HTML 5: Could it kill Flash and Silverlight?

HTML 5, a groundbreaking upgrade to the prominent Web presentation specification, could become a game-changer in Web application development, one that might even make obsolete such plug-in-based rich Internet application (RIA) technologies as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and Sun JavaFX.

The World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) HTML 5 proposal is geared toward Web applications, something not adequately addressed in previous incarnations of HTML, the W3C acknowledges. In other words, HTML 5 tackles the gap that Flash, Silverlight, and JavaFX are trying to fill.

The rich promise of HTML 5 "HTML 5 is really the second coming of this Web stuff -- of the Web," says Dion Almaer, co-founder of the Ajaxian Web site and co-director of developer tools at Mozilla. The specification boasts capabilities covering video and graphics on the Web, as well as a slew of APIs, Almaer notes.

HTML 5 technologies such as Canvas, for 2-D drawing on a Web page, are being promoted by heavyweights in the Internet space such as Apple, Google, and Mozilla. (Although Microsoft itself has given a thumbs-up to certain aspects of HTML 5, it has not backed Canvas.)

"HTML 5 features like Canvas, local storage, and Web Workers let us do more in the browser than ever before," says Ben Galbraith, also co-founder of the Ajaxian Web site and co-director of developer tools at Mozilla. Local storage enables users to work in a browser when a connection drops and Web Workers makes "next generation" applications incredibly responsive by pushing long-running tasks to the background, he says.

Web applications will become more fun, says Ian Fette, project manager at Google for the Chrome browser: "They're going to be faster and they're just going to provide overall a better user experience and make the distinction between online apps and desktop apps blurred."

HTML 5 features already appearing in browsers After five years of work, a draft of the HTML 5 specification was released in 2008. Parts of it are showing up in browsers, but the complete HTML 5 work won't be done for years.

"For example, video support is new in HTML 5 and new in Firefox 3.5," notes Vlad Vukicevic, technical lead of the Firefox project at Mozilla. Google's new Chrome browser also has some capabilities, including video tags, derived from the HTML 5 specification. And Microsoft has several HTML 5 features in Internet Explorer 8, such as local storage, AJAX navigation, and mutable DOM prototypes.

Source:[computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=development&articleId=9134422&taxonomyId=11&intsrc=kc_feat]

Outsourcing Advanced Web Site Design and Development with Flash Animation to the Philippines

The world wide web is the new arena of competition where businesses vie for the attention of online visitors. A company's web site is its online office and storefront, carrying the company's image and reputation. Good web site design is, therefore, not good enough anymore. To really attract more visitors, convince them to stay and entice them to return again and again, a company’s web site design needs to be a cut above the rest, especially in its landing pages. In today’s online battle for supremacy, this calls for the use of flash animation.

Flash animation is achieved with the use of Adobe Flash, considered one of the most advanced graphic designing tools available today. It enables website designers to create more dynamic pages that have more visual appeal, enhanced with animated logos, banners, interactive movies, games, business presentations and other creative animations. It can even be used to make each visit a unique experience for the visitor. Undeniably, a web site with flash animation will have greater impact on a visitor and will leave a more positive impression about the company it represents.

Advanced web site design
and development, especially when enhanced with flash animation, is not something that can just be done in the office unless there already are experts in this field among the company’s employees. Otherwise, the company will have to hire programmers and designers who are experts in php, mysql, JavaScript, Adobe Flash and other programming languages and tools, as well as in the correct use of flash animation. It must be borne in mind that when used inappropriately, flash animation can actually even backfire on the company and turn off visitors. It can cause slow loading of the company web site pages, prompting visitors to leave. It can look like cheap advertising and be ignored. Only true web professionals will know how to avoid these mistakes.

Aside from hiring web developers, the company will also have to purchase the equipment they will need to develop the web site and to maintain it. The whole thing will be a considerable investment. To cut costs without sacrificing the company's need for an excellent web site, the solution is outsourcing.

There are many good reasons why a company should choose to outsource its advanced web site design and development with flash animation to the Philippines. On the matter of design, the Philippines can boast of top artistic talent. The best web designers can draw up original and highly aesthetic looks appropriate to a web site and pleasing to its online visitors. Skillfully implementing such design plans is also a challenge that Philippine web site developers have already had much experience with, and have long been known for.

One BPO company in Manila that can be trusted to meet your needs in advanced web site design and development with flash animation is Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc. It has ten years of experience in serving clients in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Korea, the British Virgin Islands and the Philippines, providing low cost advanced web site development and business process outsourcing packages.

These packages can cover advanced interactive database driven web site development, advanced portal development, heavy web based programming, web application development, content management systems, website design, graphic design and multimedia components including flash animation development, e-commerce site solutions including a shopping cart using osCommerce, website maintenance and support, search engine optimization, search engine marketing and social media marketing. Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc. is also a web hosting provider that can help with domain name registration.

Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc. is your One Stop Shop Internet and Contact Center Solutions Vendor for the Global Market.

Source:[elitestv.com/pub/2009/06/outsourcing-advanced-web-site-design-and-development-with-flash-animation-to-the-philippines]

Checklist and summary: Core guidance

Checklist

• Decide whether a discussion group is to be open or closed
• If the discussion group is to be closed, carefully control the distribution of passwords
• Publish an Acceptable Use Policy alongside the discussion group
• The group must be continually moderated
• The focus of the discussion group should be decided on before being implemented

Summary

Discussion groups can be delivered by many sources. Your website hosting service may well be in a position to offer this service, or you may have to use a separate service managed by another service provider.

Discussion groups can be volatile. However the service is delivered, it will have to be managed and moderated particularly well, especially if it is an open site available to all web users

Customer relationship management

At the simplest level, customer relationship management (CRM) means the attraction and retention of visitors by operating a user-focused strategy.

Audience attraction

Audience attraction involves offering the information and services on your website that your user base requires. To do that there must be an understanding of your audiences and their needs if you are to understand what information and services to offer. You will also need to decide if that offering will be identical for each audience segment or whether you will differentiate.

Audience retention

Audience retention involves acquiring and continuously updating knowledge about visitor needs, motivation and behaviour. Applying this knowledge through a process of learning from your successes and failures will ensure that your website is better managed around the user. The aim is to understand, anticipate and manage the needs of current and potential visitors in terms of what is offered and how it is offered.

Relationship management looks at a continuing series of transactions, rather than an individual transaction. This includes supporting your users online and offline, and satisfying them by responding to their requests for information and assistance as soon as possible.

The user-centric strategy allows the integration of people, processes, and technology systems to support the delivery of user requirements. The organisation's whole team will need to be in the business of building customer relationships, both online and offline.

Electronic CRM

With the 'all-electronic' version of CRM, customer relationships become more dynamic and interactive. The creation of a channel and product strategy will define how your organisation delivers its products and services effectively, making sure the right message gets out at the right time and through the right channel. Relevant information can be collected more easily, uploaded automatically and used more effectively.

For example, your department might build a database about its users that described relationships in sufficient detail so that those providing the service can match user needs with products, remind them of the available services and information, and even know what other online and offline transactions a visitor had used. This would provide a web manager with the information necessary to know their users, understand their needs, and effectively build relationships with them.

However, web-based CRM can mean that huge volumes of user information are retrieved, stored, processed and delivered electronically. The IT platforms used must be flexible, adaptive, and scalable. They must also be completely dependable and secure to provide the credibility that will encourage the use of online transactions and resources.

Focusing on user needs - Marketplace

It is vital to know who your target audiences are and how they will access your information. This information will determine how you design and prepare the electronic publication.

However, targeting information on a website is very different from the targeting of conventional publicity and information.

Conventional marketing is effective at getting the information to the intended audiences. Leaflets are sent only to mailing lists of the target audience, or displayed in places they are likely to visit. Advertising is placed in magazines or in TV programs that appeal to the target audience.

This leaves design and text in conventional publicity free to concentrate on the task of communication with particular kinds of people.Anyone with access to the Web can show up at your website, whether your information is for them or not. Websites have to do their own targeting by directing users to the information or services that are for them.

Some industry experts suggest that the different levels of a website should have different aims.

Information on the upper levels of a website will be targeted at a very broad general audience. The aim is to help users swiftly find what is relevant to them. or move on. Design should aim to be professional and sufficiently engaging for a broad audience. In this context Government sites should aim to:

• Make immediately plain that this is a government site.

• Make clear what the owning organisation does.

• Make clear the kind of content and services on the site.

• Build trust in the authority, accuracy and currency of the information.

• Build trust in the security and effectiveness of the transactions on offer.

• Direct regular users to content that is new on that particular site.

• Offer access to the rest of government sites.

• Send different kinds of interested users to content that is aimed at them.

Middle layers of the site can be for people with some interest in content or services. This level of the site should aim to:

• summarise information or available transactions.

• provide enough details or facts to satisfy mild interest.

• provide enough details for people with strong interest to select the detailed information that is for them or who wish to apply for the service.

Middle levels of the site can also be a good place for key messages aimed at the general public. Writing and design can in this case be more clearly targeted at the target audience.

Lower levels of the site will tend to provide the detailed information that government sites so often make available. Here the aim is to:

• secure the interested user’s agreement to read the information.

• and offer users the choice of reading onscreen or different file formats to download.

An exception to this approach is likely to be a website that works as part of a publicity campaign. As advertising is likely to be driving an interested audience to the site, there can be a greater degree of targeting.

The aim of the site should be to add value to the campaign by such means as:

• providing more detailed information than the advertising could carry.

• reporting on progress towards the goals of the campaign.

• providing a transaction that facilitates users’ response to the call to action for the campaign.

An important aim of design will be to make it plain that the site ties in with the look and feel of the campaign. Users should be in no doubt they have come to the campaign’s site. The content and transactions on the site must reinforce the value of the brand.

Campaign sites should be revised as the campaign changes or be taken down once the campaign ends.

Understanding the terminology

Browser - is the web browser used by a visitor to access your website.

bytes transferred - the number of bytes transferred to the client's browser as a result of the request.

entry resource - the first web page viewed as part of a visit to your website.

exit resource - the last web page viewed as part of a visit to your website.

hit - a browser request for any one web resource, for example a web page or a graphic. A web page containing two graphics will take three hits to display that web page in a client's browser.

hits per visit - the number of hits occurring in a given visit to your website.

page impressions - a file or a combination of files sent to a user as a result of that user's request being received by the server. For example, one web page that contains three frames and 2 graphic files will generate one page view but 5 hits. Also known as 'page requests', 'page views' or 'page accesses'. Where service providers, search engines or other organisations cache content, page impressions served from these caches may not be recorded on the originating website.

page view per visit - the number of page accesses occurring in a given visit to your website.

platform - the operating system used by the visitor to your website, eg, Windows ME

session - A series of page impressions served in an unbroken sequence from within the website to the same user. A session begins when a user connects to a website, continues while page impressions are served in a continuous sequence from within the website, and ends when the user leaves the website.

user - this is defined as the combination of an IP address and an 'heuristic'. The user agent string is usually employed as the ‘heuristic’. Because of the use of dynamic IP number assignment, NAT, PAT, perimeter cacheing and dynamic proxying this definition may overstate or understate the real number of users visiting a website. Alternatively, websites may use cookies and/or registration Ids as the basis for identifying user numbers. Often also referred to as 'unique user'.

unique user duration - The total time in seconds for all visits of two or more page impressions, divided by the number of unique users making such visits. In order to measure user duration, a first and last page impression record must exist for each visit. Therefore, users making visits of only one page are excluded, since no interval can be established. This metric is sometimes referred to as 'website stickiness'.

user agent - the browser and platform used by a visitor when accessing your website.

visit - a series of one or more page impressions served to one user, which ends when there is a gap of 30 minutes or more between successive page impressions for that user.

visit duration - the total time in seconds for all visits of two or more page impressions divided by the total number of visits of two or more page impressions.

Downstream caching and pixel tagging

Copies of Web pages served to browsers are often 'captured' by content caching systems. 'Downstream' caching systems are typically operated by third parties such as the ISPs and other organisations through whose networks the pages travel on their route to users' computers. These caching systems are able to serve pages of which they hold copies in response to subsequent requests for them without reference to the origin server.

From an Internet-wide perspective caching content downstream close to the browsers is a good thing: serving content to topologically nearby browsers is quicker and consumes less network resource than transmitting it from the origin servers. It also reduces the load on the origin servers.

In order to have a website inter-operate properly with downstream caches (for example, to avoid out-of-date pages being served to users), it is important that appropriate cache control directives are included in the HTTP headers of the content that it serves. Getting this right normally involves having your server administrator configure the web server software appropriately. Note that it is not appropriate to attempt to control downstream caches by using HTML mark up elements because the special purpose appliances typically used for caching only act upon HTTP directives in the content headers.

There is an important consideration with regard to website traffic measurement arising from the increasing deployment of downstream caches on the Internet. Typically, there will be no record of pages served from downstream caches in your traffic log. As downstream caches are increasingly deployed on the Internet, standard origin web server logs tend to underestimate the number of your pages that have actually been viewed by users.

The pixel tag approach

One way of achieving a more accurate page view counts in origin web server logs is to ensure that every page contains a content element whose HTTP headers mark it as non-cacheable. This can be achieved by including a tiny transparent image referred to as a pixel tag in each HTML page. This pixel tag is typically served from a directory the contents of which the web server has been configured to serve out with HTTP headers marking the content as non-cacheable.In a pixel-tagging regime, page impressions served (including those served from downstream caches) can be estimated by counting the number of pixel tags served. If more detailed information is required about which pages have been served, then all or a part of the page's own URL can be included as a query string on the end of the pixel tag.

Examples of pixel tagging

A basic pixel tag could be generated by including the following image element in HTML pages (conventionally just before the closing tag):


In this example, the directory named 'nocache' resides at the root of the web server. The web server would be configured to include HTTP headers marking any files served out of the 'nocache' directory as non-cacheable. The file named 'trans.gif' would be a one pixel square transparent GIF image.

If it is required to track actual pages visited by users. In this case, the pixel tag for example, in the file at:

http://www.e-envoy.gov.uk/insideoee/index.shtml, would be:

Evaluation Website - Not the full picture

You should be aware that there are limitations to the information that can be discovered from the analysis of Web server log files .The principal issues are:

• Most ISPs use dynamic IP addressing. This means they maintain a pool of IP addresses from which an IP number is ‘loaned out’ to each dial-up call for the duration of the call. A particular IP number will therefore be used by many different users and a particular user may appear at your website with many different IP numbers. The firewalls used at the interface between the Internet and corporate networks typically use a process named Network Address Translation (NAT) which has a similar effect. Firewalls also often use a process named Port Address Translation (PAT). With PAT, many users behind the firewall ‘share’ a single Internet IP number. The result of all this is that a specific IP number only rarely corresponds to a specific user and it is inappropriate to attempt to base estimates of the number of visitors to your website on a count of the different IP numbers found in server log files alone.

• Caches - almost all ISPs and many corporate users deploy 'perimeter caches' to conserve their Internet connection bandwidth and improve the speed with which web pages can be served to their users. These are often set up to work ‘transparently’ regardless of whether users have configured their browser’s cache settings. . Perimeter caches work by storing a copy of pages fetched by the client systems on whose behalf they are deployed. Subsequent requests for pages from other users behind a cache will be served from the cache if it already has a copy of the page. This may be done without any further reference to the origin server. Therefore web pages may be served to users without the creation of any record being captured in the origin server's log file.
  

• Dynamic proxies - dynamic IP addressing and perimeter cacheing make the identification of page requests from specific users uncertain. This uncertainty is further compounded by the fact that some organisations assign proxy devices such as perimeter caches dynamically during the course of a user’s Internet session. The result is that a sequence of page requests that is in fact from a single user may appear to come from several users even during the course of a single visit or session. AOL is an example of an organisation that uses dynamic proxying.

• Cookie manipulation - users can delete, or otherwise manipulate cookies stored by their browsers. Browsers can convert persistent cookies to session cookies. Cookies cannot therefore be relied upon as the basis for accurately measuring the number of users of a website or for identifying users that revisit a website.
  

• Browsers - some browsers are known to incorrectly identify the referring URL by indicating the previous page that the client was viewing even if the user recalled a bookmarked URL or typed a URL in to their browser’ as opposed to following a link on the displayed page.

• Anonymisers - some clients use 'anonymisers' which deliberately send false browser and referrer data.

All of these issues mean that there have to be reservations concerning the reliability of estimates derived from standard web server logs of the number of users of a website or of their browsing behaviour when they visit a website. The Internet advertising industry develops and promotes standard website traffic metrics and methodologies for calculating them. It is recognised that the measurements are flawed for the reasons outlined above, however, it is believed that the metrics provide the basis for comparing one website's usage with another on the basis that these issues will affect all websites to broadly the same extent. There is, however, no sound basis for this belief.

The Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards in the UK and Ireland

JICWEBS is the body created by the UK and Ireland media industry whose aim is to ensure independent development and ownership of standards for measuring use and effectiveness of advertising on electronic media.

The International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Circulations

The IFABC Web Standards Committee promotes similar aims on a worldwide basis.

• www.jicwebs.org

• www.ifabc.org

User agent masquerading

The term 'user agent masquerading' refers to browsers that transmit an incorrect browser identification string in the requests that they send to servers. Some browsers just do not properly identify themselves and are therefore not being identified in server log file records. Deliberate masquerading is also used for a number of reasons:

• Some websites alter the content they serve based on the browser identification string, so masquerading can be used to work-around this.

• Some websites reject requests from browsers that they are not intended to work with, so masquerading can be used to work-around this.

• Some users simply wish to remain as anonymous as possible.

Evaluation and website metrics - Advanced techniques

Log files can be further analysed through advanced techniques. For example:

• Sessions and visits - the identification of sequences of page requests from individual users.

• Session and visit duration the measurement of the length of time that individual users spend viewing a website.

• Categorisation - a process whereby similar items, eg URLs, browsers, platforms, a specific directory, are grouped together for pattern matching.

• Aggregation - a process by which all combinations of entities and their resulting measurements are combined.

Other website server software may also keep logs that can provide useful insights to the way visitors use your website. For example, it may be possible to configure search facility software to record the search terms that visitors have used when they are attempting find information on your website. This information can be useful when considering whether there are areas of the site that are not easy to find and can help with organising navigation. It also may indicate what other information users are expecting to be on the website, which would be of use when considering whether additional content should be included on your website.

Using a server log file

A standard HTTP server log entry may look like this:

193.63.182.194 [03/March/2001:11:30:35]
‘GET/webguidelines/index.htm HTTP/1.0’ 200 35000

What this means:

• 193.63.182.194 is in principle the IP number of the client’s (the visitor’s) host name or computer making the request. In fact it may actually be the IP number of a ‘proxy’ device that made the HTTP request on behalf of the real user. Such devices include the web content caching appliances that ISPs are increasingly deploying (‘perimeter caches’) and the firewalls that are typically deployed between corporate networks and the Internet. See section 1.4.5 Not the whole picture!

• 03/March/2001 indicates the date of the access.

• 11:30:35 indicates the time (hours:minutes:seconds) of the access.

• ‘GET/webguidelines/index.htm HTTP/1.0’ is the request that the browser sent to the server.

• 200 is the HTTP status code with which the request completed (code 200 means that the file was served successfully. See annex I Common HTTP server status codes.

• 35000 is the size in bytes of the file that was transferred to the client’s browser.

Depending upon the logging capabilities of the web server software and how the web server logging has been configured, web server logs may contain a large amount of additional information such as:

• HTTP_REFERRER this records the URL of the web page that referred the visitor to the current page. This actually records how a user (client) makes their way through your website.

• USER_AGENT this records the program name and version number of the browser that the user (client) employed. For example, Microsoft Internet Explorer/4.04 (Windows 95).

Understanding user statistics

Website usage statistics are generally obtained by analysing the server logs. A typical HTTP server log contains in a log entry for each HTTP request (or hit) on the server. This entry will contain information about the web resource requested and the browser to which it was served. Software can be used to analyse and process these log files and provide a picture of the traffic to the website.

• the number of visitors,

• visitor duration and traffic pattern,

• visitor origin including which country, when it can be identified,

• visitor IP address,

• visitors’ technical preferences, such as browser type and version, platform.

This analysis will also indicate:

• traffic peaks and troughs against time of day and day of the week,

• average daily user load,

• what obstacles may turn visitors away,

• which pages get high traffic,

• which directories are getting high traffic,

• which graphic files are acceptable in terms of size and download time,

• type of browsers (user agent) being used.

There is a wide range of software available for processing and analysing the potentially huge amount of raw data contained in web server logs. This ranges from the commercially available Webtrends product family through to ‘shareware’ packages such as Wusage and free software like Analog.

• www.webtrends.com

• www.boutell.com/wusage/

• www.analog.cx

Evaluation and website metrics

Is the web strategy working? Does the navigation get people to the information they need? Is the server reliable? Measuring audience satisfaction, looking at feedback, understanding access statistics without measures such as these you will not be able to demonstrate value for money, or that you are meeting the needs of users and the aims of management. Therefore, regular (quarterly will be sufficient), formal evaluation exercises of both the content and the technology are strongly recommended.

Evaluation of website design and content can be carried out by drawing on:

• Website access statistics provided by the ISP/hosting service provider. (The ISP/hosing services provider may either supply the raw web server logs or the results of their having been processed by analysis software);

• Responses via feedback tools (forms, databases, email addresses);

• Feedback from contributors to the website;

• Conventional audiences research, for example, focus groups and professionally authored online questionnaires.

The effectiveness of the website can also be judged by measuring achievement in other ways. For example, one recruitment website was evaluated on:

• The number of recruits that applied via the website.

• Their performance of web recruits measured against that of staff recruited by other means.

• The cost per recruit measured against the cost per recruit of publicity in other media.

If the ISP/hosting service supplier provides the results of analysing the web server logs as opposed to providing the unprocessed raw logs, the minimum information that should be required from them is statistics on:

• number of unique users (visitors)

• number of visits ,and

• page impressions (page views).

Some examples of other relevant metrics that can be identified from web server logs are:

• error message counts (indicating that pages and other content were not served successfully); and

• traffic analysis focussing on peak times (to assess bandwidth requirements) and ‘dead’ times (should it be necessary to switch the site off while maintenance is carried out)

Additional useful information can include:

• successful requests;

• unsuccessful requests;

• most frequently visited pages;

• least frequently visited pages;

• top entry pages;

• top referring websites.

This information can be used to do such things as:

• identify the most popular content,

• review the navigation system for example, identifying orphaned pages,

• identify referring websites (the sites from which users arrive at your website),

• audit the level of response to electronic forms,

• assess the effectiveness of marketing/PR campaigns in bringing traffic to the website,

• provide information on users’ platforms and browsers,

• identify users’ DNS domains and thus visits from abroad or from within government.

It is, in addition, recommended that web teams should:

• give more importance to visitors, unique visits and page impressions than to hits;

• take as much notice of error logs as of any other statistics;

• determine who is using the website the most;

• monitor current bandwidth use, and attempt to project future requirements;

• archive server logs to use for monitoring trends over time.

The web strategy and management team should ensure, at the procurement stage, that ISPs/hosting services are offering to provide a full range of server log information.

It is acceptable to use HTTP cookies or session identities to track visitors' paths through the website (and this will be essential in e-transactional sites). The website should contain a clear statement of policy on the use of cookies.

Good practice dictates that the need for attention to the accuracy and timeliness of information will increase as the level of activity of a site increases.

Web managers should, in the interests of open government, consider publishing a summary of usage statistics on their websites

The commercial value of credits

The giving of credit to suppliers of web services that you employ directly within the functionality of your website can have commercial value. Significant reductions to the cost of features such as search engines can be negotiated especially if logos and links to suppliers’ sites are granted. The value will vary with the popularity of the specific web pages, and the relevance of the service to your readership.

The giving of credit to suppliers of web services, for example, by name, by email address, particularly if within your metadata will also have commercial value. Reductions to costs should be negotiated.

Sponsorship

Sponsorship may be a useful means of saving public expenditure. Like all government publicity projects, websites should observe the guidance given in the Cabinet Office Guidance for Departments on Sponsorship of Government Activities. This document can be found online at: http://www.gics.gov.uk or published in the Directory of Civil Service Guidance. These guidelines should be consulted in full. Like all government guidelines they are subject to amendment and update.

In general, sponsorship:

• must avoid any suggestion that the sponsors will be sympathetically regarded for other purposes;

• must be seen to add significant benefit;

• should add to, not replace, core funding for the project;

• cannot be given by firms which are involved in significant commercial negotiations with the department or are licensed/regulated by it;

• should be sought in an open and even handed manner between organisations in a particular field, using the appropriate public sector procurement methods to secure the contractual arrangements;

• must not be an endorsement by Government of the sponsor or its products or services;

• must not dilute the effectiveness of your website or the message that lies behind it. Sponsors cannot influence, the messages of Government communication in their business area;

• must not bring adverse publicity to the project;

• must be of websites and not of individual Ministers or civil servants;

• does not place a Minister or a Department under an obligation to a sponsor.
  

Sponsorship of individual amounts, including value-in-kind, of more than £5,000 must be disclosed in Departmental Annual Reports.

To measure the value of in-kind sponsorship, where the sponsor provides goods or services that benefit of the project, Departments should consider the opportunity cost, ie, how much it would have cost the department if it had paid for the support provided. Ongoing costs should also be taken into account for the lifetime of the sponsorship agreement.

Returns to the sponsor must be specified in writing as part of the sponsorship agreement. The agreement should cover, for example, the display of the name of the sponsor or whether there is to be a link to the sponsor’s website.

Credit to a sponsor must never create confusion about branding or your website’s identity.

Credit to a sponsor should only occur on those parts of your web space where the sponsor is directly contributing to its provision. This should be specified in the sponsorship agreement.

Acknowledgement should be concise. A company logo, if used, must not distract from clear branding of your website’s own identity or any government branding. A sponsor’s logo must comply with the universal accessibility and graphics requirements of these guidelines.

A company logo must be seen as appropriate and must not be of a size that is visually or perceived to be visually larger or more important than any official or campaign logo. A link to the sponsor’s own web page is perfectly okay. To retain your audience, you may wish to have it open in a new browser window.

If these guidelines have been followed, then no specific disclaimer for this instance of sponsorship should be necessary. It should be evident that the source of sponsorship is appropriate. It is, however, your responsibility to ensure that this relationship cannot be misinterpreted.

In the case that a disclaimer is necessary to avoid the semblance of an inappropriate relationship with the company, then it should be placed next to the credit line in the same heading level and typeface and on the same page. This is because disclaimers that are a link away from a credit have not in practice proved to be effective at avoiding the appearance of a problem.

It would be useful if the government’s policy on sponsorship is included were the disclaimer information just off the home page together with an assertion that all sponsorship of the site meets these criteria.

The buying of advertising space on other websites

As the market place is in constant evolution and having a strategic approach to Internet advertising is required. Unlike traditional advertising space, the Internet does not benefit widely from independent audience audits. Traffic claims can be variable and you must ask for specific information - page impressions, from where specific information and pages are requested, etc - and make judgements on the effectiveness of an individual site against the site operator’s claims.

In line with your overall media communications strategy specialist agencies are best placed to carry out the following tasks for you:

• planning an internet advertising campaign using various sites and methods of reaching your target audience;
• negotiating the approved plan to ensure maximum value for money;
• implementing the approved plan to ensure that the adverts appear on time and in the right place, and
• optimising campaigns through identification of the most appropriate web pages to be used for advertising, analysis of page impressions and 'click through' and the published performance of individual sites.

This is a specialist area and you are advised to refer to the Guidance on the Work of the Government Information Service

Advertising

Using the Internet for advertising falls into two distinct categories:

• Selling advertising or sponsorship space on your website, and

• Buying advertising space on other websites.

Selling advertising space on Government websites is not an easy task. This is a rapidly evolving and fiercely competitive area and a dedicated, trained resource is required to managed, sell and promote this service. You are advised to source help from specialist agencies, eg, COI Communications.

The full value should be obtained from the sale of advertising on government websites.

Departments and agencies need to judge carefully the balance between the effort required to achieve the maximum value and the income that is earned. Payment for web advertising may not be based on space alone, but on the number of page downloads or ‘clicks on the ad’. Alternatively, an advertiser may wish to sell ‘button space’ on your website. These are fixed graphics with links to the advertised organisation’s own website or campaign, paid for at a fixed rate for a fixed period of time, sometimes regardless of the number of page impressions or ‘clicks through’. Advertisers may expect there to be a link between known user interest and who sees the advert. You will probably need to be able to prove levels of access .

• in designing pages, you should ensure that advertisers' brands do not compete with or detract from the effectiveness, integrity and appearance of their own branding or that of the government as a whole.

• attention should be given to avoid any implication of endorsement of products or services or of contradiction between government messages and those of advertisers.

• website users are often irritated by pop-up advertisements and related technologies (variously referred to as ‘interstitials’, ‘superstitials’) and particularly by those that draw animations within the main window overlaying the page content. It is therefore recommended that advertisements on government websites should be confined to the use of banners and buttons.

• where banner and button advertising space is included in Web pages, it is recommended the dimensions should conform to those of the industry-standard Interactive Marketing Units (IMU) defined by The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) at:

Advertisers should be advised to bear in mind the range of connection speeds used by visitors to government websites and the implications for viable file sizes of advertisement content.

• if you are using information about user behaviour to sell advertising space, you must not breach your own website’s published privacy statement and if in any doubt you must ask the advice of your Data Protection Officer.

Contract management

The management of advertising or sponsorship arrangements can be established using the following routes:

• in-house management of web space to be made available for advertising or other means of publicity agreed under a sponsorship agreement, or

• the use of a third party supplier to manage the advertising or sponsorship web space on your behalf.

The available costs, benefits and expertise are key factors when deciding which route will suit your organisation. All must be examined and included in the evaluation of the business case for making use of advertising or sponsorship to raise potential commercial revenues

Management documentation

Whether the organisation's website has been produced internally or by a design agency, it is important that each element of the construction is fully documented.

Personnel within the website management team will eventually move on and need to be replaced. Without adequate formal documentation a great deal of time will be lost in new staff determining, eg, what markup to use in order to maintain a consistent look and feel.

A number of standards should be developed for the life cycle of a website or document, covering many of the following:

• the management structure that a document must be passed through before it can be published;

• the production of HTML pages, whether they are manually constructed or dynamically generated from a database;

• the production of other document formats, such as PDF and RTF from the source document;

• the organisational publishing standards, eg housestyle covering colour usage, font specifications, logo placement, writing styles, etc;

• the lifespan control of on-line documents;

• the organisation's designated web authors and their roles and responsibilities;

• the management and storage of archived documents, both electronically and paper based (records management);

• the management of the web-hosting service-provision contract;

• the administration of the web server (if controlled internally);

• the information back-up routine that has been adopted;

• the management of existing third party contracts for publishing or design work;

• records of software and license agreements that are used by the website team;

• the administration and use of any escrow agent(s);

• the maintenance of an asset register of all domain names/sub-domains registered by/owned by the organisation, eg, date registered, when to be renewed, and corresponding IP numbers;

• record of permissions granted by third parties for you to link to their website(s);

• record of intellectual property rights permissions obtained, eg, for text, graphics, audio or video materials used;

• manage passwords keeping a record for emergency situations.

Records management

Records Management is the systematic control and management of recorded information resources within an organisation to ensure that the business, legal, regulatory and other requirements for the retention of authentic, evidential records are met.

There are also useful management concepts familiar to records management professionals that are of use to managing large volume information resources. Examples include retention management (usually achieved using schedules), protective marking of sensitive material (eg on Intranets), corporate fileplans etc.

The underlying principle of records management is that records are kept for a period appropriate to their use. Specific procedures follow this principle to assist in its achievement in a systematic and structured way.

Records occurring on websites should be managed in the context of other information resources and records in government and not in isolation. Certain web content across government will have the status of records and should be identified and managed accordingly to manage business risk and comply with legal and regulatory obligations. Some will be required to be preserved for long periods for these reasons or to satisfy the archival preservation requirements of the Public Records Acts.

Managing records in the electronic environment is demanding. Issues of retrieval, migration, authentication and preservation replace pressure on storage space in the traditional hard copy environment. Adding disk space may be a cheap option in the short term, but migrating the content to new platforms and ensuring media refreshment occurs at regular intervals are extremely costly.

This has a significant consequence on the management of web resources and the Public Record Office has published guidance on how these issues might be addressed.

Developing educational content

Where an organisation's website is developing online education content it is important that you refer to advice published by the National Grid for Learning.

• When planning web pages the content providers should be clear about whether they are likely to appear to a high proportion of children or young people.

• Consider carefully before linking from pages designed for children to pages where children are not the primary audience. Take special care when planning to link to external websites.

• Web managers should take steps to prevent any child from publishing their email address on your website or in a discussion group.

Web managers should also be aware of procedures that apply to the use of children’s photographs on websites. You should be especially sensitive in the case of children or young people with special educational needs. If:

• You could readily identify an individual child by sight,

• or if the child is named.

Then you should:

• Have written consent to the publication of the photographs, signed by the parent of legal guardian.

• The consent should clearly include the Internet - it would not be sufficient to simply re-use consent that applied to a conventional publication.

• Retain the signed consent form.

Mirror copy of website

The machine running the live website will usually reside at an Internet hosting datacentre. It is recommended that the web manager should keep one or more additional 'mirror' copies of the organisation’s website on a local PC. This is in order to facilitate the development and testing of updates to the website's content and organisation prior to installing the changes on the live site.

One commonly adopted solution is for the web manager to establish a development environment and a second checking (or staging) environment in addition to the live website. It is possible to have the development and staging versions of the website on the same computer. However, it is important to keep the development and testing functions well separated regardless of whether the two mirror copies are on the same computer or separate ones.

Maintaining local copies of the website will also allow the complete and latest version of the site to be available at all times when only a dialled or slow speed connection to the Internet is available. It may also be desirable to automate the updating of the live website in order to minimise the time that it is unavailable while updates are being installed.

With a local development copy of the website, it is easy to see how any new documents will fit into the existing structure. Maintaining a staging copy of the website enables content and links to be checked and general usability to be tested prior to applying changes to the live website.

It is likely that a local PC’s filesystem naming and organisation rules will be different from those used on the live server. In order for the development and test environments to be of value and easy to use, it is important they should replicate the directory and file organisation and naming used on the live website. Often this can be achieved quite straightfordwardly by keeping all file and directory names and the references to them in hyperlinks within pages in lower case and always using relative URLs in internal hyperlinks (ie, reference all links from the root of the website). Refer to section section 1.9 and section 3.2.3 for recommendations on directory and file naming schemes for websites. Following these recommendations will improve the chances that the live website directory structure and the files it contains can be copied to a PC where the site hyperlink navigation will work without having to make changes to all the files.

It is a role of the web manager to assess the technical requirements for the website development and testing environments in consultation with server managers. Typically the requirements will depend upon issues such as the size and complexity of the website and aspects of the regime under which it is managed, for example, whether it is being updated by more than one staff member or from multiple geographical locations.

Contingency planning

Whatever an organisation's line of business, there is always a requirement for contingency plans to cover a number of eventualities.

A government organisation can be thrust into the spotlight of the media at a moment's notice. You should ensure that your website has the capability to carry fast-developing stories and that its web hosting service would be able to deal with a sudden increase in the number of visitors.

A news development that requires immediate publishing on the web must not shortcut or bypass existing publishing standards. The contingency plan may suggest that it can be streamlined but the correct authorisation must be given before any information is published on the website.

Within this contingency plan there should a clear and easily accessible list of roles and responsibilities for each of the staff concerned in publishing emergency information. This list must be up-to-date and have contact numbers for each individual.

This same list of individuals to contact and a similar list of roles and responsibilities will be vital in any disaster recovery scheme. If the server is physically destroyed, severely hacked or ceases to function there should be plans already in place to restore service. If your organisation has an overall disaster recovery plan, then plans to restore website service should work within it.

Finally, you should ensure your contract with your server host writes preventative measures such as frequency of backup and the supplier’s responsibilities in the event of a disaster.

Conventions on government publicity

Websites maintained by UK Government departments and agencies, the Scottish Executive, the Northern Ireland Executive and the National Assembly for Wales are a form of publicity, and are subject to the conventions on government publicity and advertising.

These conventions are set out and explained at the following websites:

• Guidance on the work of the Government Information Service (GICS)

• GICS handbook

In summary, they require that government publicity:

• should be relevant to government responsibilities;

• should be objective and explanatory, not tendentious or polemical;

• should not be party political, nor liable to misrepresentation as such;

• should be produced and distributed in an economical and relevant way, so that the costs can be justified as a proper expenditure of public funds.

These rules not only govern decisions on what should or should not be published on the Internet; they also apply to issues of content and style. For example, departments should take care when publishing ministerial speeches on the Internet to remove overtly party political content, such as direct attacks on policies and opinions of Opposition parties and groups.

Web service management - Effective content

The web management team is also the overall point of responsibility for ensuring that content:

• is line with the web management strategy;

• takes its place in a clear and navigable website structure;

• is consistent in style, intent and accuracy;

• communicates effectively and meets users needs.
  

The relevant units can still carry out production of material across the organisation, but material can only be published once authorised by the appropriate posts in the web management team. The objectives for information providers must therefore be to ensure that:

• information is accurate, relevant and up-to-date;

• content held conforms to the style set down for the website;

• contact points (email, telephone or interactive form) are staffed, inputs received are actioned and responses given within agreed targets;

• metadata is provided for all new documents;

• information is provided by the agreed deadline.
  

There should be sufficient controls in place to check that content:

• meets all editorial standards;

• is in line with overall communication strategy;

• is reviewed regularly by the information provider for currency and correctness;

• is removed or archived when appropriate;

• is easily accessible, navigable, with no broken links.

Web service management - Effective website operation

The website strategy should also determine the management, communications and security regimes that will drive the service. These objectives are also the criteria against which service level agreements (under formal contract where external commercial suppliers are party to service provision) are set.

The web management team should:

• manage the day-to-day operational interface with the Internet Service Provider (ISP)/hosting service in line with the agreed standards of service;

• ensure the security and reliability of the ISP/hosting service;

• determine the most appropriate technologies to be used for the production and availability of the information and/or goods and services;

• manage the procurement and subsequent contracts or Service Level Agreements with Internet Service Providers /hosting services;

• ensure that staffing levels are maintained for website content provision, in line with agreed standards of service;

• keep key stakeholders within the organisation informed of service performance against agreed targets and objectives;

• co-ordinate publishing of Internet information;

• set and maintain the organisation’s design and editorial specifications for the Web (commonly called style guidelines);

• ensure that all information held on the website conforms to frameworks and standards set by the Cabinet Office, including the Government Web Guidelines and legislation, eg, copyright and data protection;

• ensure the website continues to work in a range of browsers and keep checking page links as they are easily broken;

• in partnership with the ISP, maintain the integrity of a website’s structure, content and availability to agreed standards;

• monitor website activity including bandwidth usage, analyse usage statistics, review the regularity of updating information and report the findings to the relevant personnel.

The web management team can contribute towards effective transactions by ensuring that the website effectively exchanges data between the user and the organisation. They contribute to ensuring that transactions and authentication are secure. Effective transactions are likely to also require reform of other operational systems in order to accept electronic applications.

Importance of Efficient Website Navigation

The most important and crucial factor to ensure that a visitor of your website stay hooked to your site is through providing effective website navigation. Most visitors get put off when they notice that the site does not include good navigations and they might opt to just switch over to another site due to this one aspect. One factor which has been noticed most of the time is that attractive websites have similar layouts. Always design navigational elements keeping in mind the basic purpose of your website. Since a website is usually designed with the intended audience in focus, there are some guidelines which needs to be followed.

Ensure that all navigational elements are distinct links by using standard conventions for links such as buttons, menus, underlining the text ,changing color on mouse etc. Avoid using ambiguous names for links.On the other hand, while utilizing non-conventional links, let it be made clear to the user that it is a link.Keep in mind the "Three Click Rule" which is used by most professional web designers.Studies have proved that majority of users will not click more than 3 links to reach either the target page or the information they require.

Web designers need to make certain that every page on their site need to be reachable by just 3 clicks.Most of the effort must be targeted towards making your website simple and elegant,as often visitors browse your site for information and seldom its for entertainment.

List of the Navigation Element Locations:

• Top Menus – This menu bar is located below the site logo which is part of the page header graphic.These menus can be either in the form of drop down menus,single links or expanding menus.Its optional to use either graphic or text for each menu item.Hyperlinks are usually associated with these menus.
  

• Left Side / Right Side Navigation – Left side/Right side navigation is displayed as a column on left or right side.These navigations can either be a single link or an expanding menu.Also note that mostly right side navigations are used for advertisements instead of links.
  

• Bottom Menus – Designers have the option of displaying bottom menus as either a menu bar or footer.Graphics or text links will be used in the case of menu bars while text links are used in the case of footers.

Some Important Navigation Elements:

• Internal Page Links – As mentioned earlier, ensure that every page is within 2 or 3 clicks from the home page. Also, important pages need to be just one click away.

• Shopping Carts – For sites which utilize shopping carts,there needs to be a view cart occuring on every page.
  

• External Links – It is a common practice to use external links in the text area on a website.These are used to refer to an another website location which provides some useful information.

• Advertisements – Ads are usually a graphic or text with a corresponding hyperlink. Ads can be placed almost anywhere on a webpage but the preferred location is just under the header banner or under the navigation elements on the left side.

• Site Map – A site map is the most efficient method to help in navigation of your website in a heirarchical manner.

A clear and distinct navigation system can increase the numbers of pages viewed a visitor.This in turn can boost the time that a visitor stays on a page.Indirectly this will also increase the sales or whatever your site is meant to perform,eventually leading to the success of your business and website.

Management of your website - Web service management

A team of people will be responsible for ensuring that the website achieves its strategic aims. It does this through:

• measuring achievement against overall aims and objectives set by the organisation

• effective website operation

• effective content provision

This team should consist of people with a mix of publication, web and project management skills. A senior web manager is recommended to manage the team and ensure it carries out its tasks. A further division of labour between content and technical responsibilities is likely.

Meeting overall aims and objectives

Clear, formal and regular progress reports against the aims and objectives are recommended to ensure that:

• ongoing and proposed new developments for the website have been measured against the objectives, costed to ensure the best value and considered in relation to corporate developments;

• a business case has been prepared and approved to ensure sufficient resources (financial, time and people) have been allocated;

• projects for delivery are being managed within agreed tolerances (again tied to the business case).

Reports need not be onerous, with the emphasis being on reporting by exception. They will help inform the broader organisation of progress and give stakeholders the opportunity to raise concerns, issues and/or new developments.

The benefits of this process are:

• it provides a way to ensure continued adherence to delivery against set objectives;

• open and clear communication on developments throughout the organisation;

• accountability for development work against clearly defined resource limits;

• reduced risks on overlaps, duplication and failure to deliver against expectations.

Management of your website

Skill sets for setting web strategy

Communications: Executive Board

At this level the corporate communications policy is set. Therefore a clear framework covering how the organisation is to communicate information is required and is to be used to determine the subject matter to be covered by the website. This approach will clarify the areas of content control appropriate to both the Internet and Intranet.

This role does not require day-to-day involvement. It is more about clearly defining the parameters within which information is to be made available in the public domain and establishing appropriate control mechanisms for handling potentially sensitive information.

Corporate services: publicity and marketing

Publicity or marketing skills support the communication strategy, ensuring that audiences are identified and effective communication of messages and promotion of services takes place. Their understanding of the organisation’s publicity and marketing strategy is integral to ensuring that the website communicates effectively and provides services users require.

Web service provision: Web management team

The web management team will know the opportunities and caveats of working with the web: what it does well and what can go wrong.

They can be a source of new ideas, and are likely to be able to keep an eye on the technological future.

As they represent the day-to-day management of the website they are also a source of practical advice on procedures, resourcing, scheduling, capacity, risks and benefits.

They are likely to be responsible for looking at access statistics and user feedback and are well placed to take an impartial view of customer needs versus organisational perceptions.

They are responsible for maintaining the structure of the website and understanding the limitations of staff time, Internet technology and the systems the organisation has in place.

It is likely that there will be one key manager responsible for content and another responsible for technical issues and developments. Both sides of the team should be represented on the editorial board.

Content owners

The people in the organisation who will want to publish to the web. What are their needs, issues, etc? What capacity do they have to amend and update content? It is important that a procedure is in place to control the correction and uploading of content, ie, who has final signoff before content goes live.

Resource provision

Because a website invariably impacts the whole organisation in terms of service delivery and business processes, it is essential that the resource implications are recognised and handled accordingly. Allied to this is the need to ensure that the technology aspects of the website are sufficiently and appropriately resourced and that future staff and equipment needs are planned in advance. This can be particularly difficult in an area notorious for its pace of change and evolution.

Material for the website (and other future communication technologies) has to be generated using specific software tools and languages. These create training and organisational requirements that need to be covered as part of the website management regime.

Finally, staff has to be recruited and trained and a purchasing budget will be necessary for software, equipment and consultants.

Technology provision

All web services are dependent on technology solutions. Impartial technical advice and guidance is required to ensure that the most appropriate solution is used to meet customer service needs. It is essential that someone familiar with the technology should cover this area. However, given the diversity of IT solutions available in the marketplace, technological impartiality is essential and as such should be a key factor when selecting a suitable representative.

The establishment of a web strategy and management team comprising representatives that cover these roles will result in a more streamlined operational group. By operating in a more project-style management environment the team will be able to create and manage small teams geared towards delivering products on a customer-demand basis.

Management of your website

The key to effective website management is the development and implementation of a strategy designed to ensure that it remains focused on what the organisation is there to deliver as well as on what information and services the target audiences expect to be able to access.

Strategic and operational management

Effective website management can be defined under three categories:

1. owning organisation - Web strategy and management team
2. web service manager - Web Manager (aka Webmaster)
3. information providers - content owners and the editorial team

1. The owning organisation
   

The owning organisation is responsible for establishing and maintaining the web management strategy and for ensuring that it integrates with wider strategic plans.

The equivalent of a senior editorial board is recommended. This will help ensure that key areas of the organisation bring a full range of necessary skills and awareness to the process of setting aims and objectives for the website. The owning organisation should also ensure that the resources are in place to achieve these aims. The following are examples of key areas of the organisation that should be represented.

• communications
• corporate services
• web service provision
• content provision
• resource provision
• technology provision.

Benefits of publishing data on the Internet

• Interactivity

The Web can speed up the process of individuals getting the answers they need. Websites could be used to direct enquiries to the right place in the organisation to get an answer. Email can speed up the process of responding to them.

• Adapting to user needs quickly

Feedback and access statistics can tell web managers which pages are popular and which pages need further development. They can help identify gaps in information or services. A well-managed website will respond to user needs and use the flexibility of the web to revise the website.

• Building individual relations with the citizen

Web technology provides a way for users to register interests and receive automatic updates of news and developments in the areas that interest them. Website content can be personalised to meet their interests and concerns, or provide local or national versions of information that are relevant to them.

• Saving costs on services

Properly supported by business plans and backend systems, the web can be used to improve services and reduce the cost of providing them.

Benefits of publishing data on the Internet

Savings on print and distribution costs

Publishing data on the website should save on the printing, distribution and storing of printed documents and the wastage caused by overestimated print runs. Only the one copy needs to be maintained; as soon as a changed version is published it is available to everyone.

In order to achieve this publication in print and on the web should be part of one carefully planned publication process. This process should be audited regularly to ensure it is efficient.

Website maintenance and archiving

Web documents can also be a reliable source of older documents, developing into a useful archive.

This will be achieved if archived documents are given a stable URL and are clearly marked as being archived. It is important that electronic master copies of each document published on the website are kept. This not only makes the creation of new versions in other formats easy; it also maintains an archive version for historical purposes.

Providing the call to action

A good publicity campaign issues a call for action - something the user is expected to do. A campaign website can give the user the chance to quickly and simply carry out that action, whether it is to set up an appointment, order more information, or enter the recruitment process for a public sector job.

Opening up consultation

Government makes policies and needs to collect informed views from organisations and individuals. The web can provide this opportunity and provide another channel for the distribution of the background documents that people need in order to contribute to the debate.

Benefits of publishing data on the Internet

Although publishing documentation on the Internet initially seems to be little different to publishing in any other medium, there are a number of special considerations that need to be borne in mind. There are almost as many permutations of monitor resolution, colour rendering, browser types, operating systems and user ability, as there are websites. Website Managers will have to consider many capabilities and standards to ensure that data is available to the widest audience.

There can be enormous benefits when documentation is published on the Internet, both for the publishing body and the general user.

Information access

A well designed website offers users a broader range of information than is available to them through conventional media, when they want it and in a form they can use.

To achieve this, the website should make use of the number of ways the web helps users find the documents they are looking for such as search engines, menus, navigational aids, indices and links between documents. Web navigation should also help users find the information they want within the document.

Some information such as menu pages and document summaries will have to be written specifically to be quickly scanned and understood.

It may be appropriate to make documentation available in a variety of differing formats. For example, some users may find it easier to download and print an entire document in Portable Document Format (PDF) and read it offline, whilst other may prefer to read it in online and on -screen in the form of a sequence of HTML pages.

Accurate and up-to-date

The web is easier to update or correct than print. Documents contained on the website can be a point of reference for both the public and your staff. Some departments provide a copy of their website on their intranet to facilitate this. A 'What's New' section should be included and constantly updated so that users have a constant and familiar route to new and updated information.

To achieve accuracy, the maintenance of documents after publication should be planned and resourced. Each document should adhere to the site template and all data should be formatted in a consistent way. Particular care should be paid to the Cascading Style Sheet, which may be used to control the formatting of the website.

What is the website for??

In establishing the aims of the website, each organisation must ensure that:

• users should be able to find your website;

• users are clear about who owns the website and what it is designed to achieve;

• navigation is clear and customer orientated, taking into account the needs of specific audiences;

• goods and services being offered by the organisation are effectively focused on the target audiences in terms of relevance and ease of accessibility;

• visitors are able to access the information they seek as directly as is practicable;

• adequate security is in place when dealing with online transactions for the purchase of goods and services - and that neither the client nor the provider is compromised;

• contact points (whether email, forms-based or telephone) must be staffed and all enquiries answered within reasonable timescales;

• the information published is up to date, accurate and relevant to the website;

• content is clear, concise and appropriate;

• links are kept up to date that users can rely on the website being available and is fast enough.

