The Hands-on Guide for Science Communicators - L. Christensen (Springer 2007) Episode 7 pps

In science communication the web is one of the most frequently used ways of distributing popular information about science to the media, the public and decision-makers today.. They fi nd

14 MAKING WEBSITES38

A recent billboard advertisement read: “The web wasn’t just a passing

fad” Certainly no one would argue with that statement nowadays In

science communication the web is one of the most frequently used

ways of distributing popular information about science to the media,

the public and decision-makers today As I argue in section 6.4 the web

is becoming more and more a layman’s tool For several years the web

has been the preferred tool for journalists to conduct story research (see

Lederbogen & Trebbe, 2003, and section 7.3.2) and therefore a proper

website must be a very high priority for any public information offi ce

Webpages are today’s business cards The production of websites is a

huge and specialised topic, but, without getting too technical, here

are some rough guidelines on constructing science communication

webpages

Lederbogen and Trebbe (2003) made an interesting study of a

well-defi ned set of websites from scientifi c organisations in Germany They

fi nd that most pages do not address their target groups properly and

that they fail to disseminate the most interesting scientifi c

informa-tion — the science results — effectively Often the pages are not easy

to understand and do not take advantage of the medium’s excellent

possibilities for displaying non-textual content such as multimedia

Designing any website is far from trivial Designing websites that are

both user-friendly and easy to maintain is a real challenge

14.1 MAKING TRUSTWORTHY WEBSITES

Unfortunately the policy of uncontrolled self-publishing means there

is no guarantee for the quality, credibility and reliability of web-based

information Everybody who thinks he has something important to say

can publish his work or his opinion as proven facts on the Internet This

proliferation of self-publishing has decreased the value of net

informa-tion and has resulted in some general bias against purely web-based

information (Treise et al 2003)

This trust issue is well-known and much discussed among more

ex-perienced users, and it is common knowledge that web information

needs to be double-checked, for instance, against other webpages This

does not prevent problems from occurring, but since the web works

so blindingly fast and has incredible amounts of information in

com-parison with other types of information search, it is fairly easy to work

around this problem and to achieve a net gain when using the web

The issue of web trustworthiness has never been so much discussed

as after the completely user-written web-based Wikipedia39 became

the largest encyclopaedia in the world in 2005 in just a few years of

operation Being from birth an open anarchic system largely policed by

the community, it is an incredibly interesting system from an

informa-tion science perspective There is no doubt that the web — or at least

In science communication the web is one of the most frequently used ways

of distributing popular information about science to the media, the public and decision-makers today.

Designing any website

is far from trivial Designing websites that are both user friendly and easy to maintain is a real challenge

respected subsets like Wikipedia — makes the retrieval of trustworthy

information much quicker than before

Since the Internet, apart from being used for serious science commu-nication, is also a preferred communication tool for dubious pseudo-science, it is very important to design a science communication website

so as to render it as credible as possible Here are a few tips on how to accomplish this:

Be up-to-date: Science moves quickly and you should make sure

that the information you present is always new and up-to-date

To show this to the user you should state the date of your last

up date clearly on the website and avoid dead links to other websites that don’t exist any longer

Keep it simple: Don’t use too many or too bright colours and try

to avoid fancy animations and sound effects True information speaks for itself

Have keywords: Internet users judge the credibility of a website

by comparing its contents with their background knowledge about a topic This knowledge is generally acquired by education

or through the media Rogers and Marres (2000) suggest using the same keywords as media and education to facilitate the comparison between background knowledge and new in for ma-tion

Link: Referring and linking to other websites shows that your

information conforms to that of other people and creates the impression that you are presenting commonly accepted facts

Be sure to link to acknowledged authorities like universities, govern mental or international institutions or accredited ex-perts to transfer some of their trustworthiness to your own web page

Be linked: It is as important to be linked to as to link to other

websites If other institutions link to your homepage it means they acknowledge the information you are presenting Accord-ing to Rogers and Marres (2000) “linkAccord-ing is a sign of non-recognition, or, more radically, is an act of silencing through inaction”, so be sure that you are linked to

