1. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk UKOLN is supported by: UKOLN/TechDis Workshop For RSC South East: Benchmarking Web Sites Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Email B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk URL http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/

2. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 2 Timetable 10:00Registration 10:15Welcome 10:30Benchmarking Web Sites (Brian Kelly) 11:00Hands-on Benchmarking Exercise 12:30Lunch 13:15 Hands-on Benchmarking Exercise (cont) 14:00Report Back 14:20Accessibility (Simon Ball) 15:20Discussion 15:40Conclusions 15:45Workshop ends NOTE Times are subject to change NOTE Times are subject to change

3. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 3 A Bit About Me... Brian Kelly: UK Web Focus – a post funded by JISC and MLA to advise HE / FE and MLA communities on effective use of the Web Based in UKOLN – a national focus of expertise in digital information management Based 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

4. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 4 A Bit About Simon Simon Ball: Works for TechDis Advises on IT and accessibility

5. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 5 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? D

6. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 6 Your Expectations Your Interests & expectations Sharing Learning Best practices Quality Testing Checking Constraints Staffing Finances

7. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 7 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

8. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 8 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 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, …

9. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 9 Today’s Exercises (1) 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!

10. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 10 Today’s Exercises (2) In the hands-on exercises your will evaluate: 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. E Now open the exercises handout

11. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 11 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/ Ex. 1.1

12. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 12 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/ Ex. 1

13. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 13 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 an alternative to Bobby http://bobby.watchfire.com/ Ex. 2

14. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 14 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/ Ex. 2.6

15. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 15 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/ Ex.3.1 3.2 3.3

16. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 16 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/ Ex. 4

17. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 17 Benchmarking Exercises You have: Benchmarked your Web site in relation to others in your community Recorded your findings And learnt about: Some of the issues involved when using externally hosted Web tools Other benchmarking activities WebWatch surveys of communities E Once you have completed the exercises, report on your findings

18. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 18 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 < http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue28/web-watch/ > See < http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue28/web-watch/ >

19. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 19 Other Benchmarking Activities What other type of benchmarking activities are useful? Monitoring Content Quality and ‘Freshness’ New developments and technologies - scripts, other markup languages, personalisation Stress and security Search engine used on site and 404 pages Server numbers Visibility on search engines Usability e.g. by evaluating user feedback Performance checkers and Independent testing services

20. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 20 Implementing A Benchmark Survey To implement your own WebWatch- style benchmark across a community you can simply examine WebWatch articles and adapt the HTML for your own use. Further details at http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/bobbyServlet?URL= http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mla.gov.uk%2F&output=Submit&gl=wcag1-aaa Technique Used Use the Web service on a site Copy URL into template Determine URL structure Use as basis for use with other URLs

21. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 21 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?