Modern Web Site Development

Erick BeckDivision of Marketing & Communications

Agenda

• Defining Success• Content Organization• Putting it into Practice• Best Practices & Common Elements• Q&A

Defining Success

The world’s first web page consisted of nothing but text and links. Graphics were not available.

Source: newscientist.com

The first commercial website didn’t exist until August 1993.

Source: oreilly.com

Source: wired.com

The first banner add followed the next year.

The first Texas A&M site wasn’t online until 1997.

Source: tamu.edu

Source: cbs.com

Radio to Television

Source: clydi.com

Print to Web

Do people “browse the web” anymore?

Source: tamu.edu

Today’s user is task driven. They come to our sites for a reason – to find a particular piece of information. For some sites that might be the latest gossip on who the latest celebrity-of-the-day is dating. For the university site it might be the cost of tuition. For yours it might be some bit if engineering news.

The success of our sites is defined by how well we manage that user’s experience. Our ultimate goal is to create a site that is easy to navigate so that the user can easily find the information that they are looking for.

Content Organizationor,

So how do we do this?

Define the overall objective of the site• Write it down• Don’t deviate from it• Make your content supportive of the end goal• Don’t be overwhelmed and let the amount of

content steer you away from the primary purpose

Identify Your Primary Audience• Write it down• Don’t deviate from it• Don’t just pay lip service to it - create content that

your users want• Provide users with what they want, not what you

want to provide

Content is (still) King• The ultimate goal is to transfer some bit of

information; that is content.• Content is the reason people come to your site, give

them what they are looking for• Don’t guess, don’t publish what you think is

important, do research to find what your users want.

Source: XKCD.com

Putting it into Practice

Write content in language that your users understand, not in your own departmental jargon.

If your navigation doesn’t get your user to where they want to go it isn’t effective. Organizing the site to where it makes sense to them, and not simply based on your org chart. People know what they service they are looking for but don’t necessarily know who provides it. Don’t make them guess.

Users are dissatisfied with the navigation and organization of our sites. They cannot easily navigate to find the content that they want.

TechQual Survey conducted on TAMU campus in 2013

User Behavior

Users are impatient. They do not read blocks of text, they scan for key elements.

• Keep text sort and to the point• Break text into sections with titles and

graphics to make it easy to scan• Break paragraphs into more digestible blocks

of text like bullet lists

Source: useit.com

• The original nature of the web was that information was supposed to be interconnected across sites, like a spider web.

• We have changed that model to where sites are independent from one another, isolated from one another, and do not work to complement one another.

• Tear down those walls. Cooperate. Use data feeds and other technologies to show content from other sources on your pages.

A True Web

Best Practices & Common Elements

Typography

• Choice of font – primarily sans-serif• Size of text – keep it large• Use of white space, including line

spacing – more whitespace creates greater readability

Source: getsocialbrevard.org

Social Media

Social Media

Source: socialsteve.wordpres.com

Social Media

Social Media

Accessibility

Simply put, web accessibility means equal access for all. An accessible website is one that can be navigated and understood by everyone, regardless of disability.

Source: itaccessibility.tamu.edu

What is web accessibility?

Accessibility

1. It is the right thing to do2. It is the smart thing to do• Makes your pages more useful to everyone, like curb

cuts or building ramps• The biggest “disabled user” in the world is Google.

Making your sites accessible makes your search returns more useful

3. It is the law

Why should I worry about accessibility?

Accessibility

• Avoid the use of non-underlined maroon links• Be sure all images have a text equivalent• Make sure all videos have a caption or transcript

• Resources for in-depth coverage:– http://itaccessibility.tamu.edu– Training through Employee & Organizational Development

(http://training.tamu.edu)

How do I make my sites accessible?

Branding

• Approved Logos• Brand Colors• Typography• Site elements

Mobile Friendly

Not having a mobile-friendly website is no longer an option in today’s world. The number of mobile devices has caught up to the number of desktop computers, and it is quickly becoming the device of choice for viewing web pages.

Source: Morgan Stanley

Mobile Friendly

• Not having a mobile-friendly website is no longer an option in today’s world. The number of mobile devices has caught up to the number of desktop computers, and it is quickly becoming the device of choice for viewing web pages.

• Creating a mobile friendly web page should be taken for granted. Just as we test our sites in various browsers, we must now test them on the whole range of mobile devices as well.

• Campus resources:– GoMobile! (http://gomobile.tamu.edu)

Resources

We invite you to participate in the campus web development community:

• University Webmaster’s Bloghttp://webmaster.tamu.edu

• uWeb mailing listuweb@listserv.tamu.edu

Q&A