Use experts: Mentioning acknowledged experts as a source of

information on your website will make the information you are presenting more credible People strongly believe in titles and credentials as they create an aura of authority So rather than referring to Paul or Mr Smith as a source, quote him with all his titles as Professor Paul Smith of the University of Edinburgh

Be transparent: Offer at least a minimum of information about

the author of the website and state contact details for emerging questions This conveys the impression that you aren’t trying

to hide anything

Choose the right domain suffi x: Websites have different URL

suffi ces to indicate the nature of their source Governmental institutions are indicated by the URL suffi x gov, non-govern-mental organizations by org, academic institutions by ac

(Brit-•

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•

•

•

•

•

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ain) or edu (USA) and all other providers by the collective suffi x

.com Treise et al (2003) state that the user’s trust depends on

the suffi x domain of a website and that ac and edu are judged

as more credible than org and gov, which again are considered

more reliable than com

Be visible: Even though search engines like Google do not rank

the websites they fi nd according to credibility, many Internet

users still believe that the fi rst webpage that comes up in

Goog-le is the most reliabGoog-le Therefore, by tagging many keywords,

you can make sure that your website is ranked high in Google

searches, which might help to increase people’s trust in it The

more links that point to your site, the better ranking the site

will have with Google.

Be open about your funding source: Two crucial factors in

judg-ing the credibility of a website are: where the money for it comes

from and whether you are pursuing a commercial agenda with

the information you offer Being open about your funding

poli-cies makes the website more transparent and trustworthy

Be neutral: People always try to judge your purpose in

present-ing certain information on the web If you come across as havpresent-ing

a personal agenda you will be judged less credible than

some-body who presents the same information in a disinterested and

neutral way Therefore, it is advisable to use neutral rather than

emotive language

14.2 TO CMS OR NOT

Webpages can be constructed in different ways Some of the most

commonly used methods are:

as simple manually constructed html pages;

with a Content Management System (CMS);

with your own backend system, for instance the Simplicity

sys-tem, see section 14.5

The web is a very important distribution tool (see chapter 12), but it

is not unreasonable to assume that only a very few education and

public outreach offi ces have their own full-time person (or persons) to

deal with web issues However, there is a huge step in the necessary

manpower to go from a simple static html-page setup to a so-called

Content Management Systems (CMS) CMS is a big buzz word for web

management today

A CMS is a large database driven tool that helps to structure

informa-tion in the form of text, images and animainforma-tions and place it on the

web in a predefi ned way

Static html-pages are simpler, low-tech solutions and are usually

set up and maintained with the help of web editors such as Adobe®

Dreamweaver® or Microsoft Frontpage These editors offer templates

that can replace some of the functions of a CMS, such as fi xed design

and the ability to change a design sitewide at a later time

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Table 8: A quick and dirty comparison of the services offered by a Content Management System

(CMS) and those needed by a communication offi ce.

Outreach offi ce

Result

Positive Offers relatively easy maintenance by many

people simultaneously

Needs easy web maintenance by only a few people

0

Is reasonably easy to learn for non-technical

people

Needs a system easy to learn for reason-ably technically oriented people

+

Offers reasonably easy creation of many new

articles per day (‘newspaper style’)

Needs to create a only few new articles per day

+

Can be set up to make automated (and

periodic) changes to the content, such as

sitemap, lists, front page, glossary etc

Some degree of automation is desirable +++

Often includes workfl ow control (approval

control by different people, status

overviews)

No urgent need for workfl ow control 0

Has special features such as link checking ,

expert site options etc

Link checking etc is needed +++

Can often integrate small and simple image

archives

Needs a fully-fl edged image archive with

no restrictions due to fi le sizes, formats etc

0

Has automated search functions Needs automated search functions

but this can be attached as an external package

+++

Has a cool, consistent design Needs a cool, consistent design +++ Can change design sitewide relatively easily Needs to be able to change design every

few years

+++++

Negative Usually has to be set up and programmed by

an external company

Needs full autonomous control of the system, its technical maintenance and its programming

