Benchmarking Web Sites

1
Benchmarking Web Sites

• Brian Kelly
• UKOLN
• University of Bath

Email B.Kelly_at_ukoln.ac.uk URL http//www.ukoln.ac.
uk/
Simon Ball TechDis
Email simon_at_techdis.ac.uk URL http//www.techdis.a
c.uk/
UKOLN is supported by
2
Timetable

• 1030 Introduction
• 1050 Benchmarking Web Sites
• 1100 Hands-on Benchmarking Exercise
• 1230 Lunch
• 1315 Report Back
• 1345 Embedding QA
• 1410 Report Back
• 1420 Accessibility
• 1520 Conclusion
• 1530 Workshop ends

NOTE Times are subject to change
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

4
A Bit About You...
D

• 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?

5
Your Expectations
Learning
Best practices
Sharing
Your Interests expectations
Quality
Finances
Testing
Staffing
Checking
Constraints
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.

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

8
Todays Exercises
E

• 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

Now open the exercises handout
9
The Size of Your Home Page
Ex. 1.1

• You can find out the size of your home page using
  various tools

• NetMechanic
• Bobby

http//www.netmechanic.com/
10
Does it Work?
Ex. 2

• 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/
11
Is it Accessible?
Ex. 2.1, 2.7

• 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/
12
Are There Broken Links?
Ex. 2.6

• 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/
13
How Popular Is Your Site?
Ex. 3.13.2

• 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

http//www.linkpopularity.com/
14
What About Other Browsers?
Ex. 4
http//www.anybrowser.com/

• 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

15
Home Page Size Issues
Discussion

• 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/
16
Accessibility
Discussion

• 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?

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?