London Metropolitan University

Postgraduate Studies

MA Digital Media Module CMP080N: Managing Digital Resources

Comparative Assessment Report

by Mickael Abensur 1004448

27.05.2011

Mickael Abensur

Module: CMP080N

May 2011

Comparison of two Business Information Systems Introduction

In the views of an upcoming preventive campaign, the British Dental Health Foundation has appointed an Information Manager to take care of the dissemination of all media assets. The information manager will work closely with the Director of Campaigns and our three Dental Advisors to produce and distribute educational leaflets as well as a dental weekly newsletter. The Information Manager will also ensure the maintenance of a dental treatment database along with an oral disease database, and make sure that all information are up to date. The Information Manager will have the critical task to share the information between all departments of our foundation, thus providing an invaluable resource to support the queries of our customers. Our three Dental Advisors forming the Helpline rely heavily on the information stored to respond accurately and swiftly to the external calls of our customers. The British Dental Health Foundation is an independent charity that aims for the past 40 years, to improve the nations Oral Health. It fosters a preventative dentistry attitude and the benefits of a beautiful smile. The Information Manager has the daunting task to compare and choose from two digital resources, the one that suits best the needs of the charity. Eventually, the selected resource will be used as a reference for the future British Dental Health Foundation documentation. Visit the British Dental Health Foundation website: http://www.dentalhealth.org

1. Target audience
The target audiences for both digital resources are adults who like to take care of their oral health condition. The slight difference with This is dentistry is that the Cosmetic dentistry Guide direct his resources to people who are likely to become future patients. As a matter of fact the Cosmetic dentistry Guide contains promotional content.

2. Coverage of the resource

After a lengthy research, I narrowed down potential digital resources to two of them. In the following paragraphs, I will discuss each resource, compare them and draw the critical differences between the two. It will then serve the purpose of choosing the most suitable educative resource to our problem. In a second instance, I will look at ways of extracting the data and implementing them in our information system. The Cosmetic dentistry guide (www.cosmeticdentistryguide.co.uk) is an online directory giving practical information on existing dentistry procedures. Mickael Abensur Module: CMP080N May 2011 2

The website is moderated by a panel of dental practitioners, notably by the Dr Kailesh Solanki, a Clinical Director in Manchester, UK. The website has been launched in February 2007. The website guides the user through best dental practices with a particular emphasis on cosmetic dentistry. The prime objective of the website is to raise awareness on dental procedures helping patients in their decisionmaking process. However, it is also implicitly used to promote the businesses of leading cosmetic dentists who regularly contribute to create the content. The resource enjoys also a rich directory of dental offices and laboratories, it is certainly due to the fame of the website moderators who are leaders in their businesses. A complete overview is given on all dental procedures, including a definition, the perceived benefits, a video, some illustrative pictures, a cost, the length of the treatment, most common situations where the treatment is required and alternative solutions. This is dentistry (www.thisisdentistry.co.uk) acts like an online directory of oral diseases and dental treatments, enlightening and advising the public on best oral practices. The website is moderated by a panel of dental practitioners, notably by the Dr Avik Jonathan Dandapat, a Clinical Director in Twyford, UK. The website has been launched in November 2009. Compared to a Cosmetic dentistry guide, This is dentistry website as a more generic approach to cosmetic dentistry and treats it in views to improve the overall patient oral health. Indeed, the website has assigned to a separate menu various problems that can affect your teething. In consequence the resource contains more leaflets. Secondly, while there are more articles in This is dentistry than in the Cosmetic dentistry guide, they are also more concise. Having less information on more various topics is likely to be of great help when you are down to respond quickly to unpredicted calls.

3. Usability of the resource

Cosmetic dentistry guide The resource is axed on cosmetic dental treatments; each leaflet brings a lot of information with a very detailed outlook of the risks, benefits, processes and duration of the treatment. The Cosmetic dentistry guide is in this way a lot more practical than This is dentistry website. Extended research in web User Experience (UX) conclude that people start generally to look on the left hand side then will look at the top-right corner of the page then down (Cooper, Reimann et al, 2007). The Cosmetic dentistry guide follows these rules. Articles and leaflets that build the resource, are easily accessible from the menu located on the left part of the screen, moreover, the second most important asset of the website, the dental offices directory, is found at the second hot spot. The layout clearly shows an intention to market the users Mickael Abensur Module: CMP080N May 2011 3