– – – – –

Has bad performance and handling of large

and huge image and video fi les

Needs the web solution to work effi -ciently regardless of the type and size of the content

– – – – –

May have slow response for the users Needs lightning fast response for the

user

– – – – –

Very little fl exibility and little ability to adapt

to new ideas, formats etc

Needs high degree of freedom – – – – –

Takes programming experience to make

structural changes

Needs the ability to implement new ideas fast and in a low-tech way

– – – – –

Has fi xed templates similar to web forms =>

simple creation of articles, but slow and does

not offer many degrees of freedom

Nice in some ways, but slow and needs many degrees of freedom (within the design guidelines)

– – –

The idea of a CMS seems to make most managers happy — at least in

the implementation phase Table 8 presents my (subjective) scorecard

for how well a CMS fulfi ls the requirements of EPO offi ces based on

personal experience

My conclusion is that a CMS is overkill for all but perhaps the largest

science communication outfi ts There are indeed benefi ts in a CMS,

but based on the relative slowness and infl exibility of such a system it

does not fi t very well into the daily grind of an EPO offi ce A CMS may

however be a good idea for groups with less technical know-how It is

in this case important to choose a standard off-the-shelf solution that

is in widespread use worldwide

14.3 CASE STUDY: FERMILAB’S WEBPAGES

It is not diffi cult to fi nd bad webp ages, but a good example of a science

communication webpage with all the essentials is Fermilab’ s webpage

(http://www.fnal.gov/ ) Some of the main features are:

a clean design with:

a clearly visible navigation structure;

thumbnail photos to show some

as-pects of the organisation;

a news area;

fast response;

clear overview of thousands of pages;

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2

3

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Figure 47: A well-designed

organisational homepage: the homepage for Fermilab

in the US (2005)

My conclusion is that

a CMS is overkill for all but perhaps the largest science communication outfi ts.

quick access to the main information (addresses, staff phone numbers etc)

Read more about the development of (an earlier version of) the page at: http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/Posters/fermilab.htm

14.4 CASE STUDY: MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS WEBSITE

Apart from featuring the obvious text and image content the web can also be used for relatively simple interactive “applications” written in, for instance, Flash or Java These range from simple pop-up windows

to elaborate games exchanging information between users

Very good examples of this are seen on the website for the Mars Odys-sey Themis instrument (http://themis.asu.edu/ ) Themis is an infrared instrument on board NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft in orbit around Mars

Some of the website’s impressive features:

interesting graphics with a modern inviting look;

good overview;

access to real data with simple web tools;

multiple target groups: from laypeople to scientists working in other or related fi elds

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Figure 48: The Themis

website is a textbook

example of integration

of science, graphics and

technology.

Figure 49: An image from

the Themis website showing the Martian region Noctis Labyrinthus, the Labyrinth

of Night.

Overall the Themis website is a textbook example of the how the in-tegration of science, graphics and technology elevates a somewhat diffi cult topic to an interesting level (cf, the skills triangle in section 3.4, fi gure 4)

14.5 CASE STUDY: DESIGNING AND PRODUCING A WEBSITE FOR ESA/HUBBLE 40

E arly in 2004 we began designing a new website for the Hubble Sp ace Telescope in Europe In this case study I would like to share some of the thoughts behind it, and the outcome

We naturally wanted to exploit the advantages of the web as com-pared to other vehicles, and to produce a website that fulfi lled particu-lar needs for maintenance effi ciency (due to very restricted available manpower) We quickly realised that the need to reduce manpower consumption for web maintenance was a general one in the science communication community and we extended our methodology into a general scheme for building effi cient science communication websites The results of our efforts are partly Spacetelescope.org, the public and press website for the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in Europe, and

partly the web system Simplicity th at combines ease of use for visitors with a simple and effective strategy for maintenance Simplicity has also has been used to build the websites at NASA an d at the Instituto

de Astrofísica de Canarias.

