Benchmarking RSC Web Sites

1
Benchmarking RSC Web Sites

• Brian Kelly
• UKOLN
• University of Bath

Email B.Kelly_at_ukoln.ac.uk URL http//www.ukoln.ac.
uk/
Randy Metcalfe OSS Watch University of Oxford
Email randolph.metcalfe_at_computing-services.oxford
.ac.uk URL http//www.oss-watch.ac.uk/
UKOLN is supported by
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Timetable

• 1045 Introduction
• 1050 Benchmarking Web Sites
• 1100 Hands-on Benchmarking Exercise
• 1230 Lunch
• 1315 Hands-on Benchmarking Exercise (cont)
• 1345 Report Back
• 1415 Open Source Software
• 1445 Discussion
• 1530 Conclusion
• 1600 Workshop ends

NOTE Times are subject to change
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A Bit About Me...

• Brian Kelly
• UK Web Focus a JISC-funded post to advise HE
  and FE communities on Web developments
• 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 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
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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 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

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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
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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/
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The Look of Your Home Page
Ex. 1.5

• What type of entry point is yours?

A rolling demonstration of University entry
points is available athttp//www.ukoln.ac.uk/web
-focus/site-rolling-demos/universities/
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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/
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Is it Accessible?
Ex. 2.1, 2.7

• 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/
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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/
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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/
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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

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Benchmarking Exercises
E

• 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

Once you have completed the exercises, report on
your findings
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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/
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Look Of Your Home Page

• Types of entry points
• Traditional menu structure
• Changeable page, with news
• Personalised page
• Dynamic page
• Splash screens
• Spawning new windows
• Pages requiring specialist browser functionality
  (e.g. plugins, Java support, etc.)
• What type was yours?

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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

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Performance Checkers

• Applications can be used to check the performance
  of your Web site but often at a price
• E-Test Suite
• Keynote
• Somix
• Entuity
• Prutsman

Keep your eye on
http//www.w3.org/WAI/ER/existingtools.html
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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 lthttp//www.ariadne.ac.uk/issu
  e29/web-watch/gt

• Technique Used
• Use the Web service on a site
• Copy URL into template
• Determine URL structure
• Use as basis for use with other URLs

http//bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/bobbyServlet?URL
http3A2F2Fwww.jisc.ac.uk2FoutputSubmit
glwcag1-aaa
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Next Generation Tools

• There is a need for sophisticated testing tools
  which
• Use rules
• which allow you to ignore types of errors
• can output special error messages for personal
  errors
• can be time or area dependant
• Can check all aspects of your Web site - network,
  machines, processes (code) and individual files
• Can mimic Web browsing behaviour (browsers,
  cookies, etc.)
• Examples of such tools include WebKing,
  Freshwater Software, WebCriteria,

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Discussion

• What WebWatch surveys would you like to see
  carried out?
• Is there a need for a government funded
  WebWatch-type survey across all institutional Web
  sites? If so
• Who should do it?
• How comprehensive should it be?
• How would it be funded?
• Would you prefer to outsource your testing?
• Would you be interested in benchmarking
  regionally?

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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?