a case study of a high content website

Tekblink TechnologyWebsite Design and Development

A Case Study for Heavy content website

I’m going to tell you a story about thea website


For some of you, the ideas discussed here will not be new


Hopefully some of my experiences

may be interesting

or useful


Not all projects are fast. But you can still get there!


a background


The website was first created in 1994


Since then, the site has grown enormously…


Currently around 43,000 pages and 16 sites

trouble in paradise

The situation has gradually

deteriorated over the last few years

Harder to maintain

Users cannot find content in the site easily

Traffic is gradually levelling off

Users can interact elsewhere

more easily

The website lost its relevancy in the market

time for a change?

Four years ago we went to management with an idea

To build a rich, interactive website

Focusing on four key interaction

objectives:

1. Allow authors to communicatemore directly and immediately

2. Allow users to communicate with Museum staff and

each other

3. Allow users to interact with our content in a varietyof ways

4. Allow users to share their own

content

What did management think of our idea?

Initially, there was some reluctance, but

now everyone is on board!

how to implement?

There are two main approaches to implementing interactivity on a website

Approach 1: Small steps and

test the water

Approach 2: Major overhaul of the entire site

In most cases,“small steps” are

preferred

You can add components to an existing website without major work

You can test the impact of these

changes and adjust as

needed

Users can gradually adapt as the site changes

However…

We chose the “major overhaul”

approach

Reason 1:Because our current site has so many issues…

Reason 2:The major

overhaul will allow us to create an

integrated system

Integrated system:allows authors to publish all contentvia one simple system

Integrated system:allows users to move

seamlessly through any type of

content

what to implement?

We need a wiki!

It’s very easy to be attracted to features for

the wrong reasons

We didn’t want the site to become just a bunch of cool tools

So, during planning, we asked some key questions

Question 1: Will it match our

aims and objectives?

Question 2:Will it add value for users?

Question 3:Will the feature

fill a need?

Question 4: What are the implications?

Each feature of our new website

has been debated and fought

over

Nothing was added simply because it’s cool

how will it work?

The overall site

Every piece of content will be an

asset - no more “web pages”

contentmovies

audiosevents

documents…

Users can interact with any asset

share user-contentadd comments

save favourites

create setsadd tags

What’s in it for users

Comment on any asset

Add tags to any asset

User tags will provide new methods of

navigation and richer search

Collect favourites

Create favourite sets and share

these sets with others

Upload their own content

imagesmovies

audiosstories

Apply for expert status

help monitoranswer questions

encourage discussion

create content

What’s in it for staff

Every staff member will become

an author

Publish assets directly (after training)

Own their assets

Create their own focused,

passionate and personal blogs

Microblog instant news

Social tools

Our team’s role will expand from content creation to content distribution and success tracking

Twitter, Facebook etc used to broadcast content as well as promote content

Video/audio housed on our site but also pushed out to variety of other sites (via tubemogul etc)

possible issues?

During planning we uncovered many questions and concerns

Hopefully these may help

you if you’re in a similar situation…

1Should staff be allowed to publish directly to the site?In our case - YES

2Should we have one voice?- single corporate voice for some assets- different voices for types of assets- individual voices for blogs

3Will we moderate user comments and tags?- no, we will use a simple login- then allow all comments tags

4What if information in comments in wrong?- authors can comment with authority- experts can step in and correct- community can eventually self-moderate

5What if a tag seems irrelevant?- every tag is sacred. - we have no right to judge tag relevance- tags are personal expressions

6Will we be overwhelmed with questions via comments?- we wish! - we will have to work hard for every comment. - we will also have to accept that commenting may not happen in the way we envisage

7Will comments occur more frequently on certain types of assets?- yes, we believe so. - blogs are more personal so commenting may be seen as easier.- a lot of this will come down to management of comments.

8How will we measure success?- goes way beyond tracking hits and normal stats- internally tracking comments, tags, members, search terms - external search terms- inbound links- tracking social tools such as twitter tracking, feedburner, technorati etc

9How will we build communities?In site- comment answering- encouraging feedback and sharing- eventually letting go

Out of site- go to other places and let them know- use social distribution tools twitter- push out to niche bloggers etc

Start with lots of hard work and encouragement. Gradually pull back. Eventually self-moderate.

lessons learned?

The journey has been slow and painful

However, it’s also been lots of fun

If you are about to take the journey…

Make sure the features you add have a purpose

Think about all the possible issues before you start

thank you