Transcript File - Audiences NI

How to Develop
Your online audience
An overview of current web
trends and issues
Some points to consider before creating or updating
your website
• What information is most useful to your audience?
• How will you update information on the website?
• Are you making your website accessible to the visually
impaired and people with learning difficulties?
• Do you have a clear strategy for your website?
• Have you considered your website in your overall
marketing strategy?
CASE STUDY
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Case Study
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is a good example of
an accessible and user-friendly website. ( see hyperlink below )
www.cbso.co.uk
•The homepage informs
the user about various
features on the site.
•A useful calendar feature
enables the user to quickly
find events on a particular
date.
•An email subscription
form enables the venue to
contact users about new
events and enables CBSO
to email market.
•The overall design is clear
and the navigation is
simple to understand and
use.
•Accessibility has been
carefully considered with a
variety of useful features
for the visually impaired
and people with learning
difficulties.
•Alt tags have been used.
( see ‘Man playing Violin’
on top right of image )
•Please note, an
alt(ernative) text tag
enables Screen Readers to
‘read’ screen elements
such as imagery, which
would otherwise be
unrecognisable to the
visually impaired.
•The CBSO website has
included a very useful
‘Text Size’ option. By
clicking on the ‘L’ option,
users can see an enlarged
text version of the
website.
•We can see that the text
size has increased
significantly, enabling
the visually impaired to
read page content more
easily.
•Please note that the
menu text on the left
hand side has also
increased in size.
•Graphical menus look
aesthetically pleasing,
however they are not
very accessible to the
visually impaired and
should be avoided.
•It’s important that text
can change size, instead
of being ‘fixed’ to e.g.
10point
•A good way to test if your
website text can change
size is by going to View >
Text Size > Largest.
USEABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY
Useability and accessibility
•Useability can be tested via observing people as they
complete certain tasks on your website (i.e. finding
event information, contacting the venue via email etc…
•Any difficulties in using the website will soon become
apparent and further amendments to the website can be
applied. It is important to get as many testers as
possible
( preferably 5 + ).
•Resist making changes to a website based on one
person’s feedback, or the personal tastes of one person.
•Many organisations have increased their ticket sales
through careful consideration of their website.
Some useability points to look out for:
•Clear navigation, which is consistent throughout the site.
•Use a system for navigation links that is clear and simple to use
•Use language and terminology that is customer-friendly, try to
avoid using jargon.
•Readable text and font sizes can be made larger or smaller as
per the users wishes.
•Clear title on each page should identify where the user is.
•Headings and sub-headings are clearly distinguished.
•Important content should be placed near the top of the screen.
Accessibility can be evaluated and tested using a variety
of methods:
•the DDA (Disability Discrimination Act )requires that you
make what it refers to as “reasonable adjustments”, to your
services to ensure that a person with a disability can access
that service (More information available at
http://www.rnib.co.uk). Ask a variety of people with differing
degrees of disability to test your website, and then provide
you with feedback.
•Use online validating tools such as Bobby
http://bobby.watchfire.com from Watchfire and the W3C
markup validation service http://validator.w3.org
•Test your site with a screen reader such as IBM’s
Homepage reader. ( Free 30 day trial available )
http://www-3.ibm.com/able/solution_offerings/hpr.html .
•The RNIB website
features a ‘web access
centre’, which provides
useful articles and a
checklist for accessible
website features.
•http://www.rnib.org.uk
•The website also contains
detailed information on
the DDA ( Disability
Discrimination Act )
MANAGING YOUR WEBSITE
Managing your website content
It’s useful to think of your website content in terms of what
websites you visit and why. Is there a particular website that
you visit that informs, enlightens and entertains you? If there
is, try to pinpoint where they’ve succeeded and measure
your website against it.
Some points to consider:
•Who is responsible for gathering content for the website?
•Be concise
•Write for the web, not print.
•Users scan web pages for interesting content. Use
headlines to grab their attention.
Managing your website content – continued …
•Use short paragraphs
•Long lines of text make it difficult for the user to find the next
line of text. Shorten the width of your content to solve this
problem.
•Where possible employ a content management system (CMS).
This allows virtually any member of your organisation to
update website content with a web browser and a simple
editor. *CMS systems have dropped in price over recent years.
•Plan ahead. Can your website develop over time with your
existing navigation?
•How frequently must your content be updated?
•Allow time for planning, writing and implementing content.
MARKETING YOUR WEBSITE
Marketing – How will people find my website?
•85% of Internet users use search engines to find
suppliers and products.
•Search Engines are the most common way to locate a
particular topic, organisation or event on the internet.
Some of the most popular search engines include:
Yahoo!
Google
MSN
AltaVista
• www.ineedhits.com run several services at competitive
rates that will optimise and submit your website to
various search engines across the world.
Email Marketing – Enabling targeted offers
•Email marketing has become an increasingly popular way to
contact, inform and subsequently market your services online.
Permission based email marketing has become the ideal way
to do this without running into the contentious area of Spam.
•Permission based marketing requires the user to actively
request a subscription to your newsletter, rather than sending
it to a large mailing list of random emails across e.g. the U.K.
and Ireland.
•This essentially safeguards your organisation against
accusations of spamming.
Email Marketing – What to look for in your software.
•Ability to connect to other databases
•Template systems for creating HTML emails
•Ability to upload HTML email created in external software
•Wysiwyg ( What you see is what you get) system for
creating HTML emails plus Plain Text alternatives
•Email Preview and tracking results ( e.g. how many people
visited your offer. )
•Mail Merge
•List filtering and cleaning list data
Email Marketing – What to look for in your software.
