Making YOUR WEBSITE MORE EFFECTIVE Website Evaluation

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Making YOUR WEBSITEMORE EFFECTIVEWebsite
Evaluation Usability

• September 17th, 2008

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Part ISite Content Basicsa Checklist
PART IIEvaluation Usability
PART IIIwww.agep.usA Resource for You
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Part ISite Content Basics,a Checklist
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Keep in mind . . .

• WEB PRIMARY TOOL
• for researching graduate programs
• So . . .
• the quality of your website
• can make a big difference

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To be a successful tool for students, faculty and
staff, your website needs

• Content that captures interest.

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To be a successful tool for students, faculty and
staff, your website needs

• Content that captures interest.
• Content that answers basic questions.

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To be a successful tool for students, faculty and
staff, your website needs

• Content that captures interest.
• Content that answers basic questions.
• Content that encourages people to contact you,
  and makes it easy.
• So . . . .

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Make a good first impression!
Most websites serve many audiences. There are
eight basic things you can do to sharpen the
quality and utility of your website for all
viewers.
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Use the AGEP acronymand logo.
AGEP has gained national recognition. Take
advantage of that! The logo is available at
www.agep.us/HRDJAM2008.asp
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www.wmich.edu/agep
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www.agep.us/programs.asp?sortalliance
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2. Put the most basic information up front.
Give viewers an orientation at first glance.
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www.umbc.edu/promise/pages/aboutus.html
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www.acsbe.org
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http//graduate.indiana.edu/agep/index.php
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www.gaela.tulane.edu/what_is.htm
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3. Keep your audience in mind.and make it easy
for viewers to get the information theyll be
looking for.

• A students perspective
• What is the program about?
• What is the research focus?
• What faculty could they work with?

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• A faculty members perspective
• What recruitment and retention resources are
  available?
• Are they easy to access?
• A staff members perspective
• What resources are available for program
  management?
• For sharing ideas and successes?

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www.gaela.tulane.edu/how_apply.htm
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www.crossroadsagep.org/page.asp?ContentId1locati
on1
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4. Offer a FAQS page.

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www.umbc.edu/promise/pages/faq.html
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5. Give your program a human face.

Provide links to faculty bios and current
student information.
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http//agep.syr.edu/About.htm
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www.stonybrook.edu/agep/Scholars_Graduates/
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www.acsbe.org/ACSBEPhotoGallery.htm
AC SBE Alliance UNC Chapel Hill
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www.ucop.edu/acadadv/agep/students/index.html
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6. Provide critical contact information for
actual people.

Make it easy for viewers to contact a real, live
person and get their questions answered.
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http//rgs.rice.edu/Grad/agep/contact.cfm
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www.acsbe.org
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http//graduate.indiana.edu/agep/contact.php
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http//www.uab.edu/aagep/PrincipalInvestigators.ht
ml
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7. Provide up-to-date information.And
links.AND . . . make sure the links work.

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www.grad-college.iastate.edu/agep/
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www.agep.us/events.asp?sortall
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8. And finally . . .
Link to www.agep.us

and www.nsfagep.org
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PART IIWebsite Evaluation Usability
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Website Statistics

• Why gather web statistics?
• Assess your web presence
• Generate graphics and figures to demonstrate
  your web presence
• in reports evaluations
• Identify areas for website improvement
• ex. Generating more traffic on specific pages
• Identifying pages that generate errors

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Website Statistics

• Volume of Traffic
• Visits
• A visit happens when someone accesses your site
  in a browser. A
• Person can register multiple visits by leaving
  your site and then coming
• back again at a later time.
• Page views
• A visitor generates one page view each time
  he/she
• accesses a unique page on your website. One
  visitor can generate
• multiple page views in a single visit.
• Page hits
• The number of files sent from the webserver to
  the users
• browser. Each page view can generate multiple
  hits.
• Bandwidth Usage
• The amount of data transferred to or from
  the web server

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Website Statistics

• Other Statistics
• IP Addresses of people visiting your site
• Page errors
• Users browsers
• Users operating systems
• Many others statistics possible, depending upon
• the analytics software available to you

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Sample Summary Report
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Sample Summary Report
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Information on Website Users
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Web Analytics Software Packages

• Your University or web hosting company likely
  offers website
• tracking software such as
• - Surf Stats
• - Google Analytics (free)
• - Urchin (by Google)
• - Omniture
• - WebTrends

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Usability Assessment

• Goal
• To assure easy access of relevant information to
  your
• target audience
• Focus Groups
• Interviews
• Web, email, or hard copy survey

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Usability Assessment

• Preparation
• Identify your websites target usergroups
• Examples
• Prospective Students
• Current Students
• Faculty
• Administrators
• Program Alumni
• Funders

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Usability Assessment

• Preparation
• Identify core goals of your site
• Examples
• Draw prospective students to the program
• Provide information necessary for applying to
  the program
• Provide central location for program contact
  information
• Connect current students with Alumni
• Provide up-to-date events and news associated
  with the program

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Focus Groups or Individual Interviews

• 3 9 participants
• (generally a group as small as 5 identifies at
  least 85 of usability problems
• Include representatives from each of your
  websites usergroups
• Take excellent notes and consider tape-recording
  sessions
• Ask targeted questions that relate to your core
  website goals
• Ask open-ended questions soliciting suggestions
  for improvement
• Ask what shouldnt be on the site as well as
  what should, and what
• doesnt work as well as what does
• Keep focus groups/interviews to under an hour

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Web, email, or hard copy survey

• 10 or more participants
• Include representatives from each of your
  websites usergroups
• Ask targeted questions that relate to your core
  website goals
• Ask open-ended questions soliciting suggestions
  for improvement
• Ask what shouldnt be on the site as well as
  what should, and what
• doesnt work as well as what does
• Keep surveys short

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PART IIIwww.agep.usA Resource for You
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www.agep.us
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agep.us Profiles highlighting AGEP successes
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agep.us Events related to STEM education
Post Events Online at www.ibparticipation.org/IBP
EventsForm.asp
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agep.us News related to STEM education
Submit your news items to be posted www.ibpartici
pation.org/IBPNewsForm.asp
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agep.us Partners Directory
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Link to Us! Let us promote your programs, events,
news students as part of the STEM
network! During the 2008 Spring Semester, we had
30,000 visits/month to our family of sites!

• Send us your
• Student and Faculty Profiles
• Program Success Stories
• News
• Events
• Ideas and Best Practices
• Link to Agep.us for
• Events
• News
• Profiles
• Best Practices and Resources

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Let us promote your programs, events, news
students as part of the STEM network! During the
2008 Spring Semester, we had 30,000 visits/month
to our family of sites!
Use our online web forms to send us news
events http//www.ibparticipation.org/IBPNewsFor
m.asp http//www.ibparticipation.org/IBPEventsFor
m.asp
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The Institute for Broadening ParticipationContac
t us with QuestionsP.O. Box 607Damariscotta,
ME 045431-866-593-9103 contactagep_at_ibparticipat
ion.orgwww.agep.uswww.ibparticipation.org
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