What do you need to run an institution's website?

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Three Tenths Of A Second . . .
Originally uploaded by evilgreg3000.
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Well, a good team is a good start…

My list of things involved in looking after an institution’s website.

  • Feedback form – every page has a link which captures URL and user info and sends via a form.
  • Issues tracker – I think that email should be kept clear of day-to-day site issues and update requests. So, a web-based issue tracker which automatically receives the feedback and other system notifications (such as additions to database-generated pages) would be a good idea.
  • Project management software – web based tasks etc. Sharepoint was good for this. A basic but easy to use system that allows lightwieght project management.
  • Weekly Work-in-Progress meetings.
  • Structure page – very useful for internal people to see the departmental structure.
  • PageBuilder – this is a (bespoke) utility that builds pages – fast template rollout and prototyping is crucial
  • Menu system – standardise by giving the webauthors an easy to use system that makes their job easier
  • Web stats – got to be able to see what’s happening
  • SEO stats – WebCEO is good idea, but seems flaky in execution.
  • Tools: All the usuals (macromedia/adobe suites, even Frontpage!) and Xenu link checker. Firefox plus extensions.
  • Hardware: Colour laser printer, blutack, whiteboards, two screens.
  • Test bench – old PCs and macs with appropriate browsers

…more to come I’m sure.

2 Comments Add yours

  1. Werner says:

    What about a good web systems team that knows their stuff and can be easy to work with?

  2. Michael says:

    A fair, and very important comment. I should also amend the first line of my post to read “Well, a good team is a good start…”

    😉

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