Ease of Use
•Is there a user guide?
•Is training included?
•Is there support?
•What skill levels are required to use the system?
Email Marketing – What to look for in your software.
Cost comparison
•Have you factored in costs for support?
•Cost for software licence
•Cost per email ( some systems use a cost per email model )
•Cost for software and additional training
Marketing – Other ways to attract people to your website
Link Exchanges
•Use space on your website to promote another organisation,
event or service. Ask them to place your banner ad or link on
their website in exchange.
Banner Advertising
•A popular way of advertising on the web. Ask your web
developer / designer to create a series of ad banners for your
organisation.
Email a Friend
•The internet equivalent of the age old ‘word of mouth’. This
enables your website visitors to market your website for you.
ECOMMERCE
Reassuring the customer
E-Commerce – Selling online
•Think of your customer. What do they want to find out before buying
the ticket? i.e. What seats are available?
•If possible incorporate a seating plan to illustrate where they will be
sitting.
•Reassure your customer that any information they give to you will be
confidential and won’t be passed on to any third party who could
misuse that information.
• Your organisation ideally require an e-commerce system that is
robust and secure, yet simple for your customers. A bad ecommerce
experience can have a negative impact on your website.
E-Commerce – Selling online
•It sounds simple, but do your homework. What ecommerce sites
have you been to that provided a clear, helpful and reassuring
booking system?
•Use these websites where possible to inspire your organisations
booking system and to inform the website developers what you
expect from your organisations ecommerce system.
•Remember it’s better to have a clear indication of what features you
want in your website, rather than leave it to your website developers
to second guess.
•Try to capture information on each client for future e-marketing (
promotional email offers etc…). For example, what kind of shows
they’re interested in, where they live, email address etc.
•We’ll look briefly at the
E-Commerce system on
the CBSO website.
• The CBSO booking
system provides a
summary of the
performances, including:
•Date
•Time
•Location
•Phone Number
•Conductor
•Composer
•Brief synopsis of
performance to inform
viewer
•If the user clicks ‘book
now’, they are taken to a
web page where they can
choose their ticket price.
•There is also a useful
seating plan link, which
opens a ‘pop-up’ window
of the concert hall.
•The user is then asked to
choose how many tickets
they would like to buy.
•The user is then
prompted to ‘reserve’ their
ticket to continue.
•The CBSO website now
informs the user that they
are now connected via a
secure web link. A clear
indication of this is that
the web address of this
page should start with the
prefix https:
•You will also notice a
padlock symbol on the
bottom of your websites
status bar.
•This also indicates a
secure web page.
•Once completed,
reassure the user that
they have been successful
in buying their tickets.
•Send them confirmation
via email that they will
receive their tickets etc…
INFORMING YOUR WEB
DEVELOPER / DESIGNER
Informing your web designer / developer
•Before giving a green light to the development of a website,
it is important to create a brief that highlights what you want
to achieve with the website.
•This brief should enable the web developer to create the first
version of a website draft without too much input from you.
•The brief should be approved by your organisations senior
management before being handed to the developer. Where
possible try to deliver a complete picture of the website to the
developer.
•This encourages completion of the website within time and
budget. Further additions to the project brief often result in
delays and further costs to your organisation
Informing your website developer / designer - continued
•The brief should contain a ‘site map’ of the structure of the
proposed website. The sitemap ( see diagram on next screen )
shows each page and it’s relationship to other pages within the
website.
•Functionality within each page should be identified. ( i.e. Contact
form and location map for a ‘Contact Us’ page )
•Be as clear and concise as possible so that the developer
understands what you hope to achieve in each section.
•Building a website is a collaborative process. Build a healthy
working relationship with your developer and stay in contact
throughout the development cycle of the project.
•Ask your developer to show you updates each week where
possible
Measuring the effectiveness
of your website
Measuring the effectiveness of your website
•Analysis of the web server that hosts your website data is used to
track usage of the site. Ensure that you have access to this data via
your web developer or hosting package.
•Evaluate the success of your website through the number of
visitors, or ‘page impressions’. The number of page ‘hits’ is largely
irrelevant as pages with more images get more hits per user.
•Has there been an increase in ticket sales or enquiries via the
website.
•Improve the number of new and repeat visitors. Repeat visitors
indicate that your website content is attracting and retaining an
online audience.
APPENDIXES
APPENDIXES
How the web works
The World Wide Web allows rich and diverse
communication by displaying text, graphics, animation,
photos, sound and video.
So how does this modern day invention work? The Web
physically consists of your personal computer, web
browser software ( e.g. Internet Explorer ), a connection
to an ISP ( e.g. NTL Broadband ), computers called
servers that host digital data, and routers and switches
to direct the flow of information.
The Web is known as a client-server system. Your
computer is the client; the remote computers that store
electronic files are the servers.
How the web works - continued
Let's say you want to visit the home of Arts Journal
website. First you enter the address or URL of the
website in your web browser:
( http://www.artsjournal.com ).
Then your browser requests the web page from the web
server that hosts the Arts Journal site. The server sends
the data over the Internet to your computer. Your web
browser interprets the data, displaying it on your
computer screen.
To access the Web you need a web browser, such as
Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer. How
does your web browser distinguish between web pages
and other types of data on the Internet? Web pages are
written in a computer language called Hypertext Markup
Language or HTML.
www.audiencesni.com
Proposed website site map