January Canberra Web Standards Group January 30, 2008

When: Thursday, 31 January
Time: 2.30 pm - 4.50 pm
Where: NLA Theatre, lower ground floor, National Library of Australia, Parkes Place, Parkes, ACT 2600 http://www.nla.gov.au/library/locationmap.html
Cost: Free
RSVP: Become a WSG member and RSVP at http://webstandardsgroup.org/meetings/index.cfm?event_id=146 (essential for catering and to be eligible for door prizes)

First speaker: Geoff Dibley, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Topic 1: They came, they search, they leave - improving internal site search for users

Geoff Dibley has been a member of DAFF's Internet Development Team since October 2007. Previously he was with the Web Operations area at Geoscience Australia.

As government web sites become larger and more complex, users increasingly rely on search to find the information they require. Poor site search can result in unsatisfied clients and increased costs to the organisation.

DAFF redeveloped it's web site during 2006/2007. As part of the process of seeing how the new web site was travelling, Geoff conducted a search analytics review on the DAFF web site in the later part of 2007. Whilst the review confirmed some things, it also came up with a few unexpected surprises, providing a unique insight into the users of the DAFF web site. Geoff's talk will provide some background information on site search, as well as looking at some of the results from the review and some of the strategies that were adopted to improve search on the DAFF web site. http://www.daff.gov.au

Second speaker: Paul Hagon, National Library of Australia
Topic 2: Users aren't as clever as you think they are - search analysis of Picture Australia

Paul Hagon is a web developer at the National Library of Australia. Paul has spent the past 9 years working on museum and library web sites.

What happens when the owners of a web site believe it is being used in one way, but users are using it in a different manner? Paul will discuss the redesign of Picture Australia and the tools and techniques he used to show how users are using the web site and the methods he used to convince the owners of the service that changes to the search mechanism needed to be made. http://www.pictureaustralia.gov.au

Our sponsor
The January Canberra WSG meeting is proudly sponsored by Funnelback - the solution for seamlessly accessing enterprise information!

Official Website: http://webstandardsgroup.org/meetings/index.cfm?event_id=146