A centre of expertise in digital information management UKOLN is supported by: Benchmarking Web Sites Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath

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/


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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


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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


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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


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Your Expectations

Your Interests & expectations

Sharing

Learning

Best practices

Quality

Testing

Checking

Constraints

Staffing

Finances


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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.


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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


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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


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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


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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


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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


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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

• 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


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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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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


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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


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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?

Documents

A centre of expertise in digital information management UKOLN is supported by: Benchmarking Web Sites Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath