08012511 Course Work 1 Website Evaluation INF11101 Web Enabled Business

Introduction

In this report, four website have been chosen for analysis. These websites all
have similar aims and objectives in the arena of Health in Scotland’s Central
Belt. By applying predefined criteria, this report will attempt to grade the sites
in four areas there-by generating an informed conclusion based upon content.

Four websites representing the aims, objectives and services offered by the
major health boards across central Scotland were chosen (leaving out NHS
Lanarkshire, as their portal is still under construction.) These sites have been
chosen very much with convenience in mind, with Health and how the NHS
operates (and how effectively) at a local level. They were also chosen
because they all have a shared aim to deliver advice on health issues and
news of developments to those living within the health board area.

Analysis criteria comes under four categories; Clarity, Quality, Usability and
Satisfaction. Each of these is further split into two; Clarity of Content & Clarity
of Intent, Quality of Technology & Quality of Navigation, Use of Interactivity &
Use of Navigation and finally; Satisfaction of Customer Aim & Satisfaction of
Over All Experience.

• Clarity of Content
o Layout
o Images
o Simplicity
o Elegance

• Clarity of Intent
o Website aim

• Quality of Technology
o Standard of technology in use (Video conferencing, DHTML,
Java, pod casting, flash, real player, Streaming video, XML,
CSS & P2P technologies.)
o Fully accessible (web page readers, font size increase tools.)

• Quality of Navigation
o Logical navigation
o Relevant links

• Use of Interactivity
o Level of interactivity. Two/three dimensional.

• Use of Information
o Succinctness
o Accuracy (In grammar and spelling.)
o Logical layout

08012511 Course Work 1 Website Evaluation INF11101 Web Enabled Business 1

08012511 Course Work 1 Website Evaluation INF11101 Web Enabled Business

o Pertinent answers to simple requests (where possible.)

• Satisfaction of Customer Aim

o Initial aim of the visit satisfied
o Secondary Incidental requests

• Satisfaction of Over All Experience

o Customer Satisfaction out-with primary aim.
o Secondary Incidentals.

“The researchers are interested in:

o The take up and use of electronic health information delivery,
highlighting regional, socio-economic and other demographic
differences, and possible contrasting patterns in the exploitation of
the various media (or 'platforms')
o Issues of usability, barriers inhibiting use, and consequent issues
relating to inequalities in information provision
o Opinions, attitudes and perceptions of the general public regarding
health information generally and its mediation electronically,
covering such issues as: perceived quality of service, usefulness of
information and how it was employed, relevance of content, range
and diversity of perceptions
o Possible outcome measures that may be explored in future
research, such as take up of health services, changes in health
related behaviour and, in the longer term, measures of health
changes (e.g. incidence of heart disease, etc.).”

(Williams et al 2003. Introduction.)

The above points formed the basis for the evaluation form used in this report.

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08012511 Course Work 1 Website Evaluation INF11101 Web Enabled Business

ANALYSIS.

http://www.nhsggc.org.uk NHS Glasgow

http://www.nhsforthvalley.com Stirling and Forth Valley
http://www.nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk NHS Lothian
http://www.nhsfife.scot.nhs.uk NHS Fife

Clarity of Content

The over all aim of all four websites is one of communication, while layout
seems to be similar across the board NHS Lothian has made an effort at a
more light hearted possibly frivolous portal. Each uses columns to delineate
subject content except Lothian, which has gone for a more nucleated layout.
The over all effect is while Lothian’s Portal seems relatively uncluttered; the
other sites seem to be rather busy. There is no uniformity between sites what
so ever.

Content across all four sites seem to come under four distinct categories;
news, publications, patient information and publicity drives for projects. While
Lothian provides a ruthlessly cut down version of the news, Glasgow, Forth
Valley and Fife provide lengthy hyperlinked blurbs on their index pages. This
could have the effect of cluttering the portal unnecessarily making it difficult to
separate the wheat from the chaff.

Clarity of Intent

Website aims differ also, while some have at their heart the needs of the
public purely in terms of health, others favour recent news pertaining to
infrastructure hinting at possible attempts to improve the image of the health
board. This is done at the cost of the primary website aim which presumably
is to impart information pertaining to the health of those residing in the health
board area.

NHS Fife and Forth Valley put as much emphasise on news items as they do
on health issues. Hospital builds are advertised along side health promotions
where as with NHS Lothian and Glasgow, the focus is on health issues. While
the latter two sites have news items on display, they are very much secondary
to health promotions. The four chosen sites can easily be delineated along
these lines. It may also be useful to point out that the National Scottish NHS
hosts NHS Fife and NHS Lothian, this means certain central policies
regarding content and intent must be adhered to, (Guidelines for Accessibility.
Show Team 2003.) Forth Valley and Glasgow have opted out of those
National level policies by having a .com and .org extension respectively.

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08012511 Course Work 1 Website Evaluation INF11101 Web Enabled Business

Quality of Technology

Technology standards are good across the board, largely due to rigorous
standards set by government in terms of Equality & Diversity. Each site has
direct links on the index page to website readers and each also have the
option to view versions of the website in other languages. Fife and Lothian are
using asp.net (java driven) while Glasgow and Forth Valley have opted for a
largely html driven platform. Currently no pod casting is available nor is there
any resource for RSS or video streaming.

All four sites use a CMS although it is not possible to know which is utilized
and by whom. It is highly likely the sites hosted by the Scottish NHS use an
Open Source CMS known as Sprocket as this is the new standard being
adopted by NSS (National Services Scotland.)

Accessibility is part of the NHS’s Equality and Diversity drive so there are
many resources from website readers to tools for the visually impaired. NHS
Lothian appears to have the best coverage in terms of accessibility due to it
not relying on text boxes and table. Website readers find blocks of text
contained with tables hard to read. Lothian also has a simple zoom function
displayed on each page.

Quality of Navigation

Navigation seems logical across all four sites, although some are more
cluttered than others. Those that are do have a home page link displayed at
all times. Each site has a search function prominently displayed in the header
so is available from each page within the site. All site index pages are hyper-
link heavy having as they do, several across the page. On some it is not
immediately obvious what is and what is not a link.

Use of Interactivity

All sites offer a degree of interactivity, each have contact forms and most have
done away with mailto scripts (except those sites utilising html where some
mailto scripts still hide.) It is worth noting, the Lothian site has an alcoholic unit
calculator taking it to a higher level of interactivity than the other sites. Apart
from being instructive this could be seen as an added draw to the site and
may act as something of an attraction.

For the most part, these sites act as billboards; they hold and display
information. Interaction is limited, there is no online diagnosis service or chat
rooms (real time or IRC.) In all four cases, the health advice aspect of the web
site is handled by strong coverage of NHS 24 which has an extensive website
itself.

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08012511 Course Work 1 Website Evaluation INF11101 Web Enabled Business

Use of Information

In terms of succinctness; Glasgow, Forth Valley and Fife could be seen as

extremely verbose. There are many options to choose from, in the case of
Glasgow, the colour-coded layout alleviates this somewhat, although one
would have to familiar with it. In others, the user could be over whelmed with
options. In John Naish’s book ‘Enough’ he states; “The Germans have a
saying for it: ‘die Qual der Wahl’ – the torture of choice. Psychologists say that
while customers may initially be attracted to a panoply of options, many end
up so confused by all the alternatives that they give up in despair,” (Naish,
2008.)

Layout might also be seen as somewhat whimsical, each site is different, and
while Lothian is less cluttered it is hard to find a deeper logic on the other sites
due to the range and breadth of information beyond noticing that ‘news’ is in
one place while ‘contact information’ is in another. Spelling and grammar is of
a high standard across all four sites except where sound bites have been
adopted in order to promote news items. In these instances, grammar has
taken something of a back seat.

If a user had a particular request for information, it would certainly depend on

the level of IT awareness of which they were in possession. In terms of
Lothian, due to the lower number of options, the basic aim is to dispense
information on health and it could be seen to have an edge in this area. In the
other sites, that aim may have been diluted somewhat by dissemination of
news items, job applications and a plethora of other topics. This could detract
from the main thrust of the web sites, which is arguably; to display information
on matters pertaining to health, if the information is not immediately available,
alternative means are made available so users can find it.

The search boxes can not be configured to search specific areas so may not
be entirely useful in terms of focused user research.

On Fife’s site the Google search tool is utilised, as is the case on Forth Valley.
A bespoke search tool is provided use on Lothian’s site. But by far the most
useful is the search tool available on the NHS Glasgow site. At first glance in
appears to be a standard search function, however, search results are
provided according to the categories in which they were found; news, site
content, services, locations and document library. This could be seen as
selling point given that internet and site searches can be problematic in terms
of setting parameters, often it seems easier to state what is not required as
opposed to what is.

