A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk UKOLN is supported by: Benchmarking Web Sites Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath URL Simon Ball TechDis URL

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 2 Timetable 10:30Introduction 10:50Benchmarking Web Sites 11:00Hands-on Benchmarking Exercise 12:30Lunch 13:15 Report Back 13:45Embedding QA 14:10Report Back 14:20Accessibility 15:20Conclusion 15:30Workshop ends NOTE Times are subject to change NOTE Times are subject to change

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.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 UKOLNs WebWatch work and the WebWatch column in Ariadne

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 4 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 managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 5 Your Expectations Your Interests & expectations Sharing Learning Best practices Quality Testing Checking Constraints Staffing Finances

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 6 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 managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 7 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 Be in a position to decide whether to adopt this methodology in your institution or your region

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 8 Todays Exercises Hands-on exercises to evaluate: The look and size of your organisations 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 handout

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 9 The Size of Your Home Page You can find out the size of your home page using various tools: NetMechanic Bobby … Ex. 1.1

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 10 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 … Ex. 2

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 11 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 Ex. 2.1, 2.7

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 12 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 … Ex. 2.6

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 13 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 Netscapes Whats Related service is used through the Netscape browser Ex

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 14 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 Ex. 4

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 15 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: Discussion

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 16 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? Discussion

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 17 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?