2

Electronic Commerce

Session 5: Designing, Building and Evaluating Web Sites

Session Objectives The objectives of this session are:

To analyse some basic Web site design principles

To construct a Web site using e-commerce and Web-based software

To apply five criteria in order to determine the credibility of an Internet source

To test the usability of Web sites

Web Site Design Principles1,2

In this section we will: Briefly discuss

interface design Present some Web

site design principles

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Web Site Design Principles Cont’d What is an interface?

It is the front end (or user controls) of a device E.g. a remote control is the interface for a

television set Or a light switch is the interface for an electric

light

Web Site Design Principles Cont’d So what makes a good Web interface?

It must be easy to use The Web site functionality must be easy to deduce

Important items are always available, yet not intrusive E-commerce site should provide links to the checkout

The purpose of the Web site must be immediately understandable; things must be arranged logically This includes no cryptic icons

In addition, the site should be interesting and colourful (without being irritating)

Web Site Design Principles Cont’d When designing a Web site the designer must

consider: The type of screen or device that the Web page will

be displayed on (is it in colour etc.) Whether the page will be printed

Although this is a secondary issue

The size of the screen

The designer unfortunately does not have full control over these media

Web Site Design Principles Cont’d It is important to set a Web site theme. This

is a multi-step process: Set the Web site goals Determine your audience Define the look and feel of the Web site

Web Site Design Principles Cont’d To determine the goals of your Web site consider

asking the following questions: What is the purpose of creating your Web site? Should I concentrate on only one goal? What will happen if the goals change and how will it

affect the maintenance of the Web site?

Goals need to be balanced against available resources and time

Web Site Design Principles Cont’d To determine the audience of the Web site

consider the following factors: Visitor’s age: young, elderly or ageless? Language: is there a requirement to support more

than one? Culture Income group: who can afford your product/service? Educational sophistication: scientific Web sites have

less images Attention span: after a few clicks the visitor might

leave

Web Site Design Principles Cont’d When considering the Web site look and

feel it is important to communicate: The company’s logos, name, products and

location The unique qualities of the company

Web Site Design Principles Cont’d Design principles

Nonlinear presentation

One or two screens per page

Simple navigation Small graphics for

faster page loading Appealing visual

effects

Web Site Design Principles Cont’d The WWW is characterised by:

Non-linear information delivery Pages that are viewed on desktop PCs, Notebooks

computers, Web-enabled mobile phones and Palm PCs

Multiple Internet connection options including Fibre optic lines, TV cable and dial-up phone lines

These characteristics must be considered when designing a Web site

Web Site Design Principles Cont’d Nonlinear Presentation:

Traditional media, e.g. a lecture, present information in a linear way

A Web site should utilise multi-dimensional hyperlinks for quick, user-centered navigation

Web Site Design Principles Cont’d One or Two Screens Per Page:

The home page of a Web site should be no longer than one or two pages Effective home pages present corporate

information, logos and links on the first or second screen

This prevents the need for a significant amount of scrolling, since the top of the page is what a visitor sees when entering the site

Web Site Design Principles Cont’d Simple Navigation:

The layout of a Web site should be clear and simple allowing easy navigation Hyperlinks should be grouped together logically Each hyperlink should connect a major topic or

category e.g. Products

Web Site Design Principles Cont’d Navigational links could be presented as:

A bar of file folders A line of small rectangular or oval buttons A list of underlined text

For easy navigation links should be placed: On the left, right or top side of the screen Or frames could be used which freeze the

navigation controls on the screen

Web Site Design Principles Cont’d Smaller Graphics For Faster Page

Loading: The larger the graphics the longer a Web

page will take to load, especially on a narrow-band connection (e.g. dial-up) Visitors will probably get fed up and leave the site

Web Site Design Principles Cont’d As a general rule:

JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group image format) is a 24-bit (16.7 million colours) image format

Photographs should use the JPEG format A JPEG pictures on a Web page should be

smaller than 50KB Not more than two (2) 50KB JPEG images

should be on a single Web Page

Web Site Design Principles Cont’d Alternatively:

The GIF format (Graphics Interchange Format by CompuServe) is an 8-bit (256 colours) image format

The GIF format is therefore suitable for navigation buttons, logos and Icons

Navigation buttons should be smaller than 5KB each Typical buttons are 1-2KB each

Web Site Design Principles Cont’d Appealing Visual Effects:

Appealing visual effect can be made using the right combination of style, layout and colour 12 point Times New Roman or 11 point Arial

fonts are typically used for regular text Headings are usually in a different colour, bold or

in a larger font

Web Site Design Principles Cont’d Colour contrast between text and background

is crucial It is best to use a light background colour and dark

text Special effect (e,g. blinking text) are suitable

for short text strings, e,g, “Special Offer” not long sentences

Always check the page layout on 12.1” – 15” diagonal screens since this is the monitor size for the average user

Web Site Design Principles Cont’d Some additional design hints include:

Always ensure that the user can get to all important pages (e.g. product descriptions) using a small number of mouse clicks Users get fed-up after a few mouse clicks

Always design your Web site for the slowest connection speed, and the earliest browser used by your target audience

Web Site Design Principles Cont’d Some additional design hints include:

When creating information sites include a lot of white space; make the pages simple and uncluttered Users get fed-up after a few mouse clicks

Always write an outline for your content and decide whether each major topic will be on a separate Web page (recommended); and which sub-topics require their own pages

Constructing a Web Site3,6,7,8

Software and hardware requirements

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Constructing a Web Site Cont’d From the company goals you should be able to

estimate The number of visitors that will use your site The number of pages viewed by the average visitor The average and maximum allowed size of each page The maximum allowed number of simultaneous

visitors

This allows the software and hardware requirements to be determined

Constructing a Web Site Cont’d First let us review some fundamentals

about Web clients and servers

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dWeb Clients and Servers When an individual connects to the Internet to

view a document, they become a client on the Webs client/server network

The client/server architecture is used for LANs, WANs and the Web.

Typical request serviced by servers connected to these networks include request to print, to retrieve information and to access databases

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dWeb Clients and Servers Web servers typically have

More memory Larger and faster disk drives than client computers

Web browser software e.g. IE, Netscape and Firefox is the software that makes computers work as Web clients

The Internet connects several different types of computers together, therefore Web software must be platform neutral

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dDynamic Content A static page is an unchanging page retrieved from a

disk A dynamic page is a page created by a program

(script) based on user input E.g. a Web client inquires about the status of an order and

the Web page that is returned is created from information stored in a database

This property (being dynamic) can affect the performance of the Web Server static pages are delivered faster than dynamic pages

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dDynamic Content The first Web site to provide dynamic pages used

server side scripting Programs running on the Web server that create web

pages These technologies are slow

Newer technologies used for generating dynamic content include: Microsoft’s Active Server pages (ASP) Sun’s Java Server Pages (JSP) Apache’s PHP Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP)

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dDynamic Web Pages: The Future Some critics say that ASP/JSP/PHP etc. do

not solve the problem since they simply shift the responsibility of Web page creation from people to programs

A project that is currently underway to tackle the problem of dynamic Web page creation is the Apache Cocoon project

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dDynamic Web Pages: The Future The Apache Cocoon project:

Is creating a Web development framework that Allows programmers to query the system using data in XML

format Receives output in multiple formats including HTML

The content is stored in XML tags which describes the semantics (meaning) of each content item A Java servlet handles the information request A style sheet is applied to the data

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dServers A Server is any computer used to provide

files or make applications available to other computers connected to it through a network Server software refers to the programs that

run on the server Web Servers are connected to the Internet

and serve Web pages (e.g. Apache)

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dServers

E-mail Servers handle incoming and outgoing email

Database Servers are server computers on which database management software runs

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dWeb Client/Server Communication When a Web Client requests a page from a Web server

the following occurs The request is converted into HTTP by the browser and sent

to the Web Server The Server receives the request and retrieves the information

requested by the Client The Server formats the information using HTTP and sends it

back to the Client The Client displays the information in the browser

Web pages may take long to appear because each page element requires a separate request/response

Constructing a Web Site Cont’d2/3-Tier Client/Server Architecture The typical Web Client/Server model is two tier

because it has one client and one Server In the three-tier Client/Server model the third tier

includes Server applications that supply information to the Web Server E.g. a catalog style Web site with search, update and

display functions: the catalog database and database management software would make up the third tier

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dWeb Server Hardware Web Servers have

more memory, faster hard drives and faster processors (or multiple processors) than desktop machines

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dCost A high-end desktop PC with 512MB RAM,

3GHz processor, a 200GB IDE drive, a good monitor and DVD/CD-RW drive cost between US$2000 - $4000 (in 2004) A low end Web server might cost the same amount

Companies spend between US$6,000 and $400,000 for a Web server

Suppliers of these servers include Dell, Gateway and Hewlett Packard

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dWeb Server Architectures Server farms refer to large (hundreds, or

thousands) of Web servers used to handle daily traffic on large Web sites

A Centralised architecture uses a few very large and very fast computers

A Distributed/decentralised architecture uses a larger number of less powerful computers

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dWeb Server Architectures The Centralised architecture requires

Expensive computers Is more susceptible to technical problems

If one or a few of the servers are available then a large proportion of the site is unavailable

As a result a backup/recovery plan is essential

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dWeb Server Architectures The Distributed/decentralised architecture:

Spreads the risk over a large number of servers The smaller servers are less expense that larger ones

(the cost of 100 smaller servers is usually less that the cost of one large one)

Additional hubs and switches are required to link the servers together and to the Internet

These sites might also use load-balancing systems which are an additional cost

Constructing a Web Site Cont’d Load Balancing Systems3

A load-balancing switch: A piece of network hardware that monitors

the workload of servers attached to it Assigns incoming web traffic to the server

with the most available capacity at the given time

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dWhy Load-balance? Allows Highly-Trafficked Sites To Maintain Fast

