Web Presence. A 7Loci Evaluation Model

ITforTourismServices,UniBg2018-2019
WebPresence.A7Loci
EvaluationModel
which is available as a
reference at the course’s
webpages,
and can be used – and/or
improved – to begin practising
quality evaluations of
destinations’ web presence.
A7LociEvaluationModel.Lecture10,November20,2018

ITforTourismServices,UniBg2018-2019ITforTourismServices,UniBg2018-2019
Today
08.Tuesday,Oct30
Design:Usability,
Gamification,
Augmented&Virtual
Reality
page2
09.Tuesday,Nov13
Quality,Standards,
Models&Meta-Models.
The7Loci
11.Thursday,Nov22
WebPresence
QualityReporting
12.Tuesday,Nov27
Big-Bang
Disruptions
andTourism
13.Tuesday,Dec 4
Yourreports’
presentation:
1stgroup
14. Thursday,Dec6
Yourreports’
presentation:
2ndgroup
15.Tuesday,Dec11
Yourreports’
presentation:
3rdgroup
10.Tuesday,Nov20
WebPresence.
A7Loci
Evaluation
Model

What Are We Talking About Today?
1. A Model from the 7Loci Meta-Model
2. Questions about Identity
3. Questions about Content
4. Questions about Services
5. Questions about Individuation
6. Questions about Management
7. Questions about Usability
3A7LociEvaluationModel.Lecture10,November20,2018

A Model From the 7Loci Meta-Model
Thequestionnairewe’representinghere –whichmaybeaccessedonlineat
https://kiwimilano.it/dct/,andusedasareference –isaqualityevaluation
modelderived fromthe 7Locimeta-model.
Aswesaw,themaintheoreticalbasesthe7Locimeta-modelarethedefinition
ofqualityprovidedbytheISO,and thesevenloci fromtheclassicalrhetoric.
Thisquestionnairehasbeendesigned,discussedandimprovedintimein
order toconsider themainactors –andtherelevantneeds –involvedinDMOs’
(DestinationManagement Organizations’) websitesand webpresence.

Black Questions vs. Red Questions
Thequestionsprintedinblackcorrespondtotheoriginalonesproposedinour
coursetextMich,Franch,Gaio,“EvaluatingandDesigningWebSiteQuality”,
wherethe7Locimeta-modelwasintroduced underitsinitialname2QCV3Q.
Models,however,evolveintime,andyou’llfindmorequestionshere,printed
inred.Theyhavebeenaddedafterdiscussionalongtheyears, tocovernew
functionsortechnicalitieswhichhavegraduallyemergedintheWeb.
Itmaybeusefultodiscusswhythesenewquestionshavebeenaddedtothe
originalones.Andyoudefinitelymayadd morerelevantquestionstoyour
qualityevaluations,whenprovidingqualityevaluationsyourselves.

Questions About Identity
Sincemostofthequestionsareselfexplaining,notesinthispresentationdo
notconsiderthemonebyone.Thesenotessimplyunderline somesidesofthe
questionswhichmaynotbeimmediatelyclear.

Identity. Web vs. Social
Whenconsidering identity,theofficialwebpresenceofadestinationshould
beconfronted withitssocialpresence.Aretheyconsistent?

Identity. A Map
Wesawthatamap
oflinksamongthe
officialandsemi-
officialcomponents
ofawebpresence
shouldbedrawn.
Thismapoftheofficial
and semi-officialweb
presenceofNormandy
wasproduced byyour
colleagueslastyear.
imagecredittoIconFinder

Identity. The Rest Of The World
We’vealsoseenthatthewebreputationofanyentity –adestination,inour
instance –includeswhatispublishedontheWeboutsideitscontrol.
Thismeansthat anentityisinfactpresentontheWeb underthespeciesof
whatanyone(oranymachine)publishesaboutitanywhereontheWeb.
We’vealsoseenthatthereare tools–starting fromGoogleAlert–whichhelp
tracingwhatispublishedaboutanentityoutsidetheentity’scontrol.
Therefore,anyqualityevaluationofadestination’sidentityshouldmakeuseof
thesetools,anddosointime.

Geographical Identity
Asfarasidentityisconcerned, any
destinationshouldmakeclearat
oncewhereitcanbefound.
Forinstance,doyouknowwhere
PuertoMadrynislocated?
Well…thetouristhomepageof
PuertoMadrynshowsnorelevant
geographicalinformation.

Questions About Content
A7LociEvaluationModel.Lecture10,November20,2018 11

Links To Needed Content
Adestinationofficialwebsiteisrequestedtomakeavailableallsortsof
informationthatusersmayrequesttoaccess.
Somepiecesofinformation,however,mustnotnecessarilybepartofthe
websiteitself.
Thinkofdetailedinformationon events,forinstance.
Ifthedestinationofficialwebsiteprovidesdirectandworkinglinkstothe
webpagesofscheduledevents,thissolutionisperfectforusers.
Theonlyproblemiswhether suchlinksareprovided,andwork.
page12

Questions About Services

Services As Links
page14A7LociEvaluationModel.Lecture10,November20,2018
Aswesaw,adestinationofficialwebsiteisrequestedtomakeavailable all
sortsofinformationthatusersmayrequesttoaccess.
Somepiecesofinformationaboutservices,however,mustnotnecessarilybe
partofthewebsiteitself.Updatingthemdaybyday,orevenhourbyhour,
wouldbeabsolutelyunmanageablebytheDMOstaff…
Thinkoftimetablesoflocaltransport,forinstance.
Ifthedestination officialwebsiteprovidesadirectandworkinglinktothe
localtransport timetable,thissolutionisperfectforusers.
Theonlyproblemiswhether suchlinkisprovided,andworks.

