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Transcript of A centre of expertise in digital information management UKOLN is supported by: Benchmarking Web...
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
UKOLN is supported by:
Benchmarking Web SitesBrian Kelly
UKOLN
University of Bath
[email protected]://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Simon Ball
TechDis
[email protected]://www.techdis.ac.uk/
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
2
Timetable
10:30 Introduction
10:50 Benchmarking Web Sites
11:00 Hands-on Benchmarking Exercise
12:30 Lunch
13:15 Report Back
13:45 Embedding QA
14:10 Report Back
14:20 Accessibility
15:20 Conclusion
15:30 Workshop ends
NOTETimes are subject to change
NOTETimes are subject to change
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
3
A Bit About Me...Brian Kelly:
• UK Web Focus – a post partly funded by JISC to advise HE and FE communities on Web developments
• Based in UKOLN – a national focus of expertise in digital information management
• Located 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
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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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?
• What do you think benchmarking is?
D
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Your Expectations
Your Interests & expectations
Sharing
Learning
Best practices
Quality
Testing
Checking
Constraints
Staffing
Finances
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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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.
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
7
Session AimsThis 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• Be in a position to decide whether to adopt this
methodology in your institution or your region
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Today’s ExercisesHands-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• Etc.• Commercial Web site auditing tools
E
Now open the exercises handoutNow open the exercises handout
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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The Size of Your Home Page
You can find out the size of your home page using various tools:
• NetMechanic• Bobby• …
http://www.netmechanic.com/http://www.netmechanic.com/
Ex. 1.1
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Does it Work?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/http://watson.addy.com/
Ex. 2
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Is it Accessible?• The Bobby Web service can (partly!) check the
accessibility of individual Web pages• The Bobby Java application can check the accessibility
of Web sites (licensed software)• WAVE is one of many alternatives to Bobby
http://bobby.watchfire.com/http://bobby.watchfire.com/
Ex. 2.1, 2.7
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Are There Broken Links?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/http://www.linkalarm.com/
Ex. 2.6
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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How Popular Is Your Site?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/http://www.linkpopularity.com/
Ex. 3.13.2
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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What About Other Browsers?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
http://www.anybrowser.com/http://www.anybrowser.com/
Ex. 4
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Home Page Size IssuesThere 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/See: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue28/web-watch/
Dis
cuss
ion
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Accessibility
How accessible was your Web site:• Fine according to Bobby• Errors I knew about• Errors I didn't know about
But how valuable is Bobby?
Do I need a more thorough approach to accessibility?
Dis
cuss
ion
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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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?