Free Case Study About Website Design

Part 1

The Evaluation of existing websites
Introduction
Web design is a significant process for any business entity. It is important to have business knowledge of the entity which is developing the website. The features that will be integrated in the website will help in aligning with the business objectives. With the dynamic nature of web technologies it is important to understand the issues that come with the development of business presence in the form of websites on the internet. It is a significant development that need to be done with care and with understanding of the developers and the business stakeholders. This paper will analyze websites of different companies and assess their alignment with the business objectives.

Analysis of the websites

The site www.online-convert.com consists of some desirable features that need to incorporate within the website to be developed. The site comprises of simple interface that is user friendly with navigation features buttons for switching back and forth across web pages. The menus used are also consistent in terms of color usage. The picture aids have also been used to supplement explanation for audio converter,, video, image, document e-book and archive converters. The use of pictures in this case is very precise and hence reduces wordiness within the website page.
The next site http://www.gadgetadvisor.com/computer-hardware/make-your-own-simple-home-media-center on how to make a simple home media center also have a number of features. The site uses pictures to identify various categories of contents such as photos, movies, TV shoes, files and others. It also employs the use of well cartegorised menus and which are well visible for easy selection. The navigation buttons are also provided to help visit various pages by moving back and forth in a flexible manner. Where the page appears to be wordy, the site explains ideas in very clear point form that makes the text easier to read and understand.
The site http://allmyapps.com/instant-setup uses simple and short screen shots to provide important communication to the user. The site consists of little text that is well balanced with the associated icons/commands used for downloading various office applications by a simple click event. The menus are categorized in to items for easy identification. The emphasies are also made on the most important commands/words by bolding and/or colouring them. The next site, http://m.lifehacker.com/5624331/top-10-external-hard-drive-tricks also makes use of pictures, simple interface and flexible navigation buttons just like the previous ones. It also uses screen shots to give explanation to the user concerning the top ten external hard drives. The heuristic features used make it user friendly and thus good for adaptation in building fresh websites.

The storyboard for the site structure and navigation layout design

The storyboard will comprise of the rough sketch with the website content. It will also comprise of navigation and design elements of the website to be developed (Squire 2011, Syed 2013). The navigation buttons will help users to navigate or change from one web page to the next in a flexible manner. The main website content is expected to include courses offered like piano, guitar, drum, vocal singing, music sheet reading and many others in addition to other intermediate and advanced classes on the same areas. The design elements may include menus for organizing the categories of various items to be selected by the user. Forms are also part of elements used for customer’s data entry in to the database. Other design elements include user friendliness of the interface in terms of simplicity, consistency of color use, the relevance of the web page titles or topics in relation to its contents among others. The navigation can be accomplished using either icons for back and forth movement or by use of links in every page. Every link is identified by familiar word, command or icon. Therefore, any click event to the selected link will enable the user to jump from the current web page to the next or to the previous page. The following diagram shows an example of sketch design. The piano course is currently selected by the user for registration. An event click to the update command after filling in all details is expected to send the details to the database. The Delete button removes the current record from the database while Cancel button is used to decline the ongoing registration in the form controls. Clicking a different course from the left hand side brings the form with the same details except the form title which changes with course name.

Choices of mark-up / scripting languages and web authoring tools

Some of the web languages to be used include hypertext markup language (HTLM), JavaScript language, and hypertext preprocessor (php) including MySql tools with Wamp server. The markup languages can be used for static web pages which are executed at the client side. The markup languages are easy to learn and understand in addition to being readily available given that they are open source. The JavaScript is also executed at the client side and are very helpful in making web pages flexible to users hence is more powerful as compared to markup languages in terms of extra functionality. However, both the hypertext markup language and JavaScript are used together in order to gain the advantages of both.
The php is used for server side scripting and hence are executed by the server. The result of execution is returned back to the client via the screen display. Therefore, php is also more powerful and has several functionalities which include mathematical features. The MySql is crucial in database creation and management when linked with php. The website data organized in the form of records and tables and created using MySql which also ensures that any change of information is updated in the database. JavaScript, php and MySql are also open source language tools that are readily available. As a result, no additional cost will be incurred in acquiring development tools.

Part 2

Justification of the usage of scripting languages in the website development
Scripting languages makes web pages to be flexible and user friendly. JavaScript, for, instance is very important in creating dialogue boxes or screen shorts that are used to guide users while visiting web pages. The scripting languages can also be used to add other functionalities such as date and time, animations, concatenation of string messages to the web page. The server side scripting language such as php is equipped with multiplicity of features which can be used to enrich the web page with extra advance functions such as mathematical functions and procedures, calendars, string concatenation among many other features (Curtsinger and Charlie 2011).
The scripting languages are also compatible when used together with the hypertext markup language (static language) which results to an ideal web site with different varying features. The date and time features provided by scripting languages will be used to describe the timeline of the courses offered. In addition, the currency features together with mathematical features and functions provided by php and JavaScript will be used in the detailed description and computation of course process. The scripting languages are very instrumental in the creation of computer tutorials for trainees or students depending on screen shots as well as screen casts for aged learners (Curtsinger and Charlie 2011, Yeh and Tom 2011).

