Benchmarking Your IT Services Web Site

1. Benchmarking Your IT Services Web Site Email B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk URL http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath, BA2 7AY UKOLN is supported by:

2. A Bit About Me... • Brian Kelly: • UK Web Focus – a JISC-funded post to advise HE and FE communities on Web developments • Based in UKOLN – a national focus of expertise in digital information management • Based at the University of Bath • Involved in Web since 1993, while working in Computing Service at University of Leeds • Strong links with Computing Service and Library communities • The workshop has been informed by UKOLN’s WebWatch work and the WebWatch column in Ariadne

3. D A Bit About You... • Could you turn to your neighbour and ask: • What do you want to get out of this workshop? • What do you think benchmarking is?

4. Benchmarking: a Definition • Benchmarking is about identifying and measuring best practice processes that work elsewhere and then emulating them. • The aim is to reduce duplication by learning from others who have already found the solution. • It is about: • Understanding your weaknesses • Comparison with your peers • Note that best practices are constantly evolving.

5. Session Aims • This session: • Hands-on exercises with group discussions • By the end of the session you should: • Be able to benchmark your Web site in relation to other sites in your community • Have had hands-on experience in using auditing and evaluating tools • Have considered other types of benchmarking activity available

6. Today’s Exercises • Hands-on exercises to evaluate: • The look and size of your organisation’s home page • The accessibility of your Web site • The validation of your Web site • How popular your Web site is • How many sites link to it • How many people visit it • How your Web site looks with different browsers • Commercial Web site auditing tools

7. The Size of Your Home Page Ex. 1.1 • You can find out the size of your home page using various tools: • NetMechanic • Bobby http://www.netmechanic.com/

8. The Look of Your Home Page Ex. 1.5 • What type of entry point is yours? A “rolling demonstration” of University entry points is available at:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/site-rolling-demos/universities/

9. Does it Work? Ex. 2 • It is useful to check key pages for accessibility, validation and functionality.Web page validators include: • NetMechanic • Dr Watson • DrHTML - single pages only • LinkTool • Usable Web • EchoEcho http://watson.addy.com/

10. Is it Accessible? Ex. 2.1, 2.7 • The Bobby Web service can check the accessibility of individual Web pages • The Bobby Java application can check the accessibility of Web sites (now licensed software) • WAVE is an alternative to Bobby http://www.cast.org/bobby/

11. Are there Broken Links? Ex. 2.6 • Monitoring the number of broken links on your Web site is very important • Desktop and Web-based tools are available: • Xenu • LinkAlarm • Linkguard • Nodeworks • NetMechanic • SiteValet • … http://www.linkalarm.com/

12. How Popular is Your Site? Ex. 3.13.2 • There are a number of services that will tell you how many pages link to your Web site • WebSiteGarage • LinkPopularity • Netscape’s What’s Related service is used through the Netscape browser http://www.linkpopularity.com/

13. What about Other Browsers? Ex. 4 http://www.anybrowser.com/ • Does your home page (and Web site) work in: • Netscape very popular in UK HE) • IE (the most widely used browser) • Significant (all?) versions and platforms of above • Lynx (text browser which may be used by visually impaired) • AnyBrowser • DejaVu

14. Comparing Statistics Ex. 3.4 • Hit counters have developed into comprehensive Web statistical services that can give immediate feedback: • Web-based statistical services such as SiteMeter provides information on the whole site • Nedstat provides information on individual pages http://www.sitemeter.com/

15. E Benchmarking Exercises • You have: • Benchmarked your Web site in relation to others in your community • Recorded your findings • And learnt about: • Some of the issues involved when using externally hosted Web tools • Other benchmarking activities • WebWatch surveys of communities Once you have completed the exercises, report on your findings

16. Home Page Size Issues • There are certain issues necessary for consideration when using these tools: • What is a home page? • Splash screens • Spawning new windows • Frames • Graphics and graphics folders • Dynamic pages • robot.txt files See: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue28/web-watch/

17. How Did Your Home Page Look? • Types of entry points: • Traditional menu structure • Changeable page, with news • Personalised page • Dynamic page • “Splash screens” • Spawning new windows • Pages requiring specialist browser functionality (e.g. plugins, Java support, etc.) • What type was yours?

18. Other Benchmarking Activities • What other type of benchmarking activities are useful? • Monitoring Content Quality and ‘Freshness’ • New developments and technologies - scripts, other markup languages, personalisation • Stress and security • Search engine used on site and 404 pages • Server numbers • Visibility on search engines • Usability e.g. by evaluating user feedback • Performance checkers and Independent testing services

19. Performance Checkers • Applications can be used to check the performance of your Web site but often at a price • E-Test Suite • Keynote • Somix • Entuity • Prutsman Keep your eye on: http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/existingtools.html

20. Next Generation Tools • There is a need for sophisticated testing tools which: • Use rules: • which allow you to ignore types of errors • can output special error messages for personal errors • can be time or area dependant • Can check all aspects of your Web site - network, machines, processes (code) and individual files • Can mimic Web browsing behaviour (browsers, cookies, etc.) • Examples of such tools include WebKing, Freshwater Software, WebCriteria, …

21. Independent Testing Services • Occasionally it may be necessary to outsource testing. • The benefits of doing so include: • Saving time and resources • Tapping in to outside expertise and experience dedicated to testing • Testing tool independence • Objectivity

22. Discussion • What WebWatch surveys would you like to see carried out? • Is there a need for a government funded WebWatch-type survey across all institutional Web sites? If so: • Who should do it? • How comprehensive should it be? • How would it be funded? • Would you prefer to outsource your testing? • Would you be interested in benchmarking regionally?

23. Conclusion • Different tools give different results and results can be limited. The results should be analysed carefully - like statistics • Independent testing services can be beneficial • Comparison is useful • However a league table is not enough, for this type of evaluation. To have a point there should be follow up action Any questions?