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The web has the potential to be the most accessible medium. Creating an accessible site is about removing any barriers that accessible people face. These could include confusing navigation, badly named links, small target areas for clicks, poor colour contrast, and so on.
It is now a legal requirement under the Disability Discrimination Act that organisations should take reasonable steps to make their sites accessible.
Software code can be very complex, and complexity leads to unexpected outcomes.
A bug is an issue with programmed code that causes unexpected or unwanted behaviour. Programmers will normally fix any bugs in a system free of charge within a defined period after launch, usually 3 months.
Most system bugs are identified during the client acceptance testing process, although some can crop up later on.
There’s a difference between a Bug and a Change request. Change requests happen when there is a change in feature or scope, whereas a bug is an unintended aspect of the agreed feature set.
This is an exercise Public Life undertakes during the Define phase to help clients prioritize site features according to the an agreed sense of the business case and budget.
Change requests normally crop up during the client acceptance testing phase of a project. They are changes to the system that were not included within the original scope, which normally means that they are chargeable.
See Bug for a comparison.
This is the process of testing the system once it has been released by the programmers. It normally involves running through a Test script to ensure that they system matches the agreed functional specification.
During testing, we create an issues log, which outlines any bugs and change requests to the programmed system.
Public Life normally sets up a client extranet on large projects, which serves as the definitive source for project documents. Contact us if you would like more information.
This is a process of mapping out the content you already have and matching it to the content you will need as determined by the site plan for a new site. The audit helps to create a sense of the scale of the task at hand and serves as a tool for managing the content creation process.
This is a software application that makes it possible for non-technical users to publish content to a website.
A CMS serves as a store for a wide range of information assets, including text, image databases and so on. Information loaded into the system can be structured and output in a number of different ways. In some instances, for example, a piece of content may appear in two different places on a site.
A CMS can be reasonably simple or very complex. There is a wide range of CMS products available, developed by providers such as Microsoft, the open source community and small development companies. Choosing the right CMS can be an important decision for your organisation.
Define is part of Public Life’s four-stage project process, which includes Discover-Define-Visualise Deliver.
In the Define stage, which is sometimes called the scoping phase, we develop identified needs into a detailed site plan and functionality specification. Documentation from the define phase forms the blueprint for the site and serves as a guide for designers and programmers.
Deliver is part of Public Life’s four-stage project process, which includes Discover, Define, Visualise, and Deliver.
Deliver covers the final phase of development work, which includes programming, quality assurance, testing and go live.
A deliverable is an output from a project in material form. Project documentation, the project plan, design versions and the programming are all project deliverables.
Deliverables often need to be signed off at key milestones so that the next stage of a project can begin.
Discover is part of Public Life’s four-stage project process, which includes Discover, Define, Visualise, and Deliver.
Discover, sometimes called the research phase, includes all the information gathering activities that take place in preparation for scoping the site in the Define stage, such as user needs research, user profiling and stakeholder interviews.
The functional specification is developed during the Define phase of the project. Taken with the site plan and wireframes, it helps to define all the features of the site, including how key systems such as the search or a jobs module might work.
Compare this with the description of the Technical specification.
This is the point at which the site is switched on and made visible to the outside world. Normally go live takes place a couple of weeks prior to public launch so that any last minute issues can be addressed before you make a big splash.
This is the process of developing the information structure of the site, which takes place during the Define phase, with the aim of creating an effective system and a good user experience.
Outputs of this process normally include the site plan, wire frames and parts of the functional specification.
Useful information architecture resources include boxesandarrows.com and jjg.net.
This is a list of bugs and change requests arising out of User acceptance testing of the programmed system. See Client acceptance testing for more information.
Prince stands for “Projects in controlled environments”. It is a project management method developed by the UK government with the aim of providing a framework for complex projects. It has been adopted by many social sector organisations as their preferred method.
You can learn more about Prince at www.ogc.gov.uk/prince2/
This is a form of user testing, where a paper or HTML prototype of a system is created and then checked with users prior to undertaking any costly development.
Public Life is an internet communications company specialising in work for social sector clients and other organisations working for society.
See Quality Assurance.
This is the process of checking that programming and other deliverables are ‘fit for purpose’ and as agreed in the early stages of a project. Public Life’s technical partners are expected to undertake a QA process on their programming prior to releasing it to clients.
This is an overview document which shows all the component parts of a site, as well as the ways in which site visitors are channelled to the information they need.
Sustain is a Public Life initiative to encourage organisations to develop sites that are sustainable and won’t degrade over time.
It includes a range of standalone consultancy and support services and a number of training packages, which are designed to complement the skills on an in-house team.
This is a document, developed alongside the functional specification, which provides a checklist for testing your system after release from the programmers. It outlines the tasks that the system should be able to perform and the people who can perform those tasks.
This is an umbrella term used to describe all the factors that contribute to a site user’s overall perception of a system. Is it easy to use, attractive and appropriate? Does it meet user needs?
This is an approach to design which regards user needs as the most important determinant of content, feature set and structure.
This is an established technique for checking that a website is usable for its intended audience. It involves a structured interview with a live system or a prototype.
Users are asked to perform a number of tasks and their responses to performing these tasks are recorded. Any difficulties or errors are noted, as these may point to areas of the system that need to be improved.
The technical specification outlines all the information needed to define the technical requirements of a site, including platform, system, hosting arrangements, customisations of existing code and bespoke programming requirements.
It differs from the Functional specification, which looks at how the system works rather than how it is going to be built.
A template is a prototypical web page out of which a number of other web pages may be built. A website of hundreds of pages may be built out of just a few templates.
Typical templates include the home page, lower level index pages, search and standard pages.
By carefully defining the components of each template, we can control how a system will work, as well as ensuring it is user-focused.
Visualise is part of Public Life’s four-stage project process, which includes Discover, Define, Visualise, and Deliver.
During the visualise phase we develop the site design, including all brand elements, font styles, colours, banners, buttons, list styles and other features, which are applied to the site templates to create consistent page styles.
A chart giving an overview of the components and features of a web page. Wire frames are developed during the Define phase of a project and provide instructions to both designers and programmers for how pages should look and behave. Download an example wire frame.
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