This document gives a draft proposal for the half-day session on
Web Site Navigation.
The session is expected to attract 10-20 participants.
Abstract: Novice users navigate a web site by clicking on
links. As expertise is gained, more sophisticated approaches to web site
navigation may be used including search engines, entering URLs directly,
making assumptions about URL naming conventions, etc. As we know, web users
have limited patience, and if information is not readily available, users are
likely to abandon their visit to the web site. This session considers
approaches to web engineering which will help end users to navigate web sites
effectively.
Note that web site design will not be covered in this session.
Workshop Facilitator: Helen Varley Sargan (Cambridge)
Workshop Session Aims: The aim of the session is
to understand how you can influence the usability of your website by:
- identifying and influencing how users can find their way around your site.
- helping users when URLs go wrong
- finding out how to control how your site is indexed and how
to get it indexed by more external search engines
Workshop Venue
The workshop session will require a PC cluster and a networked PC with Powerpoint and a web browser
with a projection device and an OHP for use by the speakers. Flipcharts will be needed
for the discussion groups. The workshop session should be based in a PC cluster
for the hands-on session.
Note that it is not possible to install additional software in
the cluster.
Workshop Timetable
The workshop will include a number of brief presentations, discussions and
demonstrations.
| Time |
Session |
Comments |
Who |
|
Getting Your Site Listed |
|
|
| 2.00-2.10 |
Introduction |
Discussion of aims of session |
Helen Varley Sargan |
| 2.10-2.20 |
Getting to know each other |
Participants spilt into smaller groups and introduce each other and explain
what they want from session |
Helen Varley Sargan |
| 2.20-2.30 |
Report back |
Report back from groups and identification of common threads |
Rapporteurs |
| 2.30-2.40 |
Outline of problems and areas to look at that might solve them |
Talk reviewing issues which have emerged |
Helen Varley Sargan |
|
How Search Engines List Web Sites |
Talk |
|
| 2.40-2.50 |
Robots - what they do, how to control them |
Talk |
Danny Sullivan |
| 2.50-3.20 |
Approaches to control of robots |
Discussion group exercise |
All |
| 3.20-3.40 |
Tea |
- |
| 3.40-4.10 |
Structure and Navigation of your web site |
|
Helen Varley Sargan |
| 4.10-4.40 |
Group Session |
|
|
| 4.40-5.00 |
Conclusions |
Group Discussion |
|
| 5.00-5.30 |
"Where To From Here?" |
Group Discussion |
|
Reading Materials
The following documents should be read.
- Useit June 1999: Content Integration
- See http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990627.html
- Useit May 1999: Top Ten New Mistakes of Web Design
- See http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990530.html
- Improving Web Information Systems with Navigational Patterns
- See http://www8.org/w8-papers/5b-hypertext-media/improving/improving.html
Misc Stuff
The following topics may be of possible use.
- Browsing
- Say something about how users browse - don't like scrolling, down link
deep linking. Perhaps have group exercises so people arrive at conclusions
for themselves.
- Navigational Aids
- Cover navigational bars, writing style, coverage. Perhaps have hands-on exercise
with participants looking at a set of examples, and reporting back?
- Redirects
- Client and server-side redirects. pros and cons.
- URL naming conventions
- Short URLs vs long ones (pros and cons). Issues of use of backend databases
(meaningless URLs e.g. C/Net, Patent database, ...)
- 404 error messages
- Issues raised in Ariadne article.
- Apache redirects
- Apache haas a URL spellchecker / case conversion module.
- Terminology
- What is home? What does "Return to Home Page" mean?
- URL as User Interface
- Users use URLs directly. They enter them in a browser. They make assumptions
about the resources based on the URL. They make guesses if a URL is broken.
- Domain naming conventions
- www.foo.ac.uk/department vs dept.foo.ac.uk/. Use of students.foo.ac.uk,
personal.foo.ac.uk, etc
- Citing URLs
- www.foo.ac.uk or http://www.foo.ac.uk/ etc. Citing an article, or an entry
point to an article. Should you cite .html files, or directories?
- (Global) Search engines
- How to get your page(s) indexed - what works and what doesn't.
- (Local) Search engines
- Which search engine to use. Approaches (free vs licenced).
- Search engines
- Misc stuff mentioned in email message.
- Site Maps
- What are site maps (tables of contents, indexes, etc.)? Current usage.
Tools to create them.
- Leaf nodes
- How do users navigate if they get to a "leaf node" from a search engine?
- Configurable Interfaces
- How will personalised interfaces affect things?
- Technological Approaches to Implementing Solutions
- Simple approach - HTML templates (pros and cons); Better approach - SSIs;
More sophisticated approach - content management systems, dynamic generation
of navigational bars, etc
Brian's Contributions
Things I can do:
- 404 exercise. Hands-on exercise in exploring various 404 pages. Groups to make
recommendations on design of a 404 page. Delegates to be given Ariadne article
which lists some solutions. NB include sunsite.berkeley.edu and www.geog.ucl.ac.uk.
- Survey if institutional search engines. Will produce web page with link to
search engines for misc UK institutions (e.g. participants institutions). Will include
details of search engine type, etc.
Possible Exercises
A set of exercises which could be used are given below.
- 404s - What's Missing?
Aim: To enable delegates to identify the main
requirements of their institutional 404 page
Exercise: [Word 97] - [PDF]
- Getting Robots to Index Your Web Site
Aim: To identify ways of getting search engines to
index your web site and ways to stop portions of your web site from
being indexed.
Exercise: [Word 97] - [PDF]
- Institutional Search Engines
Aim: To find out more about the search engines
used within UK University web sites and to discuss the main requirements
of an instituional search engine.
Exercise: [Word 97] - [PDF]
- Access to Your Search Engine
Aim: To look at the various ways in which search engines to
can be accessed and to consider the advantages and disadvantages
of allowing your institutional search engine to be accessed in various ways.
Exercise: [Word 97] - [PDF]
- Site Maps (incomplete)
Aim: To identify what is meant by a site map, to
find out about the different types of site maps in use and to
decide whether site maps should be deployed locally.
Exercise: [Word 97] - [PDF]
- URL as a UI (incomplete)
Aim:
Exercise: Not available
Institutional Web Management Workshop