What’s so hard about the World-Wide Web?
Two media experts offer advice on making your jump onto the World-Wide Web
By Frank W. Klassen and Wendy S. Besler
Illustrations by Slug Signorino
A LOOK BACK: This article first appeared in the Winter 1996 issue of Designer magazine. We offer this reprint in celebration of the UCDA 50th Anniversary.
The World-Wide Web has created a tremendous amount of interest and excitement in the past year, mainly because of its ability to deliver complex information quickly, easily, and to a huge audience. It is being categorized by techies as the next “killer app,” meaning it is so compelling an application that it will drive sales in other segments of the high technology market. Unlike previous “killer apps,” however, it will not be driving sales of computers. Instead, it will spur sales of modems, routers, ISDN, Tl, and other communication and network services.
Interest in this new technology has been heightened by a tremendous amount of media coverage, which has led to a general perception by most institutions that unless they establish a presence on the World-Wide Web, they may lose their competitive edge. In fact, many organizations are convinced they want to be a part of the World-Wide Web, even though they aren’t quite sure what it is or how they will use it to further their mission and goals. This enthusiasm has been boosted by the general misperception that creating a WWW presence is both simple and cheap. Unfortunately, the undertaking is neither simple nor cheap.
It is true that you don’t need cutting-edge technology or whiz-bang programmers to take advantage of the World-Wide Web. The infrastructure (the Internet) and the machines (486, Macintosh, or Unix) have been around for a long time, and the software (Web server software) in not that complex. In fact, putting together the technology is the easiest part of becoming an effective World Wide Web publisher. The toughest part has to do with the business reorganization that must take place to effectively produce, present, and distribute Internet-based products and services. Getting the various groups within you institution to work together to create a coherent, easy-to-sue, coordinated, useful WWW present on the Internet is not for the faint-of-heart. Such an endeavor requires the cooperation of your information systems, publishing, marketing, public relations, and programmatic offices.
The good news? The result of an organization-wide effort to produce an effective WWW presence should serve your institution well, and it may also serve to point out new and better ways of doing business outside the Internet.
Overcoming Obstacles
So what are the hurdles that your institution must overcome to make its WWW project a success?
Hurdle #1
How can you get your entire institution behind this effort if most of the staff don’t understand the World-Wide Web or its possibilities for delivering services and information?
The first thing you must do is to educate your staff about the Internet and the WWW; get them connected to the Internet; and train them to browse the WWW. Only then will they have enough knowledge to make effective decisions about how to implement a high-quality WWW service.
Hurdle #2
Who will lead this institution in this effort?
While many institutions consider this strictly an issue of technology, it is not a great idea to put your MIS department in charge of the effort. The fact is, the Web is simply another publishing medium. So, whatever department is in charge of external communications—the Public Relations Department or the Public Relations/Marketing Department—is probably the best group to spearhead WWW decision-making. After all, this group already is responsible for reaching out to your students (and general audience) and providing them with the services and information that gives them reason to show interest in your institution in the first place. Of course, don’t leave your MIS people out of the loop. You’ll need them to train your staff, implement the system, and execute production.
Hurdle #3
Who gets to go first?
You can’t put all of your institution’s information and services on-line immediately. You may want the institution’s catalog on-line. Class schedules, recruitment pieces and view books are other likely publications for the Web. Departments throughout the institution will have their own needs. So who goes first? You will have to prioritize which elements you start with and which can be delayed to later stages of development. Forget politics as much as possible and ignore departmental lines. Instead, have your decision-making group identify information and services that are directed at your key constituency and that best suit this new medium. Start with those and build your Web presence over time. Don’t worry about going on-line with an incomplete presence-over 90 percent of today’s web sites are still “under construction.”
Hurdle #4
With all the ideas, services, and information you want to incorporate into your World-Wide Web presence, how can you maintain a consistent look and feel?
When you put your various newsletters, magazines, brochures, monographs, marketing pieces, etc. on-line, you may discover that your institutional image is not quite as cohesive as you thought it was. This is an age-old dilemma for external communications specialists, and they’re the people to deal with the problem on-line as well. The Web will require a great deal of redesign anyway, which will give your staff an opportunity to ensure consistency throughout your Web presence.
Hurdle #5
How do you make your on-line services and information pieces look good individually?
Good WWW design does not mean just plunking your beautiful QuarkXPressed newsletter onto your WWW server. The newsletter will need to be reformatted, and probably even re-designed. Why? First, users will be “viewing” the document in front of a screen with a monitor that may or may not have color capability. Second, this monitor might or might not have a full-page screen. And, finally, graphics take up a great deal of space, which means time in bringing the publication up on the screen. All of this translates to a need for less white space, more discreet use of graphics, and inclusion of navigational aids (in other words, creating a graphical user interface or “GUI”) that helps the viewer find and use what they want from your on-line publication. And, it means a great deal more work for your publications department. For every printed piece the organization wants to put on the Web, your staff will have to recreate the piece for acceptable WWW format.
Hurdle #6
If you are going to invest all this time and money in the World-Wide Web, shouldn’t you custom design products for your presence?
Yes. You’ll want to create new vehicles and services that take advantage of the qualities this new medium brings to the outreach and information process-timeliness, directness, interactiveness and a better ability to track use and interest in particular areas of your institution—just to name a few. Here’s where your programmatic staff comes into play. Hold several brainstorming sessions to discuss hot content areas and potential vehicles for effectively addressing these areas on the Web. Then, your department of communications professionals will be responsible for design and implementation of these vehicles.
Hurdle #7
How are you going to do all of this and continue doing everything you’ve been doing?
You can’t. The sooner your staff accepts that in order to establish an effective WWW presence, there are some things they will have to stop doing, the sooner you’ll have your on-line information available to your audience. We leave this thought for last, because it is probably the most important point we can make. Unless your institution has a great deal of additional resources to pour into the WWW (a rare institution in today’s tight economic climate), you have some tough decisions to make. But by involving your entire publications staff in these decisions, and by ensuring that they understand the WWW and its seemingly infinite possibilities for adding value to your marketing plan, you can generate a great deal of enthusiasm for the effort.
In 1996, Frank and Wendy were partners of InterVisage, Inc. Based in Silver Spring, MD, InterVisage offered publishing, marketing, and technical solutions for reaching Internet users.