We provide support to website administrators that is tailored to their requirements and learning styles. We can develop step-by-step written guidance, and provide training in managing website content and site administration, delivered face-to-face or online.
This service is available as an add-on to our Website Development service.
The clients range from those who have more experience with updating websites to those who need more guidance and someone alongside them. Different people learn in different ways: some are happy to ‘play’ and learn as they go along; others are hands-on but need a structured lesson; others like to refer to detailed written instructions.
Our Hassle-free website design & development package includes step-by-step guidance to creating and updating basic website content.
We will also provide tailored guidance to managing any more specialised content and functionality. Some websites have different types of user roles, alongside the main administrator. For example, editors can manage all content but don’t have access to manage the styling or functionality; or subscribers have read-only access. We will provide specific guidance for each user role.
Thanks for . . . your excellent (and patient!) training session today.
Media Officer, Molly Scott Cato MEP
We are always happy to provide training in managing the websites we develop. This can be either online or face-to-face in groups of 1-4 people, and usually last two hours. We use the step-by-step guidance as a framework for an introduction to the admin screens and how to accomplish various tasks like creating a new page and adding it to the website navigation menu, or adding images and downloadable documents to the site.
Many thanks Clare. It is a pleasure to learn from you!
Administrator, Hukeley Mission Community
Where required, we will also provide guidance to managing related services, such as mailing lists, social media accounts, or email set-up.
We can also provide documentation and training on websites that we have extended or refreshed, factoring in time for familiarisation with the technology and set-up.
Case study: Training on a new website
As part of setting up the Eco Church South West website, I delivered training to eight representatives of the Church of England across the southwest region.
I set up two dummy versions of the live website and set up each participant with a user account. Each participant brought the laptop or tablet that they would continue to use to update the website.
There was a mix of experience and learning styles in the room. I based the first part of the training on the step-by-step guidance, and took the participants through the most frequent tasks. As we undertook the tasks together, I demonstrated on a large screen and provided support. Some participants required more support through the tasks. Others used any extra time to experiment.
We then had a free-form session, where all the participants could play, and I was available to answer questions and suggest possible experiments with the styling and functionality as well as content. This part of the training led the participants to ask “What if…?” and to discover further potential uses of the website.
I kept the dummy versions of the live website available for the following few weeks, so the representatives could use them to build their confidence.
Case study: Manual for an existing website for a charity
Many thanks for all your work on the Governance Code website manual. The Code Group are very happy with it.
Charity Governance Code
The client was a voluntary sector coalition that promotes Good Governance, a code for the voluntary and community sector. The Code Steering Group already had a website written in WordPress and administered by a third party, and was now taking on management themselves. The members of the new website management team had varying experience in managing WordPress and other websites. They had received some basic training as part of the handover, but also needed a how-to manual.
The client provided administrator access to the website so that I could look behind the scenes. There was no need for me to make any changes to the site.
I provided a sample of a generic step-by-step guide for one of our hassle-free websites, which the client approved as a suitable approach.
I liaised with the website developer about certain ‘quirky’ aspects of the site, and with the client about the list of tasks the manual would need to cover – both on the current version of the website and some anticipated future developments. As well as the ‘known unknown’ tasks, this uncovered some ‘unknown unknowns’. We agreed that I would use my judgment regarding which tasks would be realistic for novices to undertake, and which would need more expert input.
I also made some recommendations regarding user roles, and minimising the risk of breaking the website.
The final manual was in three sections:
- The basics of accessing and finding the way around the admin screens.
- Website content management – managing pages; adding images and audio-visual content; adding links and downloadable documents; integration with Issuu for enhanced document presentation; managing temporary ‘banners’; and the navigation menus.
- User management – updating the user’s own profile, and managing other users and access.
