How to get a grip of your website (and then keep hold)

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• Option 1: Remain as is; run the risk to reputation, take the costs elsewhere from having a bloated, out-of-date website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•Website.Programme@ed.ac.uk

•Questions?

Neil Allison, UX Manager

University Website Programme