Transparency and credibility: presenting corporate publications online

Margaret L Ruwoldt, Web Centre, Information Division [HREF1], University of Melbourne [HREF2], Victoria, 3010. m.ruwoldt@unimelb.edu.au

Abstract

Corporate publications are an important marketing tool for a university, particularly in a national environment of increasing competition for non-government funding sources. Corporate publications such as strategic plans and annual reports can demonstrate an organisation's stability, prospects for growth and overall quality.

Nevertheless, a comparative study in June 2004 found that most Australian universities do a poor job of presenting their strategic plans, annual reports and other corporate publications online. The study comprised a literature review followed by visits to 40 Australian university web sites.

Based on the study's findings, I propose a set of good-practice guidelines for Australian universities. The guidelines could equally apply to government agencies and other public-sector organisations.

Key findings from the survey of web sites

The key findings from the survey of 40 Australian university web sites are:

Most universities have an 'About Us' page that's easy to find and to some extent enhances the institution's credibility and reputation.
An 'Official Publications' page provides a helpful search/navigation tool for people unfamiliar with the university's activities and reputation.
Annual reports and strategic plans are typically presented only as inaccessible PDF documents. Most universities fail to provide an accessible alternative for people who cannot access the PDFs.
Annual reports and strategic plans are hard to find with internal search engines. Search results are cluttered with too many faculty, department, centre and other 'local' documents bearing very similar names. The Australian Catholic University is a notable exception: when you search the ACU National site for "annual report", the search engine returns a single, highly relevant result.
Most universities provide only the most recent version of their annual report, which means web users are unable to compare reports (and the university's performance) from year to year.
Using jargon to name or describe corporate publications can prevent web users from finding those publications.

A full report, including data collected during the survey and detailed analysis, is available from the University of Melbourne ePrints repository.[HREF3]

Findings from the literature review

The 'Official Publications' page lives on

The 'Official Publications' page has a place in corporate and government websites. Located in the 'About Us' section of a university website, it provides a helpful search/navigation tool for people unfamiliar with the university's activities and reputation.

Web users don't like PDFs

PDFs are typically inaccessible and disrupt the web user's experience of a site. Always provide accessible alternatives such as an HTML summary and a telephone number and email address for requesting a printed copy.

The 'About Us' pages should establish the organisation's credibility

People unfamiliar with the organisation are more likely to seek background information in the 'About Us' section of a website. Failing to provide clear, concise, factual information damages the organisation's credibility. 'About Us' pages should be highly usable and written for people unfamiliar with the organisation.

Good practice for Australian university websites

Provide an 'Official Publications' page

A generic 'Official Publications' page can help people find information on your website. Consider placing this page in the 'About Us' section of the site, and cross-reference from the site index. If possible, customise your search engine's results to display this page when a user enters a common publication title such as 'annual report' or 'alumni magazine'.

Depending on your website's structure, it may be useful also to provide tailored 'Publications' pages for specific topics and audiences:

Course and study-related information: handbooks, prospectuses, application kits
Media relations: reports, newspapers and magazines
Stakeholder, investor and community relations: annual financial and operational reports, research reports, strategic plans, prospectuses

Make publications accessible

For annual reports, strategic plans and other official corporate publications, create an HTML 'gateway' page that:

Is linked from the 'Official Publications' page
Summarises the content of the publication
Allows the user to either download the whole publication with one click or to select a specific section of it
Describes the plugin or other technology required to access the full report
Provides a link to the download page for the plugin
Uses descriptive anchor text for all links, including the title of the target document, file size and format
Gives a telephone number, email address and title of a person or department, so that the web user can request a printed copy or other format
Includes links to archived copies of annually-produced documents

Downloadable publications should satisfy the World Wide Web Consortium's accessibility standards.

Always include a date in the document's title. If the document covers a span of years, include the first and last years in the title.

For good usability, link anchor text must match the destination document's title. For accessibility, include the destination document's file format and size in the link anchor text (this helps people with non-graphical browsers and screen readers).

Review the content, structure and usability of 'About Us' pages

Poor usability, inaccessible documents and inappropriate content in the 'About Us' section of a university's website can damage the university's credibility.

Pay particular attention to conveying information about:

What the university does
When it was established
Where it is physically located: main campus and any others
Size of the university: number of students, employees, revenue
Background and history, accomplishments
Mission statement: philosophy, goals, values
Biographies and photos of senior managers (academic and general)
Financial position and history
How to contact the university: provide an email address and telephone number as well as an accessible web form

Be succinct. Provide links to more detailed information elsewhere on the site.

References

Dey Alexander (2003) "PDF is Not Fully Accessible". Workshop presentation given as part of the Web Workshop series at Monash University on 10 April 2003. Available online [HREF4]

Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO): Better Practice. Available online [HREF5]

Kara Pernice Coyne and Jakob Nielsen (2001) "Designing Websites to Maximize Press Relations: guidelines from usability studies with journalists. " Nielsen Norman Group.

Hoa Loranger and Jakob Nielsen (2003) "About Us: making it easy for visitors to find company information on corporate websites." Nielsen Norman Group.

Rachel McAlpine (2004) "What shall we do with the publications?" Available online [HREF6]

Rachel McAlpine (2000) "PDF Files on the Web". Available online [HREF7]

Jakob Nielsen (2003) "Gateway Pages Prevent PDF Shock". Available online [HREF8]

Office of the E-Envoy, United Kingdom: Web Guidelines. Available online [HREF9]

World Wide Web Consortium (1999) "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0". Available online [HREF10]

Hypertext References

HREF1: http://www.infodiv.unimelb.edu.au/
HREF2: http://www.unimelb.edu.au/
HREF3: http://eprints.unimelb.edu.au/perl/search/advanced?title=&title_merge=ALL&authors=ruwoldt
HREF4: http://www.deyalexander.com/presentations/accessibility-pdfformat/
HREF5: http://www.agimo.gov.au/practice/
HREF6: http://www.webpagecontent.com/arc_archive/160/5/
HREF7: http://www.webpagecontent.com/arc_archive/33/5/
HREF8: http://useit.com/alertbox/20030728.html
HREF9: http://www.e-envoy.gov.uk/Resources/WebGuidelines/fs/en
HREF10: http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/

Copyright

Margaret L Ruwoldt, © 2005. The authors assign to Southern Cross University and other educational and non-profit institutions a non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The authors also grant a non-exclusive licence to Southern Cross University to publish this document in full on the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM and in printed form with the conference papers and for the document to be published on mirrors on the World Wide Web.