web site creation: good practice guidelines self assessment of project web sites marieke napier...
TRANSCRIPT
Web Site Creation: Good Practice Guidelines
Self Assessment Of Project Web Sites
Marieke Napier
NOF-digitise AdvisorUKOLN
University of Bath
UKOLN is supported by:
[email protected]://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Web Site Creation: Good Practice Guidelines - 19 February 2002
2
Why?
Self assessment of your Web site can be used to:• Monitor compliance of your Web site with
standards• Report on usage of your Web site• Monitor problems with your Web site
Benchmarking of NOF-digi project Web sites can be used to:
• Identify areas of best practices• Identify areas in which improvements are
needed
Web Site Creation: Good Practice Guidelines - 19 February 2002
3
How?
Many Web-based analysis services are available:• HTML, XML and CSS validators to check on
compliance with standards• Link checkers• Usage analysis• Linkage analysis• Performance monitoring
Some services are available for free (e.g. funded by advertising and free service provides limited functionality) and others are licensed
Web Site Creation: Good Practice Guidelines - 19 February 2002
4
Systematic Monitoring
You may find it useful to:• Monitor the status of your Web site
– Nos. of pages indexed.– Nos. of links to your Web site– Accessibility of your Web site– Compliance with standards– Downtime of the service
• Monitor trends– Do the findings change over time / after dissemination
• Compare your findings with your peers– Comparison with other projects– Comparison with other institutions– Comparison with other communities
Web Site Creation: Good Practice Guidelines - 19 February 2002
5
Monitoring
Many evaluation tools and Web services are available (some for free)
See <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/jusw-2001/auditing-workshop/> for exercises from Auditing and Monitoring Your Web Sites workshop
See <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/jusw-2001/auditing-workshop/> for exercises from Auditing and Monitoring Your Web Sites workshop
Web Site Creation: Good Practice Guidelines - 19 February 2002
6
Some Examples…
• Size of your home page• Look of your home page• Does it work?• Accessibility• Broken Links• How popular is it?• Other browsers• Statistics
Web Site Creation: Good Practice Guidelines - 19 February 2002
7
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/
Web Site Creation: Good Practice Guidelines - 19 February 2002
8
The Look of Your Home Page
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/
A “rolling demonstration” of University entry points is available at:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/site-rolling-demos/universities/
Web Site Creation: Good Practice Guidelines - 19 February 2002
9
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/
Web Site Creation: Good Practice Guidelines - 19 February 2002
10
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
• WAVE is another accessibility checker
http://www.cast.org/bobby/http://www.cast.org/bobby/
Web Site Creation: Good Practice Guidelines - 19 February 2002
11
Are there Broken Links?
Monitoring the number of broken links on your Web site is very important
• Xenu • LinkAlarm • Xenu• Linkguard• Nodeworks• Netmechanic• Site valet
http://www.linkalarm.com/http://www.linkalarm.com/
Web Site Creation: Good Practice Guidelines - 19 February 2002
12
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/
Web Site Creation: Good Practice Guidelines - 19 February 2002
13
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/
Web Site Creation: Good Practice Guidelines - 19 February 2002
14
Comparing Statistics
Hit counters have developed into comprehensive Web statistical services that can give immediate feedback on user visits
• Web-based statistical services such as SiteMeter provides information on the whole site
• Nedstat provides information on individual pages
http://www.sitemeter.com/http://www.sitemeter.com/
Web Site Creation: Good Practice Guidelines - 19 February 2002
15
Conclusions
To conclude:• You should ensure that you have procedures for
monitoring various aspects of your Web service • A wide range of tools area available, including
some which are free• Note that tools may give flawed results - e.g. see
paper on Automated Benchmarking Of Local Authority Web Sites at <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/euroweb-2001/>