Management Effective Management for a Website Websites

¶ … Management

Effective Management for a Website

Websites have become an important component of nearly any organization. The content can be provided to customers externally or to employees internally to provide critical information and keep them abreast of changes. However, the content and design of a website must be managed effectively so that the site can serve as an effective tool in communication. An accurate, well designed, and regularly updated website is one of the fastest ways to disseminate information among groups and it is a necessity for most organizations in a competitive landscape. Thus it is critical to study best practices and apply them to the website management function in an organization at all times. This analysis will describe some of the main duties in website management.

Perpetual Management

One of the best practices in website management is keeping the content relevant by actively updating on an on-going basis. One of the common misconceptions is that a website is a one-time project that has a start and an end date. However a website should be looked at from a holistic perspective as an extension of the organization. Websites are high value assets and should be treated as such (ICT Web Publishing, N.d.).

To keep the content fresh it is necessary to designate a dedicated individual that can be responsible for the overall website. Even if different sections are delegated to other people of other organizations there should be still be one person that is accountable for the entire. Designating a single person can be invaluable to providing coordination of the efforts, ensure that website follows a structure or theme, and improve the organization and usability of the site. Without someone at the helm of the project it is possible to lose a focus of the overall design.

Create a User Centered Design

Many website designs seem to leave out one of the most important components in the equation -- the end user. It is important to consider the usability of the website at all times and try to look at the design from a user-centered perspective. Creating content that is not relevant to the end-user could result in a website that confusing and hard to use. Thus considering the design from what the user will experience can help the design can provide an more effective and efficient for the end-user.

User experience (UX) focuses on having a deep understanding of users, what they need, what they value, their abilities, and also their limitations; it also takes into account the business goals and objectives of the group managing the project (Usability.gov, N.d.). The UX best practices are thought to promote the quality of the user's interaction with the website and the perceptions of the content on it.

Figure 1 - UX Honeycomb (Usability.gov, N.d.)

End User Development

Consistent with the UX perspective, one idea to ensure that the end-user perspective is relevant is to involve them in the process from the beginning. Involving users early in projects helps you understand real-world accessibility issues, such as how people with disabilities and older people use the web with adaptive strategies and assistive technologies (Henry & Abou-Zahra, 2010). Including the end-users can provide insights into the different possible designs that would be best used by them. It can create a better product for the end-users which is also beneficial to all stakeholders.

There has even been some interest in creating websites that can be customized by the users to fit their specific needs. End-user development (EUD) is a research topic within the field of computer science, describing activities or techniques that allow people who are not professional developers to create or modify a software artifact (Roschelle & Koutlis, 2012). This approach adds a layer of complexity for designing for the end-user because it includes customization of the features that they might find most important. There are some specific applications that could be greatly approved with this approach.

Multi-Device Web Development

The latest trend in website development has been the consideration of mobile access. The technological capabilities of different types of devices have grown incredibly fast and users can now access web content in a variety of different ways and in an infinite amount of different locations. The next generation of websites will be able to run seamlessly on any platform available. Thus it is important to design with the future in mind and consider what might be the next application of the website and the features that it offers.

Figure 2 - Multi-Device (Google Developers, N.d.)