Monday, October 29, 2007

Monitoring traffic and compiling website traffic reports


For this assignment you will need to write a short report on the Bathurst TAFE website or a part thereof, say: your web page(s).

The report should...

  • Identify and analyse available site analysis software - what software or reporting service would you recommend and why.
  • Give a brief description of how to obtain and install the most suitable site analysis software
  • Identify the required report options
  • Develop a traffic monitoring program
  • Show examples of the required traffic reports
  • Analyse reports to identify any improvements that might be made to server/site performance
  • Apply forecasting methodologies to predict traffic peaks
  • Recommend changes in hardware and/or software that might be needed
  • Suggest what training might be required to use the package

In particular, I'd like to know:
  • how many people come to visit the site in a week
  • how long they spend on the site
  • which are the most popular pages on the site
  • where they're coming from (both where they live and how they might have found the web site)
  • what search terms were being used if they arrived through a search engine
  • what browser and operating systems they are using
  • when the busiest and slowest times are on the site
You can blog your answer or print it out with a cover page. Try to get it all done and posted by Monday 19th of November.



Image: '1D3_03323p_1310'
www.flickr.com/photos/84739639@N00/1432102881

Monday, October 22, 2007

Political Accessibility


To flex our accessibility assessment muscles we're going to analyse a real live web site and blog the results.

Pick one of the sites being maintained by the Australian politician or party of your choice (e.g. the Labor Party, Liberal Pary, Kerry Bartlett, Bob Debus)

What demographic do you think is being targeted? Describe the target audience's age, education and reading level. Analise some key pages on the web site for reading and comprehension levels (juicy studio might be useful here) - does the copy match up with the audience's education level?

What are the legal (and ethical?) accessibility requirements for the web site? Does it meet these requirements? (UITest might be helpful here, along with the usability checklist set out in the Victorian Government Accessibility Toolkit)

What changes would you make to the site to improve its accessibility and/or make it comply with current legal requirements?

Post your answer or print and submit by Monday the 5th of November.




Image: 'Have you?'
www.flickr.com/photos/19487674@N00/291687660