Publishing Web Magazines, e-Journals and WebZines: Reader Requirements

1
Publishing Web Magazines, e-Journals and
WebZinesReader Requirements
Pres 4

• Brian Kelly
• B.Kelly_at_ukoln.ac.uk

UKOLN is funded by Resource The Council for
Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint
Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the
Higher and Further Education Funding Councils, as
well as by project funding from the JISC and the
European Union. UKOLN also receives support
from the University of Bath where it is based.
BK
2
Session Aims

• In this session we will
• Discuss what readers might expect from our Web
  publication(s)
• Highlight any issues which will need to be
  resolved in order to satisfy these requirements
• Look at some examples

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Exercise

• Complete exercise on Reader Requirements
• What reader requirements have you identified?
• What issues need to be addressed?

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Reader Requirements
Format
Navigation
Table of Contents
Innovative
Access to individual articles
Accessible (to blind / no plugins needed)
Access to complete issues
Searchable (in various ways)
Available on Web
Findable (via search engine)
Available by email, on PDA, etc.

• Reader Requirements

Content
Interface
Good, relevant content
Usable interface
Citable and bookmarkable
Attractive design
Persistent
Functionality
Customisable
Quality
Ease of printing
No adverts
Articles maintained (no broken links)
Feedback mechanism
Annotation / discussion
Notification when released
Everything works
Innovative
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Contents

• Identifying Reader Requirements
• Design Issues
• Identifiers
• Notification
• Printing
• Searching
• Handling
• Out-of-date content
• Broken links
• Architecture
• Identifiers

6
User Interface

• Cultivate Interactive and Exploit Interactive
• Design brief produced
• Design outsourced
• Simple but usable interface
• Uses CSS and (X)HTML
• Accessible to all browsers robots
• E-Book format being evaluated

7
Design of Electronic Publications

• What type of interface should you use for the
  home page
• Preamble Menu
• News Content teaser
• Flash screen

8
Attractive Design
http//www.exploit-lib.org/issue5/mag-features/

• Having had a look around at several web sites
  and e-journals, we found that you have managed to
  combine simplicity, elegance, completeness and
  advanced technical backing.
• Susan Leech O'Neale, CERN, Sep 99

http//www.exploit-lib.org/issue5/indicators/
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Design Brief

• Design brief for Exploit Interactive produced
• Background about publication
• Definition of structure (Feature Articles,
  Regular Columns, News Events, Etc.)
• Preferred solutions (standards based, no use of
  Flash, PDF, etc.)
• Importance of accessible design
• Available budget
• Design solution provided by ILRT, University of
  Bristol

IssueDo you outsource the design (and
information architecture) or do it inhouse?
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Design Features

• Global navigation (home search page)

Local navigation (here in Features section)
lth2gt with grey background
Indented margins (IE only)
Internal links to references
Flagging external (and broken) links added later
Footer navigation
Footer (enhanced during lifetime)
Acknowledgments
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Cultivate Interactive Design
http//www.cultivate-int.org/issue2/vakhum/
Key features

• Logo

Site-wide navigation
Lead-in / abstract used asmetadata
Issuenavigation
Indented margin
Similar approach taken for Cultivate Interactive
with minor differences
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Cultivate Interactive Design

• Internal links to references

References can be followed from print
External links flagged
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Cultivate Interactive Design

• Author details, including photo, contact info.
  and biography

Citation details
Link to translation service
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Changing Look and Feel

• Use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) makes it
  easier
• Support new media types (e.g. print)
• For publisher to change appearance (single file)
• To allow reader to change appearance either using
  browser options or by selection of CSS

Note we provide different style sheets for IE and
Netscape
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Changing The Look-and-Feel

• A Style Sheet Selector is being developed to
  allow readers to change the appearance. Of use
  for
• Visually impaired
• Specialist devices

• Issues
• Should we allow readers to be able to chose an
  ugly appearance
• Shouldnt this be done in the browser?

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User Control Over Look and Feel

• Giving users control over the look and feel
• Is good for accessibility (visually impaired,
  colour blind, etc.)
• Can provide support for new devices (digital TV,
  )
• Can be useful for standard device in unusual
  conditions (PCs in bright conditions, use in
  lecture theatre - with red gun broken!, )
• But
• Lose control over branding
• Users can do silly things

• User control what do you think?
• Good idea
• Bad idea

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Design - Issues To Consider

• Design Brief
• Its needed. But should it be outsourced?
• Design Technologies
• What formats and technologies, should you specify
  in the design brief Flash, Shockwave,
  JavaScript,
• Testing The Interface
• How should you test the design?
• What if its not acceptable?
• Personalisation
• Should readers be able to change the design?

