2. 1 Taking the pain out of website launches: illustrated with a case study from the Institution of Engineering and Technology Dr Simon Lande, CEO Magus Internet World, 1 May 2008

3. 2 About the IET One of the world’s leading societies for the science, engineering and technology community Over 150,000 members in 127 countries Mission: To build an open, flexible and limitless global knowledge network supported by individuals, companies and institutions and facilitated by the IET and its members.

4. 3 Magus ActiveStandards ™ Website quality monitoring, analysis and visibility for multi-site, multi-editor, operations  Reporting on anything & everything that is contra-brand  Best practice standards monitoring: SEO, usability, accessibility, legal & privacy  Digital asset management – audit and inventory Enables companies to focus resource on remedial action In place with Unilever, Shell, SABMiller, ING, The IET

5. 4 The IET’s web operations www.theiet.org ~20,000 web pages Content editors & contributors throughout the organisation High volume of content maintained by volunteer members Recently adopted a new CMS

6. 5 www.theiet.org

7. 6 The web project Replacing an ‘interim’ website built for a recent merger  Acting on the results of extensive user testing  New look and feel  Complete restructure of the information architecture and navigation  Migration of extensive content currently held on legacy websites

8. 7 Taking a standards-based approach Establishing goals  Core focus on reputation, usability, consistency and content “discoverability” Audit of existing standards Creation of a committee to oversee the process  Permanent role for management of online standards Standards measurability built into the design and HTML

9. 8 Implementation Website standards documentation clear & unambiguous  Checklists created for ease of use Training and workshops New governance structure created  Website divided into sections, each with owner Website tested against standards during CMS implementation  Used as a feedback loop to modify/extend standards set

10. 9 Example of the IET’s website standards Producing content for the web  Readability; style & tone of voice; case usage; grammatical guidelines Structuring and formatting content Discoverability & SEO  Title tags, metadata, keyword usage Use of PDFs and other downloadable documents Using images Template usage and standards Restricted content Group coherence  Universal elements; link policy: internal and external websites File naming Legal standards

11. 10 Streamlining the launch process Tight timescales, and migration of high volumes of content Magus ActiveStandards ™ used in pre-launch QA to:  Allow editors to identify errors as content published  Control the QA/fixing management workflow  Reinforce understanding of the new standards  Pinpoint poorly understood standards for training purposes Reduction in pre-launch workload of 35%

12. 11 ActiveStandards ™ : Management dashboard Shows site-wide status, and progress over time

13. 12 ActiveStandards ™ : Website dashboard Reports on compliance status and file assets

14. 13 ActiveStandards ™ : Checkpoint errors Standards are converted to ‘checkpoints’.  Errors highlighted on the live page

15. 14 ActiveStandards ™ : Asset report - images ActiveStandards ™ provides detailed information on all website assets, including images

16. 15 Managing standards post-launch ActiveStandards ™ forms the cornerstone of the IET’s ongoing standards compliance programme  Helps web editors achieve and maintain high levels of quality Helpdesk for content/ presentation and technical issues “Before ActiveStandards ™ we had a frustrating hit and miss manual process with no quality control. Now we have a professionally-managed quality process that delivers consistency in a measurable, trackable way.”

17. 16 Standards automatically monitored Examples of website standards monitored using ActiveStandards: Template standards  Do not list more than 10 items in any of the related information panels  Overview text should be present on every page and conform to guidelines  Refer to the "IET" rather than the "Institution”  For contact details include the applicable international dialling code Content presentation standards  Paragraphs should be short for readability  Do not use, or tags to emphasize text  All pages should contain header tags  Use frequent subheadings to break up the text

18. 17 Standards automatically monitored (cont.) Links  All links should be working  Do not use 'click here', 'more' or 'here' as entire hyperlink text  Detect links to internal Content Management System Downloads & Flash  Include information about document size within or next to the link  PDF documents should be indicated by a PDF icon Code  tags should be populated, and meaningful  Limit title tag length to 65 characters or less Images  All images should specify ALT attributes  Images should not exceed 30k 10,000 pages 32 checkpoints = 320,000 checks/session

19. 18 Achieving standards consistency and compliance With standard maintenance methodologies With ActiveStandards With standard maintenance methodologies

20. 19 Benefits of website quality monitoring Reduces time to market More mileage from your online spend Protects against erosion of brand value Helps improve user experience of websites Maximises use of your CMS Natural extension to training

21. 20 Conclusions The IET took a standards-driven approach Case study proves the value of defining, implementing and managing website standards effectively

22. 21 PAS 124: Defining, implementing and managing website standards “…a framework to help organizations deploy website standards efficiently and harness their full potential.”

23. 22 Thank you “Take the pain out of website launches” and comply with PAS 124, see : activestandards.magus.co.uk Simon Lande simon.lande@magus.co.uk +44 (0)20 7019 4700