NEMLAC Workshop Sept 2004 - Benchmarking Web Sites


Brian Kelly facilitated a workshop on Benchmarking Web Sites for NEMLAC (North East Museums, Libraries and Archives Council). The workshop was held at the Discovery Museum, Newcastle on Thursday 16th September 2004 (see Multimap for location). The local contact is Neil Bowerbank, Head of eStrategy.

Abstract

This event will provide an opportunity for cultural heritage organisations in the NEMLAC region to benchmark their Web site by making use of a range of Web-based tools. Participants will compare their findings in order to try to identify examples of best practices and areas in which improvements may be made. Following the hands-on session there will be a presentation outlining some of the issues associated with this approach to benchmarking. The event will conclude by a group discussion on possible follow-up actions, including quality assurance techniques which can be deployed in order to ensure that Web sites comply with appropriate standards and best practices and strategies for disseminating such approaches across organisations.

Format

The workshop will consist of presentations, hands-on exercises and group discussions.

Requirements

The workshop will require a networked PC and projection device for the facilitator. Since the workshop is an interactive one, a PC room containing a networked PC for each delegate will also be required.

Numbers

The workshop is suitable for between 12-25 participants. Each participant should have access to a PC.

Target Audience

The workshop is aimed at Web managers and developers in cultural heritage organisations in the NEMLAC region. It may also be possible, subect to discussions with NEMLAC to include participants from related commercial bodies, such as Web developers involved in work for the cultural heritage sector.

Materials

Please note the following materials are those used for previous benchmarking workshops. They will be unpdated nearer to the workshop.

Slides

Benchmarking Web Sites
[HTML format] - [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format]
QA For Web Sites
[HTML format] - [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format]
What Next?
[HTML format] - [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format]

Exercises

Benchmarking Exercises
[MS Word 97/2000 format]
QA Exercises
[MS Word 97/2000 format]

Surveys

Rolling Demonstration of Web Sites
Rolling demonstration
Rolling Demonstration of Web Site 404 Pages
Rolling demonstration
Survey of HTML Compliance
[HTML format]
Survey of CSS Compliance
[HTML format]
Survey of Compliance With Accessibility Guidelines
[HTML format]
Link-checking Survey
[HTML format]
Survey of Server Software
[HTML format]
Information From Google
[HTML format]
Survey of 404 error pages
[HTML format]
Survey of Search Engine Software
[HTML format]

Draft Timetable

The draft timetable is given below.

Time Topic
10:00 Registration & Coffee
10:15 Welcome
10:30 'Introduction To Benchmarking Web Sites' - Brian Kelly, UK Web Focus
11:00 'Benchmarking Web Sites' - hands-on session
12:30 Lunch
13:30 'Benchmarking Web Sites' - hands-on session (continued)
14:30 Report Back
14:45 QA
15:00 Discussion
15:30 Conclusions
16:00 Workshop ends

Please note that the timetable is subject to change.


URLs Used During Workshop

The following URLs will be used during the workshop.

Exercise Service URL
1.1 NetMechanic <http://www.netmechanic.com/toolbox/html-code.htm#html_sample>
1.2 Doctor HTML <http://www.doctor-html.com/RxHTML/>
1.5 404 Pages <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/
workshops/nemlac-2004-09/surveys/entry-points/
>
<http://www.alistapart.com/articles/perfect404/>
<http://www.plinko.net/404/>
<http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue20/404/>
2.1 Bobby <http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/>
2.2 The WAVE <http://wave.webaim.org/>
2.3 Visicheck <http://vischeck.com/vischeckURL.php3>
2.4 W3C HTML Validation Service <http://validator.w3.org/>
2.5 Dr Watson <http://watson.addy.com/>
2.6 Link Alarm <http://www.linkalarm.com/>
3.1 Link Popularity <http://www.linkpopularity.com/>
3.2 Netmechanic <http://www.netmechanic.com/>
3.3 MarketLeap <http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/>
3.4 Google <http://www.google.co.uk/>
4.1 Browser Archive <http://browsers.evolt.org/>
4.2 Browser Emulators <http://www.dejavu.org/>
4.3 Lynx Emulator <http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html>
4.4 AnyBrowser <http://www.anybrowser.com/>
5.1 Surveys <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/
events/workshops/nemlac-2004-09/#survey
>
5.2 WebWatch Surveys <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/webwatch/articles/#latest>
6.4 Search Engine Software <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/
events/workshops/nemlac-2004-09/surveys/search-engines/
>
<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/surveys/uk-he-search-engines/>
7.1 Web Server Software <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/
events/workshops/nemlac-2004-09/surveys/http/
>

 

Other URLs

The following URLs may also be useful.

Browser Extensions

Service URL
Bookmarklets <http://www.bookmarklets.com/>
Cacheability Engine <http://www.ircache.net/cgi-bin/cacheability.py?action=show_ext>
Extending Your Browser <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue19/web-focus/>
WebWatch Services <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/webwatch/services/>

Evaluating Site Accessibility

Service URL
Color Readability Test <http://snow.utoronto.ca/readtest/>
Web Metrics Testbed <http://zing.ncsl.nist.gov/webmet/>
Vischeck <http://vischeck.com/vischeckURL.php3>

Evaluating Your Organisational Home Page

Service URL
Dr HTML <http://www2.imagiware.com/RxHTML/>
NetMechanic <http://www.netmechanic.com/>
InternetSeer <http://www.internetseer.com/>
NetMechanic Monitoring Service <http://www.netmechanic.com/monitor.htm>
Watchdog <http://watchdog.superstats.com/>
Alertsite <http://alertsite.com/freetrial/>
WebWatch Services <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/webwatch/services/>
Dr Watson <http://watson.addy.com/>
LinkAlarm <http://www.linkalarm.com/>
NetMechanic Maintenance Service <http://www.netmechanic.com/maintain.htm>
SiteValet <http://valet.webthing.com/>
This Old Mouse <http://www.thisoldmouse.com/>
Webmaster-Toolkit <http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/>

Link Checker

Service URL
Netmechanic <http://www.netmechanic.com/>
Nodeworks <http://www.nodeworks.com/>
Site valet <http://valet.webthing.com/>
Xenu <http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html>
LinkTool <http://www.linktool.com/>
Usable Web <http://usableweb.com/topics/000811-0-0.html>

WebWatch

Service URL
A Survey Of Links to UK University Web Sites <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue23/web-watch/>
A Survey Of Numbers of UK University Web Servers <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/web-watch/>
A Survey Of Web Server Software Used In UK University Web Sites <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue25/web-watch/>
Showing Robots the Door <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue15/robots/>
UK University Search Engines <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue21/webwatch/>
Web Watch: 404s - What's Missing? <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue20/404/>
WebWatching UK Universities and Colleges <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue12/web-focus/>
What's Related To My Web Site? <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue27/web-watch/>

 

Evaluation

Workshop participants completed the online evaluation form (password needed) .

The FAST service was used to provide an online evaluation of the event. The results are available: