Website Articles
These articles discuss techniques for co-ordinating website management activities. This includes team structures, processes/procedures and other ideas.
Web content: highlight benefits, not processThe story of a colleague reminds me of an old saying in copywriting - "Sell the sizzle not the sausage". Web managers would do well to remember that. (Mar 2008)
Educate Your Stakeholders! (May 2007)
An important goal for Website Managers is to equip decision-makers with the knowledge they need to make informed choices about online development.
How to plan manpower on a web team. (June 2006)
How many people? What skills? Here are some guidelines to consider when planning the manpower requirements of a web team.
• In Nederlands: "Een goed webteam is precies groot genoeg"
• En Français: "Planifier la main d'oeuvre d'une équipe web"
Intranet Content and Information Architecture (Jan 2008)
What strikes me is not the differences between most intranets, but the similarities. In contrast to Jakob Neilsen, I find that the commonality of content from one intranet to another is remarkably constant.
(This feature appears on the iQ Content blog.)
Intranet Content and Information Architecture (Jan 2008)
What strikes me is not the differences between most intranets, but the similarities. In contrast to Jakob Neilsen, I find that the commonality of content from one intranet to another is remarkably constant.
(This feature appears on the iQ Content blog.)
For our children's children - Website Archiving (Nov 2007)
A website archive prevents the loss of your hard-won online experience. It also preserves your site as a working model for the rest of eternity!
Desiderata (for webmasters) (Oct 2007)
Webmasters! Feel like nobody cares?! Don't give up! The famous motivational poem 'Desiderata' has been rewritten to give you a new sense of purpose and belief.
Content Features and Formats (Sept 2007)
Discover the wide mix of content features and formats you can deploy on your website.
Educate Your Stakeholders! (May 2007)
An important goal for Website Managers is to equip decision-makers with the knowledge they need to make informed choices about online development.
(This feature appears in the May 2007 issue of AListApart.com) Read all my articles on ALA.
Executive Expectations vs. Website Reality (Apr 2007)
Do your executives want to have their cake and eat it too?! Learn how to manage their expectations using the concept of Website Scale
The Web and the Law (Feb 2007)
Do you know the legal contraints of the web? If not, you better find out before someone else's lawyers do!
The four pillars of intranet content (Jan 2007)
Guess what? The content on almost all intranets is exactly the same and is built around just four major pillars.
The time I lost my sense of scale (Nov 2006)
It can be all too easy to bite off more then you can chew. If had used my own advice about Website Scale, I could have saved myself a lot of trouble.
How to categorise audience requirements (Sept 2006)
Categorising audience requirements into groups labelled 'To Do' and 'To View' provides a useful means for identifying the type of site you need to develop.
Types of website content. (Aug. 2006)
There are just three types of website content: content that 'persuades', content that 'sells' and content that 'reassures'.
Writing a website standard. (July 2006)
A well written Website Standard can act as a powerful aid for guiding the activities of site management.
How to plan manpower on a web team. (June 2006)
How many people? What skills? Here are some guidelines to consider when planning the manpower requirements of a web team. (This feature appears on AlistApart.com). Read all my articles on ALA
In Nederlands: "Een goed webteam is precies groot genoeg"
En Français: "Planifier la main d'oeuvre d'une équipe web"
Website standards as basic law. (May 2006)
A Website Standard is a document that details the approach of an organisation to the management of its sites. In some ways, it is like a 'constitution', because it lists all the conventions by which online activity must be regulated.
Why your site needs good governance. (Apr. 2006)
Without Governance there is no-one to say what is or is not allowed on a site, and no standards to which Developers can refer. Ultimately, this means no control and no direction.
Change the way you control change. (Mar. 2006)
The responsibilities of site maintenance extend beyond issues of immediate operations - they are also concerned with developments that affect future integrity.
You've got mail! How to monitor site feedback. (Feb. 2006)
Feedback Monitoring is a process for regulating and responding to communications from website visitors in a controlled and timely manner. yet, an unfortunate fact with many sites is that feedback is neither acknowledged nor responded to.
Techniques for assessing site infrastructure performance. (Jan. 2006)
The objective of Infrastructure Performance Monitoring is to ensure procedures are in place for the supervision of site hosting.
Quality Assurance - for a life free of broken links! (Dec. 2005. Updated March '07)
Even if all site procedures are strictly adhered to, errors can still arise that reduce the standard of the online experience. The problem is that unless someone is checking for such errors, they may go unnoticed until a customer complains.
Website maintenance 101. (Nov. 2005)
Website Maintenance encompasses all the activities needed to guarantee the operational integrity of a site. Yet, whenever these activities do not occur, the results can be embarrassingly visible.