This is an Eval Central archive copy, find the original at freshspectrum.com.
Dear research and evaluation community, we have a website problem.
The problem? Many of our websites suck.
I’m talking about resource sites, toolkits, organization homepages, project websites, communities of practice, association sites, learning communities, online reports, etc…
As an evaluator who has been developing websites personally and professionally for 15 years now, I wanted to use this post to share some of the website issues common in our field.
Issue 1: Someone else’s problem
Who takes ownership over your organization website’s content?
It seems like a simple question, but there is probably not an easy answer. A lot of organizations have someone who is responsible for the technical side of the website. They might also have someone responsible for social media or marketing. But as for overall content…
Often individual groups are responsible for their own content. There is some kind of bureaucratic process they use to submit content for publication on the website. The tech people make sure it functions. But nobody checks to see if it works.
Issue 2: Beautiful ghost towns
Just because your website looks like a well-designed website doesn’t mean it is well-designed.
You can have a website that looks beautiful with fancy features. You might even get complements on how cool it looks. But building something beautiful isn’t the same thing as building something effective.
Can you tell the difference?
Issue 3: Check the box websites.
This kind of website is all over the place in the evaluation world. It includes all sorts of resource websites, association websites, and digital toolkits.
It’s kind of like building a school curriculum based on what you think kids should learn, but then never checking to see whether or not they’ve learned anything.
You have a checklist of all the things you think should be part of the site. And then you build the site with all of those things. Then you never look at it again.
Issue 4: Owning a search.
How do you think people find your website?
Most of the time, it probably involves Google.
How do people use Google?
They search for stuff.
What do they search on Google to bring them to your page?
Serious question, have you checked to see if that actually happens? Pretty sure most organizations would be surprised to see the searches that do or do not bring people to their websites.
Issue 5: Output focused.
Evaluators are really good at calling out programs for focusing too much on outputs and not enough on outcomes.
But then you ask them to evaluate a website and they give you page views, downloads, plays, and other output data. In other words, a bunch of who cares vanity metrics.
The problem is that determining good outcome measures requires a thoughtful digital strategy. And much of the time, that just doesn’t exist.
What to do about it.
Four steps.
- Develop an outcome focused digital strategy.
- Implement the digital strategy.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the digital strategy.
- Iterate your strategy based on collected data.
Want help?
You might know me for this blog or for my cartoons. But digital strategy and digital evaluation is the stuff I do as a consultant. I have a big contract ending this summer, and so some of my time might be opening up.
If you want to learn more about me or my digital strategy consulting, check out my about page.
If you have any interest in working with me, let’s chat > https://calendly.com/clysy/30min