and convert them into future patients. In terms of design, the Cosmetic dentistry guide took great care of its design interface. The color palette used, is very soft and contrasted. It definitely proves that the web developers behind the construction of the website spent more time in researching an appealing look than This is dentistry website, retaining more users. The website has also been thoroughly tested and is completely free of bugs as opposed to the This is dentistry website. It is easy to subscribe to their RSS feeds and the user is able to choose which topic to follow. This is dentistry This is dentistry website can be described as a collection of texts informing on oral health topics. The site embraces a blog attitude where keywords can be retrieved with a search bar, and user can exchange comments on each new entry or subscribe to a RSS feed providing that they have created an account on Disqus (www.disqus.com). Blogs are a delight for information manager as the information is already stored in a database. As seen in the Principles of data management book, it is time efficient to modify an original database rather than creating a new one from scratch, even though the database cannot presently communicate with the organization data management system employed (Gordon, 2007). Having the possibility to subscribe to an RSS feeds enables an easy extraction of the data for personal perusal and archiving. Adopting a blog format also means a more sober interface with less multimedia content that would have impeded the users navigation. The possibility to receive weekly news straight into your mailbox means also the possibility to access the information offline. This is dentistry gives an option to subscribe to a mailing list provided you are a member of the site. The website takes the form of an encyclopedia rather than a magazine, you can actually look for a specific treatment or oral disorder by alphabetical order. Quick links to blog entries are available on the home page of the website. They are grouped under 5 main categories: Dental implants; dental problems; dental technologies; Cosmetic dentistry and Miscellaneous. These five categories are wide enough to have enough information and are relevant to a specific practice. Compared to This is dentistry taxonomy, the Cosmetic dentistry Guide has classified his blog entries under 11 feeds: Teeth whitening; dental implants; dentures; general; dentistry abroad; dental veneers; smile makeovers; invisible braces; Botox and facial rejuvenation; celebrity dentistry. If we were to group Teeth whitening; dentures; dentistry abroad; dental veneers; smile makeovers; invisible braces; Botox and facial rejuvenation; celebrity dentistry under a Cosmetic dentistry label, the feeds will be reduced to only 3 categories: Dental implants, cosmetic dentistry and general. This analysis indicates clearly the coverage of each blog. Where the Cosmetic dentistry Guide has paramount interest in cosmetic dentistry related topics; it neglects a preventative approach to dental practices by not mentioning any potential harming effects to your teething. A Cosmetic Mickael Abensur Module: CMP080N May 2011 4

dentistry Guide pushes the user to the consumption of purely esthetic products by hammering the reader with the fame of few cosmetic dentists or dental boutiques that excel in their practice and can exchange your smile for the one of a celebrity. I will fiercely encourage the adoption of This is dentistry digital resource for its pragmatic and holistic approach of dentistry compared to a Cosmetic dentistry Guide, although it is not very a well finalized website and contains navigational mistakes. The website has not been tested correctly and technical impairments can rebuke some users to use this good digital resource. For instance I have noticed that some product pages can be accessed only if you were to type the right keyword in Google with the name of the resource; there are no buttons linking to them. (e.g. Cerec page, http://www.thisisdentistry.co.uk/dental-products/cerec Accessed May 2011) To avoid this omission, I will have thoroughly recommended creating a sixth category called Dental Products. Secondly, some inconsistencies exist between the menu panels. A list of most common dental treatments/problems leaflets is displayed on the home page of the site but with no particular reasons, same links do not appear in the full menu listing all the treatments/problems (e.g. Invisalign link). We have just gone through the purpose of having a well design, interest based website. Let us now have a closer look to the website content by comparing two similar dental treatment leaflets. For clarity purposes I am going to take a well-known treatment, which is Teeth Whitening. On one side, This is dentistry gives a succinct presentation of the teeth whitening process, whereas Cosmetic dentistry Guide goes a lot deeper into the details of the practice. Both leaflets are accurate but the Cosmetic dentistry Guide gives a lot more details like the compatibility with veneers, the different whitening toothpaste available on the market with their corresponding chemical properties, harmful side effects that may occur after the treatment and how to prevent them happening. Moreover, the Cosmetic dentistry Guide enunciates each steps of the whitening process, either if it is the laser procedure at the dental boutique or if it consists of a professional home whitening kit. Details on the length and cost of the treatment are also given. The leaflet starts with a table of contents and links to a series of related articles. When it comes to decide on the behalf of my organization, I need to understand the usability and utility of this information. It might seems that the Cosmetic dentistry Guide is a lot richer than This dentistry portal but we need to understand that our customers will come to us for a variety of questions, especially for those that are not related with a dental practice (otherwise they will probably call their dentist first). On the contrary, This is dentistry do not bother the reader with the percentage of peroxide (a whitening substance) contained in each product, but gives relevant indications to the future user: This particular treatment will take 2 hours and will whiten your teeth up to 10 shades. Even though I found 2 spelling mistakes in the leaflet, it fulfill is duty to inform the audience on the various existing tooth whitening options. Mickael Abensur Module: CMP080N May 2011 5