For us, making the Simplicity system for organising information and

serving the page provided an effi cient alternative to existing commer-cial content management systems A more detailed description and components for free download can be found at: http://www.spacetele-scope.org/projects/web A comprehensive users’ manual (Nielsen et al., 2004) can be found in the same place

14.5.1 Requirements for Simplicity

A website is an excellent tool for the distribution of outreach products and for product archiving in a repository, while also providing a search-able service that is availsearch-able 24-7 thereby allowing rapid retrieval of relevant material The most critical commodity we have in the fi eld of science communication is time We need to dedicate most of our time

to producing material, and very little time to actually distributing it Spacetelescope.org wa s built to satisfy several requirements

Firstly it had to be a user-friendly we bsite that is easy to navigate and extremely responsive to the customers’ needs with a consistent, at-tractive design In today’s information overloaded society it is crucial

to provide search capabilities that enable the user to sift through vast amounts of information swiftly and to receive an instant response to each query

The most critical

commodity we have

in the fi eld of science

communication is time

We need to dedicate

most of our time to

producing material, and

very little time to actually

distributing it.

Secondly the technology behind the site should be able to juggle huge

data fi les — images and videos (up to GBs in size) — in archives

un-restricted in size, containing thousands of items each represented in up

to 15-20 different display formats (e.g., thumbnails, wallpaper, originals

etc for the images), without impeding function or requiring

mainte-nance It should be able to handle all existing fi le formats (JPEG, GIF,

TIFF, MPEG, Q uickTime®, Flash etc) as well as being easily adjusted to

accommodate future fi le formats

Thirdly the maintenance of the web system (daily updates) should be

extremely easy and fast Design changes should be implemented in

just one place, so that the webmaster is not forced to update

hun-dreds of pages manually Structural changes such as the addition of

new archives should also be possible with relatively small changes to

the system

Finally, the website should be relatively “CPU light” and be able to

handle many hits, many concurrent visitors and many downloads on

standard server hardware

14.5.2 Planning

For Spacetelescope.org there were fi ve main areas of focus in the

plan-ning phase Firstly, the functionality of the website, then the sitemap

— ie the structure (fi les and directories) — the front page and fi nally

the fi le formats and sizes for the data, ie images and videos and the

structure of the metadata (da ta about the images and videos).

Figure 50: front page of the

Spacetelescope.org, built with the Simplicity backend The page is a result of trying

to analyse the needs of different target groups in

a front page signifi cance matrix.

Planning the front page

Targeting a website to its customers is essential to make it successful, and the front page of a website is undoubtedly the most important page of all In our preparations for an effective front page we devised what we call a front page signifi cance matrix co nsisting of two steps: List a sample of different target groups and assign each of them effective weights calculated from how big a target group they represent and their individual “importance” (as judged by our own particular subjective criteria, table 9)

In the absence of a proper user survey we simulated the results

by putting ourselves in the place of every target group in the weighting scheme and assigning a signifi cance from 1 (unim-portant) to 5 (im(unim-portant) to the different functional or graphical components on the front page, such as Menu overview, Action (moving elements) or Hubble branding (PR) The result of this exercise is depicted graphically in fi gure 51 Note that this is at best a simulation derived from educated guesswork based on real experience with the target groups, rather than scientifi cally collected data from a properly framed survey

The result was multiplied with the effective weight of the target group and organised as a prioritised list of the importance of the different front page components (seen in table 10)

The following conclusions were drawn from this:

A simple page overview is the most important.

News must have top priority.

Hubble images have to be prominent.

Excessive space for fl ash animations cannot be allocated, but

they are necessary

Excessive space for design components cannot be allocated, but

an appealing design is mandatory.

1

2

1

2.

3.

4

5

Figure 51: A front page

signifi cance matrix showing

the signifi cance of the

different functional or

graphical components on

the front page.