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08012511 Course Work 1 Website Evaluation INF11101 Web Enabled Business

Satisfaction of Customer Aim.

A good measure of information-based sites such as these is their ability to

hold the attention and further draw the user in. Importantly it being health
orientated, other related (or indeed, unrelated) requests for information might
be stimulated. “NHS Lothian is committed to helping everyone to live a
healthier and happier life, by providing quality health services, promoting the
correct information and advice to help patients to improve their own health
and that of their families.” (NHS Lothian ‘Your Health’ 2009.) With this in mind,
it would seem that an integral aim is not only to satisfy current users needs
and requests but also to encourage more interest and to promote other health
projects. Each website has a similar section setting out its aims in this area,
NHS Lothian seems to do it most succinctly.

When looking for specific information to satisfy this part of our form; ‘customer
satisfaction.’ The topic of Smoking was chosen; by far the most useful
information was gleaned from the NHS Glasgow site purely due to the
categorisation of the search results. Potential users can better differentiate
between what is salient and what is not.

Interestingly, due to this categorisation, news items found by the search

process proved to be pertinent and useful; an excellent example of the
stimulation of secondary incidental information being imparted, holding the
user’s attention and in this instance, providing a fuller more rounded service.

It should be said, ‘stop smoking’ projects feature heavily on each index page,
it was chosen merely to test the search functions of each web site. In the real
world, the user wouldn’t have to search as it features prevalently on each
index page.

Satisfaction of Over All Experience

More often a user’s level of satisfaction is not measured only on the

basis of the visit’s primary aim, when using an Internet portal, in a
sense, it is also a journey with waypoints. The websites index page,
the search page, the returned results page and the page holding the
information. No site these days is without banner ads of some sort,
were the adverts pertinent? Were alternatives offered if a suitable
source of information could not be found?

Increasingly websites for government departments and local

authorities have become in part marketing tools, in the NHS, Google
Statistics are used to monitor traffic around sites. All four sites
attempt to capture the interest of users in order to keep them within
the portal; this can be a double-edged sword. As mentioned before,
too much choice can be a bad thing. When seeking a specific piece
of information, a user could be forgiven for losing patience while
being forced navigating multiple steps.

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08012511 Course Work 1 Website Evaluation INF11101 Web Enabled Business

In terms of over all experience, NHS Lothian is a good example.

Stopping Smoking was used in this report as a test, a link was
provided on all four sites’ index pages to the Smoking Cessation
help line. However, on the Lothian site the Alcoholic Unit Counter
tool was prevalent and would likely cause users to explore this
avenue of their health. This comes under the heading of a
‘secondary incidental aim.’ It is point brought to the attention of the
user by the website encouraging further investigation and possibly
increasing the sense of over all satisfaction by the user with the
service they have been provided.

Conclusion

The analysis above looks at the ability of four websites representing

the health boards of Central Scotland. While they are largely similar
to one and other in appearance, (with the exception of Lothian) they
vary in that the Glasgow and Forth Valley websites tend to favour
news items, suggesting these sites are not primarily concerned with
health but also with the perceptions the public have about the
health boards. Lothian and Fife appear more geared toward health
concerns.
It is difficult to measure the effectiveness of websites where the
subject matter is so broad and arguably in some cases complicated.
If a user has a specific topic to research and is suitably web-
enabled, a visit to any of these websites would bare fruit.

However, do to the complexity and variable nature of the subject of

health, a more complicated request would be harder to fulfil.

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08012511 Course Work 1 Website Evaluation INF11101 Web Enabled Business

REFERENCE

Peter Williams, David Nicholas, Paul Huntington & Fiona McLean. Wiley
Interscience. Retrieved 18/03/09 from http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-
bin/fulltext/118963727/HTMLSTART

Show Team (2003) Guidelines for Accessibility. Retrieved 18/03/09 from

http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/App_Download/pdf/SHOWstyleGuideV2.21_250
803.pdf

Naish, John (2008) ‘Enough’ Pg 147 Great Britain: Hodder & Stoughton

NHS Lothian. ‘Your Health’ Para 1. Retrieved 18/03/09 from

http://www.nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk/yourhealth/yourhealth.asp

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