Organizing your web site and choice of HTML editors

Sieglinde Schreiner-Linford
CALI conference - June 1998

"You can't say 'web publishing' without the word publishing." (1)

"The work associated with Web site development is not, for the most part, terribly difficult. The difficulty is more in juggling all the pieces and parts and in paying very close attention to all the details of coding and design that make the site work as it should. … Don't wait for your Webmaster to come to work carrying an Uzi …" (2)

There are two ways to get web services:

• agree on the aims, set priorities within those aims and have institutional support for them
• somebody takes an initiative and carries it through

Scope and target audiences

• mission(s) of the web server
  • what are the institutional information flow priorities and problems (external and internal)
  • what can web technology contribute (and it is not a one-way road!)
• basic organisational models
  • centralised structure with web-team responsible for all technical and organizational matters and all content presentation
  • mixed structure with web team responsible for infrastructure, standards, support and navigation and with html authors in departments and administrative units
  • decentralised structure with web-teams in departments
  • outsourcing
• site types
  • 'prospectus' and PR
  • publication and document distribution
  • academic activities, discussions and home pages
  • teaching
  • administrative information distribution
  • administrative information collection
  • workgroup site

Organising the content

Physical layout of the site / directory structure

• orientation of the site administrator and the html authors
• easy setting of access rights for authors
• statistics
• navigational help
• it is hard to change - try to get it right from the beginning

Administrative structure

• who decides about what content is put on now - (application of scope and audience - priorities)
• make it useful
• what guidelines have to be followed
  • layout - template
  • web style
  • who can run a web server with your domain name
• who is responsible for the content
  • in substance
  • legally
  • confidentiality
  • over time
  • its organization
  • its visibility
• access to the server
  • security versus practicality
  • update time versus overall consistency
• version control
• timelines (accumulated backlogs)
• it is good to get it right, but it is more important to get it decided at all

Navigational layout

• user orientation / multiple access routes
• organising page sequences
• printing?
• navigation tools (navigation bars and buttons, frames)
• consistency of the site
• maps, indexes and site search

The web-team's role

• overall co-ordination
• detailed quality control
• multiple audience targeting
• not to take over everybody's information

Site management, statistics, visibility

• page validation
• broken links (refresh)
• in- and outgoing links to specific pages
• outdated pages + ghost pages
• maintenance is relatively more costly than creating
• statistics (what they say, what they don't say and how to explain them)
• error and referrer logs
• site and page registration, search engines, 'critical mass'
• publicity is easier if the product is good
• databases and SSIs
• look at your web site over a slow telephone line and with a small screen

Training of html authors

• web publishing compared to paper publishing
• web style
• basic html
• templates, guidelines and online guides

Choice of html production software

• tools:
  • conversion tools
  • editors
    • text oriented
    • graphics oriented
  • graphics tools
  • adobe acrobat
• support environment
• user orientation and scaling
• criteria
  • ease of use and learning curve
  • quality of manual and online documentation
  • quality of conversion
  • quality of code - validation
  • tools
• don't mix different html editing software on the same document

Staffing - professional web roles

• web producer
• webmaster
• html author
• web programmer
• graphics designer

The most important points:

1. plan time for updating and maintenance
2. plan time for statistics and site publicity
3. plan time to cope with everybody else's accumulated backlogs
4. invest in training and teaching
5. talk with clients and with users
6. involve decision makers
7. get the physical lay-out right from the beginning
8. put an organisational structure in place

The most important practical point:

• don't use different html editing software on the same document

Keeping perspective:

• look at your web site over a slow telephone line and with a small screen
• lean back and imagine all those people who might look at your web site

The best joke I found … :

Will be included after checking with a lawyer.

(1) Philip Greenspun, Database Backed Web Sites: The Thinking Person's Guide to Web Publishing, ZD Press 1997
(2) Linda G. Brigman, Web Site Management Excellence, Que 1996

CALI Conference 1998, Preparing for the Road ahead
Conference schedule