4. Search options
Cosmetic dentistry guide Search options for the website ranges from direct links to article categories which is a broader way of surfing, to a search bar. The search bar searches for specific words in all the articles and retrieve the one that is the most relevant to your chosen keyword(s). There is also the possibility to use tags, which are a taxonomy system manually set up by the copywriter when publishing his content. Tags will prove to be useful if you want to expand your search to related articles while browsing an article. The website has also implemented RSS feeds that let the user peruse the articles offline within the RSS reader of his browser. On the other hand you can only access the leaflets providing guidance, from a fix menu located on the left side of every webpage. The leaflet seems to be the main body of the site thus justifying their ubiquitous position. An other less usual way of browsing the website content is enabled by looking at the Glossary. The Glossary links most of the technical terms to a leaflet or article, which opens a new page as well as providing the user with a short definition. This well-built website propose different search options that respond to different search methodologies to retrieve your precious information. This is dentistry The search options for this website are very similar to the Cosmetic dentistry Guide except that some of them are not properly implemented in the site. The search bar does not function neither do the RSS feeds (as to May 2011). Blog entries are accessible from any pages, leaflet links rest in the left side of every page and tags define the various news articles. There is no Glossary but the leaflets instead of being organized by dental specialties are organized by alphabetical order, which is a bit less intelligent.

5. Extra services
Nonetheless each website are built around a main pool of edited content, they also offer extra services that generate useful information. These features although are less visible and may be more difficult to extract data from. User generated content like blog comments or forum answers need to be verified before extraction. I have gathered in a single table all the features proposed by the two compared digital resources thereafter.

Mickael Abensur

Module: CMP080N

May 2011

Features Mailing list Videos Gallery Dentist directory Comments Question form Dental news Discussion forums Search bar RSS feeds

This is Dentistry Yes Yes No Not yet implemented Yes Yes Yes No Not yet implemented Not yet implemented

Cosmetic dentistry Guide No Yes Yes Yes (UK & Ireland) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes, but only for the blog Yes

1. Comparison of the services offered by two digital resources Videos are present in both websites and can give supplementary information on a specific dental treatment and/or dental problem. This is dentistry website has gathered a plentiful collection of web videos cleverly ordered by dental specialty. It can be of great help to educate the organization staff quickly on the existent dental procedures. Having a visual to support the information help you clarify the different areas of action present in the mouth. Discussion forums can provide the information manager with top-notch advices from experts in the industry. It can turn to be also a good place to follow patient cosmetic habits and keep the organization updated on the latest best dental practices. The Cosmetic dentistry guide includes a big directory of dental offices aross the UK and Ireland. Each dental office then has a page with a welcoming message, the list of services offered and peer reviews. It eventually helps to increase the visibility of their business online (Joyal, 2009). Such dental marketing may interfere with the guidance provided by the website.

Conclusion
Extra topics on preventative dental measures, oral heath disorders and oral organs mechanisms prove that This is dentistry website has the patient interest at heart. Furthermore this website is spared of branded messages, allowing users to focus only on the informative text. As opposed to a Cosmetic dentistry guide, the information found on This is dentistry website is kept Mickael Abensur Module: CMP080N May 2011 7

completely anonymous to the exception of the members comments. Despite the fact of few technical errors and yet to be implemented features, This is dentistry digital resource provides the reader with objective insights on modern dentistry. It empowers and entices him to maintain a good oral health as he sees fit instead of trying to influence his future choices with expert advices. This is dentistry is therefore the most suitable digital resource to support the British Dental Health Foundation goals.

Bibliography
Gordon, K. (2007) Principles of data management: facilitating information sharing. Swindon, UK: British Computer Society. Cooper, A. Reimann, R. and Cronin, D. (2007) About face 3rd edition: the essentials of interaction design. Indianapolis, USA: Wiley PubPrint. Joyal, F. (2009) Everything is marketing: the ultimate strategy for dental practice growth. Los Angeles, USA: Futuredontics Inc.

Mickael Abensur

Module: CMP080N

May 2011