Tag Archives: editor

National Trails web site launched

Posted in News on by Paul Boag

Today sees the launch of the Countryside Agency’s flagship website about the network of National Trails. This site is the culmination of month’s worth of work by the team at Headscape and I thought I would share with you a few of the highlights and lowlights of the project.

The brief

It was a challenging brief. Take twelve separate trail web sites and unify them under a common brand while still maintaining some sense of individuality. In addition to this, we had to conform to basic levels of accessibility, integrate a content management system that allowed individual trail officers to manage their own sites and come up with a user-friendly way of accessing a large database of accommodation and services.

Problems of interface

For me personally the number one problem to solve was the inconsistent user experience across these multiple trail sites. Users were faced with inconsistent positioning of navigation, different information architectures and conflicting terminology. The only sensible solution was to standardise the interface across all sites. Not only would this solve the user experience problems it would avoid the overwhelming challenge of having to come up with designs for twelve different sites!

Of course, there were two downsides to this approach:

  • This did not solve the briefs demand for a sense of individually on each site
  • It made it harder for the user to instantly tell which trail they were on

The solution was to give each site its own unique colour scheme. By doing this, you could associate very different feels with each site while also giving the user clear visual clues when they moved between different trails.

Web standards, the cornerstone of this project

Once I had decided upon on the approach it became obvious that a web standards approach would rapidly accelerate the development cycle. By separating content from design, I could create one basic layout and use cascading style sheets to change the colour palette of each site.

Web standards brought other benefits too. By separating design from content, we could easily address the need to conform to single ‘A’ compliancy in regards to accessibility. What is more we could easily supply an alternative printable style that ensured the site only printed certain page elements. I felt this was particularly important, as much of the information on the site would actually be useful to visitors while physically visiting the trail.

Finally, web standards allow us the ability to continually tweak and refine the design through the life cycle of the project and indeed after launch. This enables us to be much more responsive to feedback and work out any user interface bugs that might be spotted along the way.

The lowlights

I have to confess that normally I get to the end of the project like this hating the site because I have just worked with it too long. However, in the case of this site I do not feel that way. Of course that is not to say there aren’t a few things that still annoy me about it.

One of the biggest problems we have yet to overcome (although we are looking into some options) is the WYSIWYG editor we are using in the content management system. We seem unable to find an appropriate editor that produces clean code, which does not invalidate the occasional page. What is more there does not seem to be an editor on the market that forces the user into ensuring any content they add is accessible.

Another annoyance for me is that I have been forced to use some table layout on the homepage. This does not in anyway cause problems it is just a matter of principle on my part.

A crowning glory

Despite the odd annoyance listed above and a few hundred little bits and pieces, I am actually incredibly pleased with how this site has turned out. It truly is a crowning glory for Headscape and easily the best piece of work we have done to date (in my opinion). The size and complexity of the site as much as anything else makes it an incredible achievement. I have particular respect for Charlie Allen the project manager on the site who has dealt with 12 individual clients, and been responsible for the population of over 75000 web pages worth of content.

Another feature I particularly like are the flash maps created by Chris Sanderson one of our team of designers. He has come up with a brilliant way of giving people access to a large database of accommodation and services while also giving them a sense of the route the trail takes. This is an excellent example of how flash should be used rather than for nasty animated introduction with no skip button! Of course, in order to maintain accessibility we also had to provide a way of accessing the same information without flash.

Not that this is the end of our work with the National Trails site. There is always more to be done. The site will need tweaking and maintaining. There is site promotion to consider as well as new functionality to consider. Just because a site goes live does not mean it is ever truly finished.

The clients verdict

I couldn’t finish this entry without including a quote from an email I have just received from the client at National Trails:

I just wanted to give you my personal thanks for all your hard work on this site. I think its fabulous. I’m so proud of it and of the fact that we made the right choice of contractors to do the work!

Managing site content

Posted in Site content on by Paul Boag

The majority of our clients now run content management systems on their sites but is a CMS really the answer to all our site management woes?

What makes content management systems attractive

It is easy to see why organisations find content management system attractive. So many web sites are full of out of date content, as well as being difficult to edit. A content management system appears to be the ideal solution because it allows anybody within the organisation to update web pages without the need for technical skills. Marketing departments can control the message being projected through their site while overworked IT departments don’t have to deal with a constant stream of changes. In larger organisations it is even possible to decentralise the running of the web site so that responsibility for sections within the site are deligated to individual departments.

The reality

Why is it then that only 27% of organisations using content management systems are not intending to make changes to the way it is used. Using a content management system to run your web site is good in theory but in reality it is not always that straightforward.

