how to get a grip of your website (and then keep hold)
TRANSCRIPT
How to get a grip of your website
(And then keep hold)
Neil Allison
University Website Programme
Web Publishers Community, 2 December 2015
Overview• Some fundamentals first…
•Getting a grip
• What should we be doing?• How well are we currently doing it?• Shaping the site to deliver outcomes• Appraising effectiveness, ongoing improvements
Fundamentals
The most important element of a good website is people
The 80-20 rule is everywhere in web management
It’s about self service
Process, not project
What matters is outcomes
Getting a gripWhat should we be doing?
How well are we currently doing it?Shaping the site to deliver outcomes
Appraising effectiveness, ongoing improvements
What should we be doing?• Solutions? Problems? Vision! Objectives!
• Collaborative• Prioritised• Owned• Measurable• Achievable
A quick calculation…• How much time on average do we
have for website management? • Rough FTE?
• How many webpages do we have? • Roughly what % should be updated
weekly, monthly, annually?
• Say I spent 6 minutes reviewing, editing and republishing a page…
• X pages updated weekly x 52 weeks x 0.1 hours = XX hours• Y pages updated monthly x 12
months x 0.1 hours = YY hours• Z pages updated annually x 0.1
hours = ZZ hours
• So now we know (roughly) for curating existing content alone, how many hours we need• 1FTE = 1540 hours per year
So you’ve got more than you can manage…
• Option 1: Remain as is; run the risk to reputation, take the costs elsewhere from having a bloated, out-of-date website
• Option 2: Recruit more staff
• Option 3: Cut your content
How many pages can one person manage? http://bit.ly/webpage-mgt-one-person
How can the UWP help?• Website audit tools & reports
• Top task analysis
• Website objectives development
• Digital strategy workshops
• Personas development
How well are we currently doing?• Always review current provision• You will learn things
• But you need a clear understanding of what your website is meant to be doing• What we want audience X to be
doing• What we believe audience X
wants to do
How can the UWP help?• Analytics
• Enquiry channelling & analysis
• Usability testing
• Role playing with personas/scenarios
• Appraisal service
Shaping the site to deliver outcomes1. Start with your top tasks
2. For each task begin writing content, focusing on:• Page title• Page summary• Key subheadings• Calls to action (after interacting with this page, I want the reader to…)
3. Begin to structure, based on these content outlines• Focus on helping your users to complete tasks
4. Iterate between 2 & 3• As the content takes greater shape you’ll want to continue to tweak the structure
5. Outline your homepage as the structure takes shape• Make sure you cover all areas of your site• Give emphasis to key task completion Red route usability
http://bit.ly/red-route
How can the UWP help?
• Copy editing
• Testing draft content and structures with users
• Website (re)development in EdWeb
Appraising effectiveness, ongoing improvements• Appraisal is a bind if it isn’t planned in
from the outset
• If ongoing appraisal is too hard, it won’t get done
• Beware of measuring stuff just because it’s easy to do
• Report regularly, feed back into your objectives• Think beyond the website
Stop Redesigning And Start Tuning Your Site Insteadhttp://bit.ly/tune-website
How can the UWP help?
• Management of a review cycle
• Analytics dashboards
• Website maintenance contracts
Recap – how to get a grip•Agree what you should be doing
•Work out how well you are currently doing it
• Shape the site to deliver on your top outcomes
•Appraise effectiveness regularly, to inform ongoing improvements
Thank you•Get in touch to start the conversation•[email protected]
•Questions?
Neil Allison, UX Manager
University Website Programme