WEB SITE EVALUATIONS: ALIGNING SITES WITH BEST PRACTICES

Our Approach
In evaluating sites, InterImage uses its extensive knowledge industry and government standards and best practices to evaluate the customer’s existing web assets and infrastructure.

We work closely with our customers to develop an understanding of their goals, objectives, and infrastructure. If applications are involved, we collect and review existing application documentation. We also identify and meet with groups performing critical business functions to determine the degree to which these processes can be or are effectively supported by the web site and/or applications.

We analyze information gathered and compare the organization’s practices to standards and best practices to identify gaps. We develop recommendations to bring the site into alignment with standards, mandates, and best practices as well as to improve alignment with the organization’s goals, objectives, and needs. We also take into consideration the target audience(s) and their goals, objectives, and needs. We draw upon our extensive experience developing web sites and applications to prepare and prioritize short and long-term recommendations for improving support for the organization’s critical business requirements.

InterImage has developed a ranking system, tailored to include customer constraints, to prioritize the short and long-term recommendations. This process supports an iterative roll out of recommendations that takes into consideration logical groupings of activities and focuses on the customer’s key objectives first.

For the IRS Office of Chief Counsel, InterImage conducted an evaluation of their intranet site, making recommendations to enhance usability and value and to align with government and industry best practices.

Key Components

Site Objectives and Target Audience
What is the purpose of this site? In what ways are the objectives of the site met? Who does the site serve? What are their needs?

Graphic Design
How effective is the design in supporting key themes and goals of the site? Information Architecture, Navigation and Layout. Is information logically grouped and organized? Does the architecture support the needs of the target audience? How clear is the navigation? Is it intuitive? Is there and artistic and useable presentation of content?

Style Guide
Is there a consistent look and feel throughout the site? Does the style contribute to readability?

Content.
Is the content clear and readable? Is it relevant and fresh?

Functionality
What functionality exists on the site and what is its purpose? How easy is it to perform the intended actions? How can viewers locate information on the site? How effective are those methods?

Compliance
Does the site comply with Section 508 and other agency and government mandates?Maintainability. How easy is it to update content on the site? Who are the content owners and maintainers?

Performance
What are the current versus desired performance characteristics? What is the availability?

Usage
What are the current versus desired usage patterns? Do these patterns match?

File Structure
Does the file structure enable easy identification of specific site files? How is the configuration managed?

Hosting Infrastructure
Are connectivity and facilities adequate to meet peak usage requirements? Does the site’s disaster defense include redundancy and reliability? How is the web site monitored?