5th IWMW 2001: Organising Chaos

 

Parallel session A6 - Web Site Re-development

Miles Banbery, University of Kent at Canterbury

 

Abstract

 

We all know now that having a Web site is not the end of the battle. Most organisations are now well past their first generation Web site, but how should we approach redevelopment (organisational, graphical and technical)? Questions to be addressed in this half-day workshop include:

 

·         How often should redevelopment be done?

·         How can we get institutional support for the necessary work?

·         How do you assess what needs doing and the effectiveness of your current provision?

·         Should all redevelopment be done in-house or can working with external agencies be helpful?

·         What user testing should/can be done before roll-out of new developments?

 

This session will include short case studies, presentations of key issues, pointers to existing resources and discussions/group work.

Though not really about maintenance of Web material, necessary maintenance structures to enable re-development and bringing new aspects on-line will inevitably be discussed.

Timetable

 

09.15 - 09.45 Introductions

 

1.        Who are you?

2.        What redevelopment do you want to do?

 

09.45 - 10.15 Overview of redevelopment issues

 

10.15 - 10.45 Kent redesign case study

 

10.45 - 11.15 Coffee

 

11.15 - 11.55 Group work

 

1.        Assessing effectiveness

2.        Winning support

3.        In-house vs bought in?

4.        User testing – how can/should it be done?

 

11.55 - 12.15 Reporting back (5 mins per group)

Group 1 Assessing effectiveness

 

Problem 1

How to get useful user feedback, often only negative. How to get people to participate in user testing

 

Solutions 1 offer a bribe to current students

2 want usability testing from a proper sample of prospective students. Could JISC, UCAS put together suitable panels for University testing, mature students, foreign language

3 for internal web-sites, use an  online discussion forum. Test as part of an assessment on a course on IT skills

 

Problem2

How do you know what people didn’t find on your web-site?

1 – forms on the bottom of search pages, did you find what you were looking for

2 – analyse terms put into search engine (why did they use the search engine?)

3 – use web stats program to list failed URLs (including guessed ones)

 

Problem 3

Hits being useless

1 – use cookies, what are they, how do you use them? But need action on user’s part, also need to do something with the results (this also applies to user surveys).

2

3

Problem 4 questionnaire design

Problem 5 need external creativity for design

 

Group 2

Winning support

Problem 1

How to get  departmental buy-in for look and feel, and for implementation

Solutions 1 – offer a template or package with a range of options that they can adopt if they wish

2 – issue guidelines for the site, standards for best practice (back up with stats)

3

 

Problem2

Balance between marketing and academic concerns.

1 – write a report detailing advantages and disadvantages of a totally marketing approach

2 – create focus groups, (create laminated reports)

3 – use national bodies which reinforce your message (JANET, JISC, disability organisations), footnotes to the report. TECHDIS.

 

Problem 3

Maintenance of the content after the site has been done

1 – have this recognised, by being built into contracts (fair pay for departmental maintainers issue)

2 – promote cost effectiveness of electronic publishing. Use budgetary concerns

3 – emphasise the effect on student numbers of web-site. Retention and recruitment

 

Group 3

In-house vs bought in

Problem 1

Problem of in-house resources, time money people skills

Solutions 1 – buy-in people on short-term contract (need to assimilate the person easily)

2 – leave other tasks, select a quiet period for the work, need to recognise the job needs a lot of time, be realistic.

3 – will need to buy in some

 

Problem2

Managing the relationship with the external organisation. It will still take time. Their staff may change. Design can be subjective. They may spend more time chasing new work than working on your project.

1 – include penalties in the contract

2 -  have a good spec, agreed in-house

3 – communicate with them regularly. Don’t wait for the deadline to approach them

 

 

Problem 3

Assessing an external design company

1 - talk to them a lot. Make sure they are aware of accessibility issues

2 – look at portfolios and previous customers. Don’t let them list you as satisfied if you are not.

3 – ask for snapshots of potential. Make sure they have experience of redeveloping, not just new sites

4 – use an (accredited HE) company (may be tendering problems with this)

5 – suggest a list of methods, costs used by UK HE institutions

RNIB site has a list of designers accredited to design for accessibility

 

Group 4

User testing

Problem 1 – assessing the target audience

 

 

Solutions 1 -- Choose external organisations to do this (RNIB). University benchmarking

2 - choose the target audience correctly.

3

 

Problem2

Implementing user testing

1 - questionnaires

2 – use a lab, finding information. How much is enough? (5 people?)

3

 

Problem 3

accessibility

1 – cross-browser use. Old browsers?

2 – stick to standards. Use validation tools (e.g. Bobby)

3 – use responsible officers within the University to test and organise focus groups, they have more student contact.