Notes
What We Discussed
- Current Website Issues – Michelle had some really valid concerns and issues with the current OLLI website – she cited some of the biggest as it being a confusing experience, hard to navigate, font sizes are far too small, contrast needs to be high. OLLI users are typically older, making these things more important. One of our teams biggest visual issues with the current HSC Theme is font sizes are way too small and there is not enough spacing. Rather than patch up the current website, we think moving to a new design, which by default solves most of the problems, would be a much better choice.
- HSC Themes V2 – We showed the AHEC website, which is utilizing the new HSC Themes V2. It utilizes more efficient and accessible code, but also far larger font sizes (for headings and body copy), better spacing, and much better color contrast (meeting and exceeding the WVAG 2.0 AAA guidelines). The new design also has been tweaked to work better responsively across different devices (we know you said tablets are very commonly used by your audience). It also offers a “call-out” feature to bring important, small chunks of content extra attention (utilized on AHEC on the Home Page, About Us, Rural Community Health Scholars, and Interprofessional Education). Lastly, it is much more customizable to offer the flexibility of different organizations, grants, etc. that may or may not rely or abide by the WVU brand. This allows things such as hiding the WVU blue brand bar, custom logos, and additional text fields (such as adding an address to the footer).
- Additional Enhancements –
- Links - Michelle had some concerns about making it clear to her users that links are leaving the website. We are actually working on something to address this in all of our sites, and are going to talk about how we can retrofit it to this. In short, it would append additional text and possible visual cues like icons to make it clearer to users what clicking that link does (opens a pdf file, goes to a new website and opens in a new tab, etc.).
- Button Colors – Michelle is concerned about contrast and it needing to be high. We recommended that we implement HSC Themes V2 which has improved button styles (bigger fonts, larger button space, AAA color contrast) and see how users respond over the next few months. If Michelle is still getting a lot of complaints, we can definitely revisit the topic and make some color adjustments.
- PRC - After Michelle left, Kim mentioned that Micah has been working on PRC. Kim is going to look over it with him. She said she did an initial content check and corrected some basic formatting issues, then let them know about the issues so they could fix them in the future themselves. Once she's done, she's gonna write down anything she needs further help with and let us know. We will look over it and see if we have any further suggestions.