Effective Web Site Training Workshop: Benchmarking Web Sites

1. Effective Web Site Training Workshop:Benchmarking Web Sites Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Email B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk URL http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ UKOLN is supported by:

2. Timetable • 10:00 Registration • 10:15 Welcome • 10:30 Benchmarking Web Sites • 11:00 Hands-on Benchmarking Exercise • 12:30 Lunch • 13:30 Hands-on Benchmarking Exercise (cont) • 14:30 Report Back • 14:45 Quality Assurance • 15:00 Discussion • 16:00 Conclusions • 16:30 Workshop ends NOTE Times are subject to change

3. A Bit About Me... • Brian Kelly: • UK Web Focus – a post funded by JISC and MLA to advise HE / FE and MLA communities on effective use of the Web • 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 • Links with IT Service & Library communities • The workshop has been informed by UKOLN’s WebWatch work and the WebWatch column in Ariadne

4. D A Bit About You... • In small groups address the questions: • Who are you, where do you work and what do you do? • What do you want to get out of this workshop?

5. Your Expectations Learning Best practices Sharing Your Interests & expectations Quality Finances Testing Staffing Checking Constraints

6. 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 • Be aware of common problems • Be aware of how a quality assurance methodology can help to avoids problems • Be in a position to decide whether to adopt this methodology in your organisation, region, sector, …

7. Today’s Exercises (1) • You will: • Use a set of Web-based tools for evaluating a variety of aspects of your Web site • Work in small groups and share your findings and discuss the implications • This session: • Encourages collaboration and sharing • Is not meant to be competitive!

8. E Today’s Exercises (2) • In the hands-on exercises your will evaluate: • The size of your organisation’s home page • The accessibility of your home page • The validation of your home page • 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 • Etc. Now open the exercises handout

9. 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/

10. Does it Work? Ex. 1 • It is useful to check key pages for accessibility, validation and functionality • Web page validators include: • NetMechanic • Dr Watson • DrHTML - single pages only • … http://watson.addy.com/

11. Is it Accessible? Ex. 2 • 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://bobby.watchfire.com/

12. 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/

13. 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/

14. 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

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. 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

18. Implementing A Benchmark Survey • To implement your own WebWatch- style benchmark across a community you can simply examine WebWatch articles and adapt the HTML for your own use. • Further details at <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue29/web-watch/> • Technique Used • Use the Web service on a site • Copy URL into template • Determine URL structure • Use as basis for use with other URLs http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/bobbyServlet?URL= http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mla.gov.uk%2F&output=Submit&gl=wcag1-aaa

19. 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?