|
|
|
|
What makes a successful system?Creation of successful online systems requires the coordination of a wide range of different technical and organisational skills. This page summarises some of the different aspects you need to take into account. Understanding these different roles will help you decide which areas you can manage yourself and what combination of outside expertise you may need to draw on. Backroad Connections has the experience and contacts to find the right specialist assistance for your project in all these areas. Content expertise: You understand the content you wish to convey. But there are various specialist skills relevant to organising information to make it available online. These include cataloguing, database design and writing and editing for screen based systems. Systems and business process analysis: This covers areas such as what processes within your organisation will generate information, how it will be structured and stored, what processes will control its flow, how users will interact with your information and how users’ interaction with your online system will flow back into business processes. Graphic design: With the vast number of web sites around, your system has to look appealing, or many users will not stick around, no matter how compelling the content. But graphic design isn’t just about looking good. A flashy design can fail to work if it takes too long to load, only works with some browsers, won’t work with older computers, excludes users with disabilities, or simply distracts users from the real purpose of your site. Interface design: Interface and navigation design are about how users interact with your system. Can they find the information they want? Can they orient themselves if they come into your site at an arbitrary page from a link from another site? Software development: Despite the increasing availability of customisable online platforms, major online systems will usually require significant software development. Typically this involves developing a formal specification, developing or approving design documentation and/or prototypes, managing the timelines and stages of software development (including negotiation of changes and enhancement during development) and acceptance testing. Usability testing: No matter how good your initial design seems, it is desirable to actually test prototypes and/or completed software with your target group. Testing can be quite informal, or can involve structured testing in purpose built laboratories. Information Management and Quality Assurance Systems: Getting up an initial system is only part of the task. You will need to set in place systems to maintain the quality and currency of your online system. Unlike print publications which are often expected to have a currency of at least a year, users expect online systems to be kept fresh and up to date continuously. You may need to review your internal information management systems to meet these new expectations, and to do so in a way which does not create double handling. For example if you currently produce a print catalogue once a year your update procedures may be geared to this. To maintain a website with the same information you may need to create a new database system that allows continuous updates. A spin off benefit may be that if you date stamp these updates it may become easy to produce a quarterly printed catalogue update. Web based systems allow continuous and detailed statistics and tracking of users, providing valuable information on how people are using your site. They also allow instant feedback and comment from users via web forms and email. Information from these sources should be formally structured into your quality assurance systems to maximise the usefulness of your system to users.
The Services page details the different ways Backroad Connections can help you bring these roles together. Our Track Record demonstrates our understanding and ability across these diverse fields. |
|
Send mail to webdesk@backroad.com.au with questions or comments about
this web site.
|
