar to showing "what's going on..." and such at the W3C. I liked what you said about highlighing work and progress on WCAG2.1.

<Zakim> yatil, you wanted to say that people don't find our resources even if they search for it. News are easy to find. And we have teasers (==== highlights) that show current work.

Norah: once we have established clearer priorities of what we want to convey this will become clearer.

Eric: At the F2F in May we set some rpiorities. One thing we realized in May was that people were having trouble finding the things of interest. Finding the News was not an issue for most. If we combine highlights and teasers and update them regularly it will be sufficient.
... need to identify a gap in functionality between what we have now and what needs are not met.

Shawn: Right now on the current WAI Homepage that says highlights but we're ended up just putting there the news feed when resources are updated or released for review.
... is that what you are referring to?

Eric: Yes that is what I thought you were talking about for highlights, teasers are the boxes we have on the new page and should point to current work people are doing.

Shawn: As I understand it based on usability testing debrief and Task Force discussion last week, those boxes are no longer a given on the new design.

Eric: The teaser concpet is very widely used on the modern web and we should consider ti.

Shawn: Teaser, highlight, trending -- are those all the same thing?

Eric: Yes.

Judy: Highlights, Upcoming, etc can be done in more than one way, and typically across W3C thematic pages, are often done with redundant signaling

James: My perspective with Eric and Laura. We looked at this a long time ago and realized that the majority of the content is support resources and people have trouble finding it. I do not recall talking about a primary purpose being the promotion of general WAI activities. Was surprised to hear that we are according to Shawn "scrapping the home page design." Finally, the question is why not news?

Users have told us what they want and need. So, do we have a branding or identity issue and if so are we trying to address it wiht this? If so, it would have been more effective to say so a year ago.

Shawn: Scrapping the home page is unrelated to the news, but came out of usability testing assessment of the fact that the current design did not meet user expectations and needs, Charlotte's ideas in debrief, and the Task Force's goals from October work.

<Zakim> shawn, you wanted to ask if one goal of News on home page is to show actively working? and to note resources includes standards work

James: This level of change is coming late in the game and so far I have not understood why. Shared understanding would be great.

Shawn: Yes, shared understanding of the issues is important. Judy are you saying that one of the goals of the web site is to indicate that WAI is more agile and is doing things.

<yatil> We could have a section “what WAI is working on” that lists active projects outside of EO

Judy: I would appreciate if we could have a discussion where people do not jump to conclusions about motives.
... I think the placement of the News is a minor issue and we can agree most are not binary choices. We need a new website for many reasons, one of the most compelling is the difficulty in finding things. I worry about pendulum swings and that our focus in solving one problem may be to make another one more problematic.
... my experience is that people do use the Hightlights or active and engaging aspects where they can plug in, do review, and participate. Seems possible to provide that while still making other resources easier to find and use.
... I too have a gap in understanding about why people did not want to feature the 'news' more and highlight the ways that WAI seeks community response and adoption. That would be good for me to hear.

<Zakim> yatil, you wanted to say we prioritized other sections of the page

Laura: The Library of Congress is a standards org as well and in that we are similar. The standards work, however is hardly ever displayed on the home page. For WAI the News is featured on the Home page, just not at the top.

<Zakim> Judy, you wanted to ask about what people think "at the top" means

Eric: Since there is only on landing page, we must prioritize and that is what we did based on uesr testing. News is still a prominent part and I am unclear about why we would re-prioritize based on anything other than what users say they look for.

Norah: The current page of WAI may over emphasize the news and that may contribute to why other resources are so hard to find. With the current prototype, resources are more prominently featured and may as you said hide the news somewhat.There may be an alternate way to present them. We need to keep in mind several of the goals we have identified, and we need to settle on a design that takes all

of them into consideration. As we do more UT we will likely have a better idea of how to do that.

Judy: Thanks Norah that is a clear summary, I want to be clear that I did not mean for the News to supercede everything else. In terms of experince of trying to use the prototype, the News teasers that are there are not sufficient for many users. Just a bit more prominence may break through that. Looking at other parts of the W3C site, we find content blocks of Upcoming or Current Work and is absolutely

needed to give people more of an idea of what is going on without superceding the featured resources. No intention of derailing other efforts.

in terms of being able to communicate that there are active things going on as well as completed resources, it would be a misrepresentation.
... if most of W3C has activities that people can engage in and WAI has featured competed resources to use as references, it is inaccurate.

Shawn: So there is the perspective that some want more indication of the active work "there's a lot of cool stuff going on here"
... what do we want to achieve in this coversation?

<shawn> [ Shawn wonders what we said about News-ish info at the F2F in May -- but don't have links to that...]

Judy: I do not think that we want to redefine the goals, only to make the News or the current activities also more easily findable.

<norah> https://sketch.cloud/s/PG2vr/all/page-1/page-1

James: I have no comments at this time, I have been listening.

<shawn> Sharron: Agree, not changing the goals. Make sure that news and current activities are also easily findable

<shawn> Sharron: After UT, Charlotte threw cards up in the air and said "I have a crazy idea for the home page". We're all waiting to see her brilliant ideas!

<Brent> +1

trackbot, end meeting

Summary of Action Items

Summary of Resolutions

[End of minutes]

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