Content management is about more than technology

The problem lies in the fact that organisations perceive the implementation of a content management system as an answer in its own right. However a CMS is simply a tool that still requires people to use it correctly in order to maximise its potential. It is how a CMS is used within an organisation that determines it success, not the technology itself. There are three classic mistakes made when it comes to the use of content management systems:

Responsibilities

One of the most common problems is that responsibility for the web site is not clearly defined. It is rarely made clear to those expected to update the web site that this is a key part of their job. It is considered an additional chore that gets pushed to the bottom of the priority list. In many cases the web site is updated no more frequently than before a CMS was implemented simply because people dont have the time and motivation to do it. In my experience the time when CMS works best is when the individuals responsible for the web site have their role as web editor clearly defined in their job decsription and time is cleared in their schedules to allow them to undertake this role.

A single focus

Another common mistake is the lack of any single evangelist. There needs to be a single web master that not only ensures that other individuals contribute to the site when they are meant to, but also ensures that the contributions are consistant in language, style and message. Without this person there is no sense of "whole" in the message being communicated through the site. It will contain different writing styles and in some cases even contridictory content. You need one person that can set a style for the site as well as establish a vision for its future direction and development.

Training

Obviously there is a need to ensure that people know how to use the content management system, but that cannot be the end of the story. Its important to remember that many of those editing the web site might not be doing so on a regular basis. It is therefore important that they receive refresher training periodically to make sure they feel confident using the system. If they lack confidence they will avoid using it and once again content will become out of date.

Also training on the use of the content management system is only the tip of the iceberg. Web site editors need to have an understanding of how to write effective copy for the web. They need to know the basics of good layout and design as well as an understanding of how to structure the web site to ensure it is easy to find information.

Conclusions

So what is the lesson here? I guess it would be to invest as much time and money into the people who will run your web site as into the technology that will drive it. Make sure that there is somebody within your organisation who is a real evanglist for your web site. Somebody with a clear vision of where your site is going and the resources to make it happen.

Why add a RSS feed to your site?

Posted in Marketing on by Paul Boag

RSS has been around for a decade but is only now really beginning to break into the main stream. In this article I attempt to demonstrate how it could benefit your web site.

RSS defined from a publishers perspective

RSS gives you the ability to syndicate the content of your web site in a universal format that can be accessed by other sites or individuals.

If you want to know how the end user can interact with RSS click here.

What has RSS got to offer

So why would you want to add an RSS feed to your web site? Here are a few possibilities:

Avoid the SPAM filters

As I have said in a previous article it is estimated that 70% of the email travelling on the net at any one time is SPAM. The consequence is that both users and email client manufacturers are taking a very tough line on email perceived as SPAM. Even if a user has opted in to your mailing list it can easily be accidentally blocked by a users SPAM filters. RSS avoids this problem because unlike email it is not "sent". Rather it is the news reader which goes and collects the news feed. This means that the user has complete control. He has to request a new feed before he starts receiving it and can cancel it at any time. This system avoids the need for SPAM filters entirely.

Automatically update your users

It can be a time consuming process preparing a email newsletter. Equally it can be expensive to set up a system that notifies users when something changes on the site. RSS cuts through all of this and allows you to inform registered users about all kinds of changes to your site. Some examples of how RSS feeds are used includes:

  • Updating users when new articles appear on your site
  • Informing users about new news stories
  • Providing an RSS feed that informs users when new functionality or content has been added to your site
  • Keeping users informed about the latest special offer
  • Giving RSS subscribers instant notification about new products added to your site

The list could go on.

Drive traffic to your site

Of course the major advantage of the RSS feed is that it is constantly driving traffic to your site. Every time you make a change to your site all your subscribers are automatically informed. Users no longer have to remember your site and check back on a regular basis to see if anything has changed. The result is more repeat traffic.

Export your RSS feed

Another not so publicized aspect of RSS is the ability to export the feeds to other web sites. In other words your RSS feed could appear as content on somebody else’s site if you allowed it. This opens up lots of possibilities. You could actually sell your content feeds to improve the quality of third party sites. Alternatively you could show your special offers or new products on somebody else’s site without the need for expensive and complicated database programming. Quick, simple and universally compatible.

Increase link popularity

One of the major determining factors in your sites search engine position is link popularity. By using RSS you can ensure that many more sites link to you. Not only are there many sites that list RSS feeds and link to them but also if your feed appears on other sites these all also link back to yours. As a result your ranking improves.

So why now?

So how come I am only just writing this article if RSS has been around for a decade? Well to date take up of RSS has been slow with approximately only 5% of users having a RSS news reader. However many are now suggesting that 2004 is going to be the year RSS takes off. This is partly because of the increase in SPAM and the need to find an alternative to email. However probably more significant is the way that a number of major web sites are talking about integrating RSS into their systems. For example Yahoo! now allow a users to add RSS feeds to their personalised home page.

I am convinced that RSS is going to emerge as the next big application online and so now is a good time to integrate this technology into your site. Best of all its easy to do and requires very little set up.