Managing the Lab Mothership Web Site: Tools and Rules for Dealing with Individual Authors

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Managing the Lab Mothership Web Site Tools and
Rules for Dealing with Individual Authors

• Leslie Gardner and Penny Rummel
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• Pam Novak and Jim McIntyre
• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

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NREL
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World Wide Web The cyberspace frontier These are
the voyages of the NREL Motherships Their
cutting-edge mission To explore with strange new
browsers To seek out new designs and new
development tools To boldly develop what no one
has hosted before
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Background

• Central Web Team in Communications and Public
  Affairs Office
• Interface with core group in Information Services
  Office
• Control mothership sites
• NREL, EREN, theSOURCE Intranet
• Decentralized authoring

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Site Development - Central Web Team

• Standards
• Recommended practices
• Quality control standards
• Processes and roles
• Defined a formal collaborative process
• QC for each role

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Roles

• Web Team
• Producer
• Information Architect
• Multimedia Artist
• Production Engineer
• Marketing Specialist
• Maintenance Coder Integrator

• IS
• System Admin
• Programmer/Data Base Developer
• Others
• Client Rep
• Writer/Editor
• Webmaster

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Site Development - Central Web Team(concluded)

• Tools
• QC Checklists are the primary tool for developers
  at each step in the process
• QA Checklist and final QA enforces critical
  standards

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Production Engineer Quality Control
Checklist Site ___________________________________
______________________________________ Links ___a
ll links work throughout every page, including
text, graphical and mailto links ___colors for
hypertext links are consistent throughout the
site ___there is a text or graphical link to the
subsite's home page on every page of the
site HTML syntax, page layout, and standard page
elements ___HTML syntax follows the HTML 3.2
standards ___ syntax is correct on meta
descriptions and/or meta keywords ___graphics
have meaningful "alt" tags ___all pages have a
meaningful and unique ltTITLEgt tag ___colors of
text, navigational elements, and backgrounds are
consistent ___logos, identifying marks, and
similar are consistent in color, size, and
orientation ___page layout is consistent across
site (e.g., margins, spaces, size and placement
of headings, line lengths) ___if the site
uses frames, the ltNOFRAMESgt option is
provided ___only client-side (rather than
server-side) image maps are used Headers,
footers, and other navigation ___every page has a
header consistent with its related pages and
standards within a site ___every page has a
footer consistent with its related pages and
standards within a site ___navigational elements
are consistent across the site Continues...
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Site Development - Central Web Team(concluded)

• Tools
• QC Checklists are the primary tool for developers
  at each step in the process
• QA Checklist and final QA enforces critical
  standards

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Dealing with Individual Authors

• Define and publish standards
• Define a process for working with authors
• Create simple tools for authors to use
• Educate authors

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Dealing with Individual Authors (continued)

• Define and publish standards
• Whats important
• Everything has to work
• Clean code spelling
• Corporate name logo
• Accessibility

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Dealing with Individual Authors(continued)

• Define a process for working with authors
• Point of contact
• Bottom line
• How we achieve bottom line

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Dealing with Individual Authors(continued)

• Create simple tools for authors to use
• E-mail based legal and management reviews
• QA checklist to ensure compliance with standards
• Provide templates
• Example

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Web Site Quality Assurance Checklist Site
__________________________________________________
Home Page ____ TITLE tag included, content
descriptive ____ Includes correct header, name,
and/or logo for the parent site (NREL, EREN,
Source) ____ Includes link to parent home page
(NREL, EREN, Source) ____ Includes correct
footer for the parent site (NREL, EREN,
Source) ____ If site includes Webmaster or
other contact email link email link tested ____
If ltmeta descriptiongt and/or ltmeta keywordgt tags
are used syntax is correct ____ If page
includes "date last modified" or similar date is
correct All pages ____ Spell check
performed ____ correct HTML syntax
verified ____ All links tested ____ All pages
have unique TITLE tag, content is
descriptive ____ If forms are included all
operate correctly ____ If scripted elements are
included (rollovers, pulldown menus) all operate
correctly ____ Site tested with text-only
browser or with images turned off. Appropriate
ALT tags verified QA Performed by
_________________________________________
Date _________________
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Dealing with Individual Authors(continued)

• Create simple tools for authors to use
• E-mail based legal and management reviews
• QA checklist to ensure compliance with standards
• Provide templates
• Example

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Dealing with Individual Authors(continued)

• Educate authors
• One-on-one briefing
• What is expected
• What tools are available
• URLs/domain issues
• Provide access to server
• Allow time for QA

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Dealing with Individual Authors(concluded)

• Central servers
• Free hosting for author-developed sites
• Helps us control domain names, security, quality

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Lessons Learned

• Know your bottom line - define and enforce
• Create rules, publish and maintain them
• Someone has to be the heavy
• Site owner controls inclusion in and/or linking
  to mothership site

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Lessons Learned (continued)

• Some grandfathering is OK
• Use redesigns as an opportunity
• Sites are dynamic and can deteriorate over time
• Have a process to audit and ensure they
  continue to meet standards

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Lessons Learned (concluded)

• Provide templates for authors
• Treat Web sites as publications
• Infrastructure to manage/authorize is already in
  place