E-Commerce Functions
E-commercefunctions,too,mustnotnecessarilybepartofthewebsiteitself.
Weconsidered inapreviouslecturethepossiblesolutionsthatadestination
mayadoptinmanagingitse-commerceaboutaccommodation.
1. Doingnothing.
2. Linkingtothehotels’websites.
3. Buildingitsownplatform.
4. DealingwithanOTAorametasearchengine.
Solutions2,3and4mayallbeconsidered satisfactory,afterall,albeitin
different waysandwithdifferentlevelsofefficiency.

Questions About Individuation

Positioning And Keywords
Whenverifyingpositioning–typicallyonGoogleandBingsearchengines –
digitingthenameoftherelevantdestination maynot beenough.
Ifyouwanttoverify howmuch,forinstance,Bratislavaasatouristdestination
isvisibleontheWeb,youshouldnotsimplysearchbydigiting “Bratislava”ona
searchengine.
You,instead,shouldalsocheckwhetherBratislavaappearsinthefirst
resultingpagesofasearchenginebydigiting “eastEuropecitytourism”,
“Slovakiatravel”,or“Slovakiacitytourism.”
Ifitdoes,thismeansthatwebmanagersactefficientlyintermsofcompetition.

Ranking
Asubstantialfactorishowmucha
websiteisactuallyvisitedandlinked.
To retrieveinformationonhowmuch
websitesarevisited,we’veseenduring
apreviouslecturethatsomededicated
tools,likePageRankandSimilarWeb,
areavailableontheWeb.
imagecreditto NetLogo

B2C Communication Basics
Thefirstthingtodowhenverifyingwhether theofficialwebsiteofa
destinationprovidescommunicationwithitsusers islookingwhether e-mail
addressesarepublished,andaresensibleaslinks.
Thesecondthing todoiswritinge-mailstothedestination, seewhetherthey
reply,andiftheirrepliesareuseful.
However,mostB2Ccommunicationisbasedonsocialnetworking,today.
Therefore,users’engagement insocialnetworking isafundamental factoras
farasthequalityofwebpresenceisconcerned.

Engagement In Social Networking
Asfarassocialnetworking engagementisconcerned, verifying
 who(managersvs.users)mainlypostsinthedestination’s socialpages
 inwhichlanguage(nationalvs.global)mostpostsarepublished
 towhatextentofficialpostsarecommentedbyusers
 howmanypostsorcommentsareindipendently placedbyusers,and
 howmanylikesandfollowersdothedestination’s socialpagesgather
areallcrucialthingstodo.

Destination Management Systems
Wehaveseenthat,digitallyspeaking,theidealsituationinwhichadestination
canplaceitselfisbeingabletorelyonaDestinationManagementSystem(DMS).
DMSallowcommunicationamongactors throughaplatform,whereactorscan
cooperate,andresultsofwhicharemadeavailabletousersascomponentsof
thedestination’s webpresence.Ifthishappens, B2BandB2Csomehowmeet.
VerifyingtheexistenceofanyDMSfunctionssimplybyvisitingtheofficialB2C
websiteofadestinationisseldompossible.
Morefrequently,destinationshave separateB2BandB2Cwebsites.
Thisis,forinstance,thecaseof visitbritain.orgvs.visitbritain.com.

Questions About Management

Content Update Vs. Technology Update
Itisimportanttomakeacleardistinctionbetweencontentupdateand
technologicalupdate.
Youcancomeacrosswebsiteswhicharetechnologicallyspeaking old-style,
butwhereusers’needsarefulfilledasfarascontent isconcerned.
Ontheotherhand,youcanhavetechnologically updatedwebsites,thecontent
ofwhichdoesnotsatisfytheusers’needs.
Asamatteroffact,thetechnologystaffinchargeofadestination web
presenceveryoftenworksseparatelyfromthestaffinchargeofmanaging
customerrelationships.

Links Compliance Verification
Tools,whichareavailableonline,canbeusedtoverifylinkscompliance.
Linkcheckerisoneofthem.
Linkchecker mustbe
downloadedandinstalled.
Another similartool,
brokenlinkcheck.com,can
beaccessedonline,
instead,andistherefore
maybeeasiertouse.

Questions About Usability

Usability Basics
Basicnavigationusabilityissues,likemenuandbreadcrumbs,havebeen
introduced duringapreviouslecture.
Asdestinations’ websiteshavetofulfillmultipleusers’needs–bothbefore
andduringvisits–andusers,whenconsultingthewebsite,mayhappento
searchforverydifferent sortsofinformation,a fulltextresearch functionanda
sitemapareparticularlyuseful.
(Undersomerespects,however,agood menucanadmittedlyworkasasite
map.)

Download Time & Mobile Friendliness
Tools,whichareavailableon
line,shouldbeusedtoverify
bothdownloadtime andmobile
friendliness.
Asfordownload time,itshould
becheckedthrough
https://tools.pingdom.com/
fromalltheserversavailableat
pingdom,and ondifferentdays.

Under Which Locus?
Finally,itisimportanttounderlinethatlociandquestionsshouldnot beused
asalistofcheckboxes.
Rather,lociandquestionsshouldbeusedasaguideline,inordertobesureto
consider –astheISOdefinitionofqualityrecommends –allthecharacteristics
oftheanalyzed entity.
Asamatteroffact,somequalityproblemsmaybeconsideredunderdifferentloci.
Forinstance,theproblemoflinksamongtheofficialandsemi-official
componentsofawebpresencecertainlyfallsunder identityproblems,butit
alsofallsforsureunderits individuationproblems.

Thanks For Your Attention
Picturefrom the2014Workshop

Web Presence. A 7Loci Evaluation Model

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