a centre of expertise in digital information management understanding and exploiting web 2.0:...

A centre of expertise in digital information management

www.ukoln.ac.uk

Understanding And Exploiting Web 2.0: Benchmarking Web Sites

Brian KellyUKOLNUniversity of [email protected]

UKOLN is supported by:

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/stimulate-2006/talk-benchmarking/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/stimulate-2006/talk-benchmarking/

Session Aims• To discover how your Web site

compares with your peers• To discover examples of best

practices & mistakes to avoid • To learn how you can a

benchmarking approach

Session Aims• To discover how your Web site

compares with your peers• To discover examples of best

practices & mistakes to avoid • To learn how you can a

benchmarking approach

This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat)

Resources bookmarked using 'stimulate-2006-benchmark' tag


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What Is Benchmarking?

What do you understand by the term ‘benchmarking’?

What are the benefits of benchmarking?

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Your Expectations

Your Interests & expectations

Sharing

Learning

Best practices

Quality

Testing

Checking

Constraints

Staffing

Finances

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About Benchmarking

Benchmarking is about:• Sharing • Learning from best practices• Learning from mistakes others have made

Note that in this benchmarking workshop:• We don’t intend to have league tables• No prizes for the ‘best’

We should recognise that:• Organisations have differing priorities• Organisations have different levels of resources• Organisations have different starting points• Organisations have differing organisational politics

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Session AimsThis session:

• Talk and hands-on exercises

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, …

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Today’s Exercises

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!

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Now open the exercises handoutNow open the exercises handout

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Today’s Exercises (2)In the hands-on exercises your evaluated:

• 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 well-indexed it is

• How your Web site looks with different browsers• Etc.

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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/

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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• …

http://watson.addy.com/http://watson.addy.com/

Ex. 1


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Is it Accessible?• 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 a (better?) alternative to Bobby

http://bobby.watchfire.com/http://bobby.watchfire.com/

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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


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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

• LinkPopularity

• WebSiteGarage

• Netscape’s What’s Related service is used through the Netscape browser

• Google info:URL search

http://www.linkpopularity.com/http://www.linkpopularity.com/

Ex.3.13.23.3


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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


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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?

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Approaches To Fixing Errors

We've found errors on our Web site. What should we do?

• Fix the errors straight away• Inform the page maintainer• Do nothing – too many other more important

things to do• Do nothing – the Web site has been "published"

and I don't rewrite history• Do nothing – it's not my problem, it's a problem

caused by the HTML authoring tool everyone uses

• …

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A QA Approach

Quality Control:• Fixing errors• Fire-fighting

Quality Assurance (QA):• Documented policies• Systematic procedures for monitoring compliance• Considering workflow processes• Fixing processes so errors won't reappear• Audit trails

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QA Focus

QA Focus: • JISC-funded project to support JISC's digital library

programme• Supports QA development which help ensure deliverables

are usable & interoperable

QA Focus Deliverables:• Surveys• Advisory documents• Case studies• Descriptions of tools• Policies• Self-assessment toolkit

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Documentation: Advice

Advisory briefing documents are being produced

These are:• Brief, focussed

documents• Informed by

findings of the surveys

Advisory briefing documents are being produced

These are:• Brief, focussed

documents• Informed by

findings of the surveys

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Documentation: Case Studies

Case Studies are being commissionedThese are:

• Written by projects themselves

• Describe the solution adopted to a particular problem

• Include details of lessons learnt – not just a press release!

Case Studies are being commissionedThese are:

• Written by projects themselves

• Describe the solution adopted to a particular problem

• Include details of lessons learnt – not just a press release!


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Self Assessment ToolkitFurther DeliverablesWe have developed a self-assessment toolkit

The toolkit consists of:• Examples of

QA procedures• Documented examples

of use of testing tools• Self-assessment

questionnaires• Advice on standards

and best practices• Case studies• FAQs• …

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Useful Approach To Tools

As an example of approach which provides easier access to testing tools, see the ,tools approach deployed on UKOLN Web site.

This approach:• Applies to all resources on

Web site• Covers HTML and CSS

validation and various other tests

• Some recursive apps (,rvalidate)

• Easily implemented with single line redirect

As an example of approach which provides easier access to testing tools, see the ,tools approach deployed on UKOLN Web site.

This approach:• Applies to all resources on

Web site• Covers HTML and CSS

validation and various other tests

• Some recursive apps (,rvalidate)

• Easily implemented with single line redirect


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Policies

How do you know what you should do if you don't have documented polices?

Policy: Web StandardsStandard: XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0Architecture: Use of SSIs and text editorExceptions: Automatically-derived filesChecking: Use ,validate after updateAudit Trail: Use ,rvalidate monthly and document findings

Policy example

You may find it useful to develop similar policies yourself – for example, a policy of the accessibility of your Web site

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Application To Your Sector

Issues:• Is the QA Focus methodology applicable

to your Web site?• Are the QA Focus resources of use?• What additional areas would you find

useful?

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UKOLN is supported by:

UKOLN Hands-On Session For Leicester Spring School in New Media

Benchmarking Web Sites: What Next?

Brian Kelly

UKOLN

University of Bath

Bath

[email protected]://www.ukoln.ac.uk/


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Future Plans

How can we progress from the areas we have covered today?

• Quality Assurance• Acceptance Testing• Implementing Best Practices• Addressing User Issues• Benchmarking • …

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Quality Assurance

Embedding QA in your work:• You can develop and implementation

quality assurance procedures for your cultural heritage Web sites

• You can share quality assurance procedures, experiences, etc with your peers

• …

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Acceptance Procedures

The testing tools used could form part of the formal acceptance procedures for Web sites you procure.Requirements

• Web site must comply with HTML and CSS standards and WAI guidelines.

Has It Been Done?• Sure, no problem. Sign the paper and give us the

money.• Here are the results of the automated compliance

checking tests. You can run them for yourselves. And here are the results of the user testing for usability and accessibility.

The QA Focus Web toolkit can be used for this formal testing. See <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/toolkit/web-01/>

The QA Focus Web toolkit can be used for this formal testing. See <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/toolkit/web-01/>

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Implementing Best Practices

Some dangers:• Being lead astray by commercial Web

development companies – they try and sell you a solution based on their areas of expertise

• Being led astray by well-meaning (a) kids or (b) senior staff with misunderstand of best practices

• I have to use my organisation's CMS

Some solutions:• You need an understanding of best practices• QA Focus briefing documents may help• …

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Addressing User Issues

You should be aware that automated tools will not guarantee that a Web site is:

• Useable Accessible• Functional …

There will still be a need for user testing

You should consider:• Systematic usability and accessibility testing• Formal procedures – don’t ask your mate; don’t

tell them what they should do, …• It need not be expensive “5 people will spot 90%

of the problems”• See <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/>

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Benchmarking

We have seen:• Use of benchmarking across Web sites

Issues:• Can we apply the approach for ourselves?• Can someone else continue to do this?• Can we compare approaches more widely

across the museums sector

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Developing An Action Plan

Please complete your personal action plan

You should list the actions you intend to carry out when you return to work

This can include:• Your own personal actions• Recommendations for your department• Recommendations for your organisation

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Comments and Questions

Your comments and questions are welcome

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