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URL Naming Scheme

• Entry Point
• Main entry point is lthttp//www.cultivate-int.org/
  gt
• Memorable address
• More manageable Web site
• Issues
• Issue has URL of formlthttp//www.cultivate-int.o
  rg/issue1/gt
• Articles
• Article has URL of formlthttp//www.cultivate-int
  .org/issue2/vakhum/gt
• Avoidance of File Names
• URLs make use of default file name i.e.
  notlthttp//www.cultivate-int.org/issue2/vakhum/d
  efault.htmgtlthttp//www.cultivate-int.org/issue2/v
  akhum/default.aspgt

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Notification
http//www.cultivate-int.org/notification/

• How do users find out when a new issue is
  available?
• Spamming lists can be irritating

• Cultivate Interactive has 2 notification
  services
• Netmind service (email sent when page changes)
• Local database of interested readers
• Which is best?

http//www.cultivate-int.org/notify/
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Print All
http//www.cultivate-int.org/issue2/print-all/

• The Print All feature
• Allows all articles to be viewed on single page
• Developed to allow single printout of all
  articles to be produced easily

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Search Facility
http//www.cultivate-int.org/cat-search/

• You should provide a search facility for your
  online publication
• If resources arent available, try a third party
  service, such as Atmoz or Google
• If resources are available, try to use metadata
  and configure the search facility to reflect the
  Webzine structure

Find articles in all issues published as Feature
Articles which concern projects funded by DIGICULT
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Out-Of-Date Articles
http//www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue5/metadata-masses/i
ntro.html

• What do you do when an article becomes
  out-of-date?
• What parts of an article are we discussing?
• What are the pros and cons of different
  approaches?

Published 11 September 1996 Widely cited and
linked to
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Annotations
http//www.useit.com/alertbox/9709a.html

• You could allow the author to annotate the
  article
• For example, see Jakobs Nielsons Alertbox
  column
• What are the pros and cons of this approach?

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User Feedback
http//www.exploit-lib.org/issue5/fd/

• You could provide a general article feedback
  mechanism
• What are the pros and cons of this approach?

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Updating Broken Links

• Links in Exploit Interactive articles were
  breaking.
• Should they
• Be fixed
• Articles provide historic information and
  updating broken links would be rewriting history
• Readers of articles simply want links to work
• Be left
• Fixing links is time-consuming
• If you fix them, will you (the editor) know that
  the link is pointing to the correct resource?
• Be annotated
• Annotated links so that end users get working
  links, but are also aware that a change has been
  made?
• Use some new piece of magic?

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Updating Broken Links
http//www.exploit-lib.org/issue5/exploit-audit/

• Links in Exploit Interactive articles were
  becoming broken
• Broken links in references
• Contained icon indicating they were a link
• Icon updated once broken link spotted

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People Information

• Case Study
• A regular contributor to Ariadne marries and
  changes her name. Her email name is also
  changed.
• What should we do to the contact email address in
  old articles?

• In General
• Information about people is volatile
• Names change (marriage, etc.)
• Email addresses change
• Postal addresses and affiliation changes
• Status change (Miss, Mrs, Dr., etc.)
• Possible problems
• A search by Author will not find full set of
  articles
• Contacting authors via email or post may not work

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From Locators to Identifiers

• The effectiveness of the Web to provide access to
  quality information is deteriorating
• Increasing numbers of links are becoming broken
• Resources change address as Web sites are
  reorganised to
• Reflect organisational changes
• Exploit new technologies (e.g. content management
  systems, databases, etc.)
• Resources are moved when authors move to new jobs

A move from locators to (more stable) identifiers
is needed in order to provide end users with more
reliable services and to ensure that important
resources are not lost
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From Static HTML To Databases

• A move from storing information in HTML files to
  use of structured databases is needed
• In order to be able to update information in a
  manageable way (e.g. Jane Smith has married, John
  Brown is a Professor, etc.)
• In order to be able to deploy new technologies

These architectural issues are needed in order to
provide more robust user services. They will be
discussed in the Publisher Session
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Future Developments

• Ideas for new functionality for the readers
• Automated news feeds (summaries of articles)
  which can be embedded in third party Web sites
• Summary information available using WAP phones
  to evaluate ease of conversion of other XML
  types
• Email access to newsletter
• View similar articles (using search and metadata)
• Personalised interface
• VRML, simulation, multimedia,
• New author / editorial board functions could also
  be added
• If cookieeditor display validation checks
• If cookieauthor display statistics