European CommissionDG Development Websites

restructuration, redesign and publication access improvement

WebDev ProjectJuly 2006 – December 2007

Florence NOELSenior Functional Analyst

Where do we come from? Where are we going?

• Global context: General Directorate for Development and Relations with African Caribbean and Pacific States

• Project: three main chronological stages

1. Stage I: global analysis (August 2006 – January 2007)

2. Stage II (intermediate): execution of a « temporary » Web site within a specific contract (February – April 2007)

3. Stage III: detailed analysis and implementation of the final Web site including I-Center, in the continuity of the contract covering Stage I (April 2007- December 2007)

Stakeholders

• OPOCE (Contracting Customer for Stages I and III)

• DG DEV IT Service (Information, Communication and IT Unit) (real stakeholder for all stages and Contracting Customer for Stage II)

• I.R.I.S. for Project Management, Analysis, I-Center and Consultations development, Web editor (Stages I, II and III) and Tagora for all graphical aspects (Stages II and III)

DG DEV Web sites

• Two web sites : a “dgs” web site and a “Thematic” web site

• More than 25,000 files listed in the existing Web sites

• “Marked archaeological sedimentation” (old layers always present)

• Erratic navigation, “patchwork” style structure reflecting :

– A defective external communication on DG DEV identity,

– A centralization of the updates by the IT Service,– A lack of motivation of Web correspondents…

Confusing navigation - Overloaded - Not up to date - Not user friendly

Main constraints and stumbling blocks

Upper management not committed to the process of web site redefinition and communication

Organization Changes: change of DG DEV project leader, change of Head of Unit, DG DEV internal reorganization, real customer is not the contracting one…

Change of perspective in the course of project : addition of a temporary site

WCMS (Web Starter Kit) : policy within Europa versus its effective use in the context of reactive web sites and shared work…

Methodology

1. Global inventory of existing web sites

2. Methodology

3. Contents typology

4. Web components typology

5. “Issues / themes matrix”

6. Questionnaire

7. Workshops

8. General analysis report

Look and feel

Content

Structure

Communication

The informational Web site implementation can’t be limited to the

simple application of the already existing visual identity. Internet specificities imply an approach

consisting of 6 stages:

Ergonomics

Maintenance

Stage I : results

• Analysis of the existing situation = Inventory encircled by statistics, targeted surveys and censuses

• A Web components typology and a contents typology

• A themes / issues Matrix (existing headings and themes to envisage according to the development policies promoted by European Union)

• A general structure specified to the third level

• A set of ergonomic recommendations concerning the interactions between the users and the Web site

Stage II : the temporary Web site (end of March 2007)

Context

• Triggering factor: 50th Anniversary of the Treaty of Rome• Challenge: six weeks to publish a informational web site• Goal: to provoke internal services and Management for a

start of pride• Difficulties: WCMS integration unrealistic• Radical editorial and technical choices: facility and

availability

Stage II : the temporary Web site (end of March 2007)

Results

• Web site available on the envisaged date• General structure installation• Global « Look and Feel » clearly defined and

implemented• Content: recoverable pages partly redistributed

and available (more pages than initially envisaged)

Stage III : detailed analysis and implementation (April 2007 to Dec. 2007)

Enrich the graphical aspects • Improvement of the graphical aspects of the existing site • New CSS integration with new under-level menu

Enrich the ergonomics • Definition of the structure’s secondary navigation• Improve of the functional aspects of the “service” pages• IPG rules compliance• Definition of the priorities for the pages recovering • Definition of the metadata’s for the static pages,

complying with the IPG rules

Add a Public consultation module

Enrich the Content

• Enrich the links’ density

• Add French version for navigation levels 1 and 2

• Analyse, implementation, development of i-Center application– Existing documents migration with metadata assignation

• Sub-sites harmonization and integration– Europe cares– IQSG– Energy initiatives– Press-Forum– Media Library

Stage III : detailed analysis and implementation (April 2007 to Dec. 2007)

I-Center : an on-line documentation center

• A document profile with 15 metadata and authority lists

• Multilingual versions management

• Full text search on textual metadata

• Metadata assigned to more than 4000 documents (importation)

• Web based indexation and administrative management

• Orientation space to find references and services

Conclusions

• Successful collaboration between the stakeholders

• Lessons learned from the intermediate project (Stage II)– The general analysis allowed a consistent temporary realization– The rate of work acceleration will have as a consequence :

• A better allocation of the priorities and definition of the detailed analysis• The realization of a final site while increasing the internal and external

motivation

• Difficulties for Stage III– Shared updates of the contents– Multilingualism: translations hunting– DG DEV still has to integrate some specific contents or graphical templates

• Lesson learned from Stage III– A good structure allows multiple extensions– Efficient analysis of the I-Center allowed a relevant application

Thank you for your attention