Supporting a Web Site

Web sites need constant monitoring, maintenance, and improvement for many reasons: 

   1.All information has a limited life-span of usefulness. 
   2.As the site managers gain experience, they will expand their vision of what can be done with the site. 
   3.Competition and comparisions will drive the web development team to improve its presentations. 
   4.New technologies are constantly becoming available that can be incorporated into site design to improve
     the overall effectiveness of a site. 

A site that is not updated in terms of appearance and technology and is not improved in terms of content and
navigational techniques, quickly becomes out-dated and stale. This will result in a loss of users. The changes
should reflect the changes your company or organization is experiencing with time. 

Key Roles in Supporting a Web Site

   Every organization requires appropriate personnel whose duty it is to keep the Web site performing up to
   expectations. If the Web site is mission critical, the staffing of the support team should reflect that fact.

  The four categories of key personnel in Web maintenance and support are:

      1.Presenters 
      2.Information stewards 
      3.Designers 
      4.Webmaster 


Presenters 
      Presenters direct the Web activities and handle the funding. They work with information stewards to
      determine a Web strategy and decide the extent of their organizations utilization of the Web. 

Information stewards 
      Stewards are responsible for Web content and should monitor pages relating to the business function for
      which they are responsible. 

Designers 
      Designers are responsible for implementing changes recommended by the presenters and information
      stewards. 

      The result of a team that works together toward a common goal is a Web site that is up-to-date, active,
      and meets the needs of its users. 

Webmaster 
      A role that takes on meaning once a site is online is that of the webmaster. This person is the operations
      manager whose job it is to keep the Web site up and running. There may be multiple webmasters, if the site
      is mission critical and requires 24-hour monitoring. Responsibilities of the webmaster include, but are not
      limited to, evaluating technologies beneficial to the Web site, recommending upgrades to the Internet
      connection, operating systems, hardware/software, etc. 

Four Basic Maintenance Activities

      1.Maintaining and Improving Content 
      2.Maintaining and Improving Design 
      3.Maintaining and Improving Linkages 
      4.Maintaining and Improving Technology 

Maintaining and Improving Content

      The majority of the worked performed during maintenance of any Web site focuses on content:
      keeping it current. Each site will have a different schedule required for maintenance, dictated by how
      quickly or slowly information on the site becomes stale.

      Often, users of the Web site are asked to participate in the maintenance and improvement process.
      Three ways this is done include: 

            Focus Groups 
            Partial User Group Web Site Usage 
            Questionnaire Surveys 

            Each method has its merits. 
Focus Groups 
      Focus groups are designed to obtain information from users without directly asking for it.
      Potential users are invited to a designated site and told the objective is to obtain their opinion
      about a Web site. Each person is seated at a terminal and given the same task. A sample task
      might be to buy a gift at the online mall you are designing. The result of your focus group will
      one of several outcomes including: users will not successfully navigate the pages of your site,
      become frustrated, and not complete the assignment; or they will successfully navigate the site,
      purchase a gift as requested, and complete the task. Depending on the number of actual
      outcomes, a discussion group is formed around each outcome. Members of the development
      team question each group about their experience. Depending on the overall success or failure
      rates of the group, the site should be deployed or redesigned.

Partial User Group Web Site Usage 
      This method should return similar information to that obtained by a focus group. In this
      technique, the site is deployed but not avertised. Instead, a select group of potential users is
      informed and allowed access. The group would be instructed to make regular use of the site.
      Usage statistics could be tracked along with site navigation statistics to determine how
      frequently the site is visited and which threads are most used. After a defined period, the users
      could be asked, individually or as a group, how useful their experience was, and if they had
      any criticisms or improvements they could suggest. 

Questionairre Surveys 
      Questionnaires provide a way to ask a large audience their opinions in a voluntary,
      anonymous manner. The user may take the survey at his or her convenience. The biggest
      draw-back to questionnaires is appropriate wording of the questions so as to elicit the desired
      response. 

Maintaining and Improving Design

      Evaluate each page and ask these questions: 

      Do my eyes travel naturally to the focal point of the page? 
      Is the design inviting? 
      Are the threads running through the site relevant and complete? 
      Do the pages work together gracefully and function as an integrated whole? 

      A negative response to any of these questions indicates a need to redesign the site.

Maintaining and Improving Linkages

      You should frequently test links on all of your pages to make sure they still work.

      Intrapage links should be tested frequently as more information is added to the page. Interpage links
      can be evaluated via tracking software to determine which pages are viewed, how often, via what
      thread the user gets to the page, etc. Based on this, the Webmaster and designers may choose to
      update the information on a page or eliminate it altogether. Intersite links should be evaluated on a
      regular basis to verify the information on the linked site is still consistent with the objective of your
      site, and also to make sure the URL has not changed.

Maintaining and Improving Technology

      Technology advances faster than we can possibly keep up. In order to keep from falling behind, a
      concerted strategy must be implemented to maintain technology as it is related to your site.

      Technology surveillence is the technique used to observe and evaluate new technologies from the
      time they are announced to the time they mature enough to use. There are two approaches to
      technology surveillence:

Active Surveillence 
      the search for new technology directed by the need to solve a specific problem
      or add a new dimension to the Web site.
Passive Surveillence 
      the occasional observation of trends, competitors' activities, new technologies,
      and the like that may be of significance to the organization. 

Mission Critical 
      A system, device, or process is considered MISSION CRITICAL based on its relationship
      to the success or failure of the organization. 

Thread 
      The path a user travels in moving from one hyperlink to the next.