Site information
Introduction
Our Internet site is a dynamic, evolving resource which aims to make a wide range of publicly available information readily accessible to policy makers, program managers, health service providers, researchers, teachers, students and the general community.
Working with government and non-government organisations and individuals, we obtain information on Indigenous health from a very wide variety of sources. Our small team of research staff based at Edith Cowan University, Perth
- contacts organisations and individuals involved in Indigenous health;
- monitors an extensive range of journals;
- searches the Internet;
- reviews a variety of documents;
- collects and maintains a wide range of printed resources (including articles, theses, government reports, conference papers, press clippings and speeches);
- attends conferences that have a major Indigenous health theme; and
- generally tries to find out what is going on.
We then collate, synthesise and disseminate this information in a more manageable manner through the Internet. Importantly, we complement this information with our own research into specific topics. Most of this research is undertaken in collaboration with experts in the field. A good example is our Summary of Indigenous health status, which benefited from the input of a number of our Consultants.
Not only is the information accessible through our site of direct benefit to policy makers, program managers, health service providers, researchers, teachers, students and the general community, but it also facilitates collaboration. The guestbook provides an interesting glimpse of the people who use our site.
We have designed our site to ensure that information is readily accessible to all of our users, whatever their particular interest. However, rather than find out more about our design ‘trials and tribulations’, you may wish to go directly into the site via our Home page. Alternatively, you may want a guided tour at For first-time users.
Designing our site
The design phase of our site had to address how we were going to make around 2,500 pages of diverse information available to users without it being overwhelming. Not an easy task as you can well imagine, given the size and complexity of our site. To make matters all the more difficult we had to make this information available to a considerable number of users who do not have access to the latest technologies. We were assisted in our planning by statistics that show most people access the site using Internet Explorer. Very few people use browsers of level 3 or below.
One of our first important tasks was to develop a structure which would make the enormous amount of varied information on our site as easily accessible as possible. In many ways, this means that you should be able to get to the specific information you want at a particular time with as few ‘clicks’ as possible. This, along with the feedback we received about our previous site (see Background to the HealthInfoNet), guided our design of this site. The site combines a meaningful structure – where the different levels link together logically – and the capacity to go directly through a ‘search’ function to a range of specific aspects (wherever they’re located within the logical structure).
Our first task, then, was to design a structure which is ‘meaningful’ to our wide range of users – policy makers, health program managers, service providers (including Indigenous health workers, doctors, nurses, allied heath professionals and health promotion workers), researchers, students and the general community. This structure needed to take account of the facts that the site is very large already (and will continue to expand) and is very dynamic, with new information being added on a daily basis.
After considerable thought, review of user feedback, and discussion (and a little argument!), we decided on a structure involving four main levels of navigation. The first level includes global aspects – Home, Contact us, Search and Links. The second level is the important directory into the specific aspects of our site. This directory is grouped loosely into three areas – health and directly related aspects (Health, Population, Environment and Programs), summarised and new information (Key facts and Bulletin), and the general resources and services we provide (Resources, Our services and Guestbook) – in which there is some overlap. The next levels of navigation enable you to locate more specific aspects within these areas. For example, if you want information about a particular health condition, you will find it through ‘’ and Health and Specific aspects’, and, then, depending on the type of condition, through ‘Chronic diseases’, ‘Infectious diseases’ or ‘Other aspects’.
As noted above, we also had to design our site so that it is accessible to people wherever they live in Australia (and the rest of the world), and whatever access they have to the Internet. This meant that we decided to make it as simple technically as possible. This will ensure that as few people as possible will be denied access because of slow transmission lines, limited computer capacity, and lower level browsers.
A bridge between old and new Internet technology was needed to enable this wide accessibility. We do not use ‘flash’ or menus which require ‘layers’ on our site, as this would stop many of our users from accessing our important information. With our site so strongly based around textual information, it was deemed unnecessary also to use advanced graphical tools.
Having acknowledged the importance of allowing all information to be accessed by low level browsers, we recognised also the need to keep up with current developments in site design. Stylesheets have been implemented throughout the site. As well as maintaining consistency across the site and facilitating maintenance by HealthInfoNet staff, stylesheets also result in faster loading of pages because there is less information to process.
The decision to fully implement stylesheets has meant that older browsers (level 3 and below) will not get the full range of colours on the site and there may be some inconsistencies with formatting. We recommend that, if possible, users update their browser to at least version 4, preferably of Internet Explorer.
An unfortunate consequence of designing our site around Internet Explorer is that users of Netscape Navigator do not have access to the best version. A similar problem results from the need to balance the use of new technologies with making the site accessible to low level browsers. We aim to make our important information accessible, regardless of which type and level of browser they use. There will be some limitations, however, for people accessing our site with Netscape Navigator and/or with low level browsers. These limitations relate to formats, and, in a few instances, anchors. With further development of the site, including the use of relevant new technologies, more substantial problems involving access may occur at times, but we will move as quickly as possible to address these problems as they are identified. Ideally, we would operate multiple sites - one group designed around the various versions of Internet Explorer and another around versions of Netscape Navigator. Being a low-budget site, however, this is simply not feasible.
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