Appropriate technologies for obtaining the minimal functionality specified above

The appropriate technologies for attaining the minimal functionality specified above include HTML, extended HTML (XHTML), JavaScript, Php and MySql for databases including CSS. The HTML, XHTML and JavaScript will be used for client side service execution while Php is for server side service execution with MySql being used as a database technology tool. The HTML can be used for menu design as well as linking of different web pages within the Reed Music School website while JavaScript for other functions like embedding images and videos (Squire 2011).

Part 3

Suitable web server for hosting
Wamp server will be the most suitable for hosting the website since it is also readily available just like other language tools described above. This web server has a number of features. The features include local host, PhpMyAdmin, www directory, Apache, php, MySql and others. The local host feature of Wamp server is linked to phpMyAdmin which permits database creation in the form of records and tables including SQL statements within the same interface. The same database interface allows import and export of database files through removable storage devices. The www directory is the root directory where all the php created files including database files are stored and accessed from. It also consists of php features which allow linking of database created to the php files for easy communication. Therefore, the web server consists of all relevant features of SQL database tools and php as well as features of apache for compatibility purposes with other web based software (Agrawal and Rajan 2014, Erb 2013, Agarwal 2014).

Detailed documented evidences of form validation and testing

The customer data can be entered and retrieved by use of forms created using markup languages. However, the form is linked to the database using php and MySql tools. The form will contain event click buttons such as update, delete and other relevant buttons. An event click to the update button will after data entry in the form will send all form data to the database. This acts as an evidence for the validity of the form as far as the design is concerned. On the other hand, any form that cannot send data to the database by updating is not a valid one. Other features such as list boxes and combo boxes used in a form can also be used as a short cut of entering data to the database. All these are form properties that can be used in form validation with confirmation that they are all functioning successfully. Therefore, if the form is able to communicate well with the MySql database linked to php without sending any error message when entering or retrieving customer data, then this is clear confirmation evidence that the form is fully tested for validity ( Erb 2013).

Security plan on how to manage, back-up and restore web site in future

This will involve network security as well as information and/or data security. There are two options here. They include internal hosted network security with all relevant data backups which will require facilities such as firewalls, routers, VPNs and other computer network devices. The second option is the use of service providers like cloud computing. Given that acquiring and maintenance of internal own network infrastructure is extra costly, the cheapest option is the cloud computing service providers which will be responsible for defining all the network and data security measures at all level of privileges. The Reed Music (RM) School will only be responsible for paying the services they use on a monthly basis based on three service models namely software as a service, infrastructure as a service and platform as a service. The cloud service providers will therefore be responsible for ensuring that the periods of network down time are restored via disaster recovery planning to permit business continuity as usual in the Reed Music School. To prevent unauthorized access to the school data files, the service providers will be responsible for defining data access rights through passwords and other user authentication measures at different administrative levels (Yin and Brown 2011, Mell and Grance 2011).

Conclusion

Website development involves understanding the business objectives of the business and having measures that will ensure that there is an understanding of the technologies used. Many technologies that are introduced to websites today require that website developers and analysts understand the needs for their website and how these needs will be met in the whole process. It is important to understand the website development process and have ways in which the websites will be understood in the entire process.

References

Curtsinger, Charlie, et al. "ZOZZLE: Fast and Precise In-Browser JavaScript Malware Detection." USENIX Security Symposium. 2011.
Yeh, Tom, et al. "Creating contextual help for GUIs using screenshots." Proceedings of the 24th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology. ACM, 2011.
Agrawal, Sonam, and Rajan Dev Gupta. "Development and Comparison of Open Source based Web GIS Frameworks on WAMP and Apache Tomcat Web Servers." ISPRS-International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences 1 (2014): 1-5.
Erb, Rachel A. "Thereare many ways in which librarians can capitalize on the benefits of open-source software (oSS), but a working definition of the open-source (oS) concept is essential before we proceed. Technically speaking, open source refers to an application in which the source code is available for the general public to use and modify without any cost to the user. in most instances, open source is a collaborative effort among programmers to improve the code and share their efforts for the benefit of others in " Technology for Small and One-Person Libraries: A LITA Guide 21 (2013): 99.
Agarwal, Puja. Virtual Assessment Tool. Diss. FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY, 2014.
Yin, L. Roger, and Lawrence Brown. "CASE STUDY–TRIPLE JEOPARDY: DATA BACKUP/LOSS, DISASTER RECOVERY, & NETWORK SECURITY." policy 12.2 (2011): 49-52.
Peter Mell and Timothy Grance, The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing: Recommendations of the National institute of Standards and Technology. National Institute of Standards and Technology, US department of commerce, Computer Security Division Information Technology Laboratory, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8930, 2011.
Squire, Kurt. Video Games and Learning: Teaching and Participatory Culture in the Digital Age. Technology, Education--Connections (the TEC Series). Teachers College Press. 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027, 2011.
Squire, Kurt. Video Games and Learning: Teaching and Participatory Culture in the Digital Age. Technology, Education--Connections (the TEC Series). Teachers College Press. 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027, 2011.
Syed, Shafqatullah. "Fundamentals of Digital Media (1306 CMST 2957380) Storyboard Project-Web Technology ProCleaning Website 24 July 2013." (2013).