The tasks to be addressed when setting the aims and objectives are:

• identification of your website's place in the organisation's overall communications strategy;

• identification of the audiences for your website, where possible on the basis of market research or dialogue with client groups;

• understanding and responding to users' satisfaction with the website;

• provision of resources, especially staff with the necessary skills, for the website team;

• integration of the website with business processes, which might include electronic dealings with the public, publication of information, recruitment and consultation;

• integration of the website into the department's strategy for electronic government and freedom of information;

• integration of web services with other systems where practicable;

• monitoring the development of the website and its success as a means of meeting departmental objectives.

To ensure that the aims and objectives of the website are achieved they must be applied to key roles in the organisation and placed under an appropriate management regime.

Planning your products and services

Departments and local authorities are currently investing millions of pounds in building the infrastructure to support the electronic delivery of their information and services. Without a central architecture to manage this spending much more will be spent on duplicating research, design, systems integration and hosting.

Departments and local authorities have been wrestling with the same problems: managing customers, content, new channels and emerging technologies. Entire infrastructures, both technical, as well as people and process?based, have consequently evolved, not always with consideration of the customer experience.

The Office of the e-Envoy (OeE), has 'productised' its infrastructure, the Government Gateway and the www.ukonline.gov.uk portal, into components, both products and services. The OeE is now able to offer these products and services, as a service organisation, to facilitate quick deployment of government content and transactions, economically, and focused on the customer. Such products and services include:

Products

• Authentication and authorisation

• Secure Routing

• Search

• Content management and delivery

• Management information

Services

• Hosting

• Systems integration

• Customer research and user experience

• process design and change management

• Requirements analysis

These products and services conform to government guidelines and recommendations produced by the OeE, and have all been security accredited by CESG.

The OeE product set has been designed and built to be fully modular, to enable departments and local authorities to customise to their specific strategic business needs. These products and services will increase over time, as more departments and local authorities take advantage of the centralised architecture.

Considerable investment has been made at the centre, in researching customer needs, defining the types of interaction customers require of government, as well as the best of breed technologies capable of delivering government information and services effectively. All government departments and local authorities are advised to consider the technical viability and value for money of these products and services before investing resources in building their own infrastructure.

How should a website be considered by an organisation?

It is essential for the success of any website that it is recognised as an integral part of the organisation. It is a global, potentially low-cost communication and an (increasingly) transactional medium by which information and services can be made available at any time of day or night.

As such, organisations need to consider how best the Internet can be used to provide access to information and to aid in the delivery of goods and services to customers.

A clear web management strategy is at the heart of developing this thinking. It must be an integral part of the organisation’s Corporate Communications and e-Strategies.

There are three main categories of website:

• Information orientated: these cover departmental publications, publicity, recruitment, news, statutory information, promotional material, providing advice, requesting responses and feedback. They may, for example, provide an electronic catalogue to users. Queries and requests can be handled via email or forms. Orders, and necessary payment, can be fulfilled through the conventional procedures.

• Operational: these are transactional websites geared towards e-business and cover the whole online process, from service selection through ordering and confirmation to online payment. These may be integrated with departmental systems to enable electronic transactions with the public and other customers.

• Campaign: such websites will support a specific publicity campaign, working directly with press, TV and radio advertising. All the media reflect the same messages and images. They may also provide an electronic catalogue to users with requests being handled via email. Fulfilment can be handled through the conventional procedures.

Many websites may incorporate aspects of each of the above. In all three categories the principle of developing a relevant and effective management strategy applies. This section sets out the five key components of a web management strategy:

• Purpose - what is the website for?

• Strategic and operational management - who is the owner and who is responsible?

• Information and other content management - how will material and services be provided and presented online?

• Evaluation and ongoing development - how should use and performance of the website be monitored and how should the results be used for future development?

Content Management simplifies Web publishing

What is Content Management?

TeamSite, by Interwoven delivers enterprise web page management you can put to work right away.

Organize your web sites to more effectively carry out your agency's mission.

• Consolidate numerous Web properties into a single managed environment to drive down operational expenses.

• Streamline your content development by reusing your materials.

• Empower your web master to manage your content for faster changes with greater accuracy.

• Web pages can be written by anyone in your agency; content contributions can be controlled through permissions.

• Maintain web governance standards by archiving auditable copies of all websites, while improving the transparency of your organizational processes.

• Effectively manage system security, fault tolerance and disaster recovery.

Bolster workforce productivity and accelerate time-to-value.

TeamSite content management system from DIS enables agencies to manage content across all internally and externally facing Web-based applications, such as enterprise portals, intranets, self-service applications, public-facing Web Sites, and extranets. Your agency can reduce your web site development and maintenance costs and the time-to-Web risk associated with all online initiatives.

• Ensure your agency’s brand consistency across all Web and application touch points.

• Empower content owners to manage their own content for faster changes with less process overhead.

• Reuse content across business applications and sites to drive consistency and lower publishing costs.

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How does parallel design work?

What is most striking about parallel design is how many ideas can be considered in a very short time. Most linear processes would only have considered a few iterations of a single design in the time that parallel design can consider many ideas. McGrew's design team considered at least 40 design alternatives in a single day. McGrew found that most participants responded immediately to good ideas. This was true even when good ideas were contained in otherwise poor design solutions.

Good user interface design requires designers first to "saturate the design space." This means that user interface designers should consider as many alternative design ideas as possible before selecting the best to take forward.

How have others conducted parallel design?

McGrew (2001) published an article confirming the value of parallel design. McGrew's case study was the user interface for an invoice reconciliation program. He scheduled a one-day session with several participants, including the project manager, a designer, two subject matter experts, a technical writer who was scheduled to do the training, three users, and a human factors engineer.

They began by having each person independently sketch a proposed user interface on a large sheet of paper using colored felt-tip markers. The sketches then were posted on the wall for all to see and evaluate. After viewing the design solutions proposed by others, each participant sketched two new designs. McGrew required that each new design include at least one idea from another person's design and an idea that no one had yet proposed. Again, all participants reviewed all the design solutions. They began to agree on an optimal design fairly early in the process and were able to reach consensus on the final user interface before the end of the day.

Benefits of parallel design:

Several research projects have shown the value of this technique:

• Seeing and trying others' designs improved final solutions
• Creating many designs produced better results
• Combining design elements resulted in better user interfaces

Seeing and trying others' designs improved final solutions

Bailey (1992) reported on training courses where students were given a specification and used a prototyping tool to create a simple system. After all the students completed their designs, each student used everyone else's system to complete a task. Having experienced the ideas of all the other students, each then made changes to his or her original prototype. This process was repeated two more times. The revised interfaces were always considerably better than the originals. Two important observations emerged from these classes:

• No matter how good the original interfaces were, every one was improved.
• Students were able to very quickly identify the good design ideas in the systems of others, and they effectively integrated those good ideas into their own designs.

Creating many designs produced better results

A few years later, Nielsen (1993) described a development methodology in which several designers worked independently to generate as many different design ideas as possible. Once they had created different designs, they combined their different ideas and took the best features from all designers. The goal was to develop and evaluate different ideas before settling on a single approach.

Nielsen listed the following as major benefits of this approach:

• It allows a range of ideas to be generated quickly and cost-effectively.
• It allows several approaches to be explored at the same time, thus compressing the concept development schedule.
• The concepts generated can often be combined so that the final product benefits from all the proposed ideas.
• People with little usability expertise can use the technique.

Combining design elements resulted in better user interfaces

A few years later, Ovaska and Raiha (1995) published an article suggesting that having designers make initial design decisions independently and then combining their results produced better user interfaces than the original design of any one person. They called this approach "parallel design."