Response Times Server Redundancy - If An Application Server

Goes Down, Your Site Stays Up Better Site Performance = Better User Experience

= Better Sales Results Readies Your Hosting Configuration For Traffic

Growth & Intense Traffic Spikes

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dSimple Load-Balancing Traffic enters the site

from the Internet through a router (not shown in diagram)

This traffic is then directed to the appropriate Web server by the load-balancing switch

www.inetu.com

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dLoad Balancing

Systems Cost Load-balancing

switches and software cost between US$10,000 and US$50,000

www.inetu.com

Constructing a Web Site Cont’d It should now be clear

what hardware and server software is required to construct a Web site

In this next section we will discuss the client-side and server-side software used to construct Web sites

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Constructing a Web Site Cont’dClient-side Technologies Client-side Web technologies include:

HTML XML JavaScript VBScript Java Applets

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dServer-side Technologies Server-side Web technologies include:

Perl/CGI JSP PHP Microsoft ASP

Constructing a Web Site Cont’d These technologies will be discussed in the

next session

Constructing a Web Site Cont’d In addition to the client-

side and server-side software that has just been discussed, it is also important to know the e-commerce software that is available to businesses, who either want to host their own Web sites, or want to outsource the hosting function

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Constructing a Web Site Cont’dFinding and Evaluating Web Hosts When a company takes on the responsibility of

hosting their own Web site this is called self-hosting Small and mid-size businesses tend to outsource to a

third party, i.e. use a Web hosting service provider These third parties are called Internet Service

Providers (ISPs), Commerce Service Providers (CSPs), Managed Service Providers (MSPs) or Application Service Providers (ASPs)

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dFinding and Evaluating Web Hosts Cont’d To find a host a company must determine what

type of service they require, for example: A shared hosting service where the Client’s Web site

is on a server which hosts other Web sites A dedicated hosting service where only the Client is

hosted on the Server Or, a co-location service where the Client installs his

own hardware and software, and rents a physical space, a reliable power supplier and an Internet connection

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dFinding and Evaluating Web Hosts Cont’d A list of Internet service providers can be found

on: http://thelist.internet.com http://www.hostindex.com http://www.tophosts.com http://www.hostSearch.com

Exercise: use the above sites to find ISPs in North America

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dElectronic Commerce Software The software requirement for e-commerce

site vary tremendously and are dependent on several factors including: The size of the enterprise and its projected

traffic The budget

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dElectronic Commerce Software Cont’d All e-commerce solutions must provide at

least the following: A catalog display Shopping cart capabilities Transaction processing

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dElectronic Commerce Software Cont’d Larger e-commerce site require additional

functionality, such as: Middleware that links the company’s existing system

(inventory control, order processing and accounting) to the e-commerce system

Databases and Applications Supply chain management software Customer relationship management software Content management software Knowledge management software

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dCatalog Display This is used to organise the goods being sold Static catalog

This is a simple list written in HTML that appears on one or more Web pages

To add or delete items from the catalog it is require to edit the HTML pages

Dynamic catalog Information is stored in a database May feature photographs of items, detailed descriptions

and search facilities

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dCatalog Display Cont’d Smaller Web stores selling fewer than 40 items

only need a list of products or product categories Images of all the products might be able to fit on the

same page Larger stores require

More sophisticated navigation, and product organisation tools

Also they must often alternative ways of finding products, e.g. product categories as well as a free-text search capabilities, e.g. “stereos”

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dShopping Carts In the earlier years of e-commerce text forms

were used to enter orders. These forms were error prone because customers had to: Write down product codes, unit prices and other

information about the products before going to the order form

Customers also had to write down the price of the item which was often on another page

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dShopping Carts Cont’d Modern shopping carts keep track of the items a

customer selects, allowing them to add or remove items, or simply to view the cart

All information about the item, including its price and product code are stored in the shopping cart automatically

The clicking of a button (e.g. the checkout button) executes the purchase transaction

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dShopping Carts Cont’d Some Web commerce sites allow the

storage of items in a shopping cart over a period of days, allowing the user to come back and pay for the items at that time

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dShopping Carts Cont’d Companies that sell shopping cart software

include: http://www.salescart.com/

A one off cost of $250-$400 ASP, ASP.Net & PHP

http://www.webgenie.com/ Single User license $495 Perl/CGI

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dTransaction Processing Transaction processing occurs when the Shopper

proceeds to the virtual checkout At this point volume discounts, sales tax and

shipping costs are calculated (sales tax and shipping charges must be kept current)

These calculations must also include any coupons, special promotions or time sensitive offers (e.g. make a purchase by a given date and get a discount)

A secure communication link is subsequently established to transmit payment information

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dMiddleware Links the e-commerce software to existing

system Middleware may be written in-house or bought

from middleware vendors or consulting firms The total cost of a middleware implementation

can range from $50,000 to millions E.g. of middleware vendors are www.beasys.com

and www.broadvision.com

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dDatabases A database manager stores software in a

highly structured way The database structure determine how easy

the database manager can retrieve the information stored in the database

Smaller e-commerce sites can use low cost databases such as Microsoft Access

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dDatabases Cont’d Larger e-commerce sites require more expensive

data management software such as: IBM DB2 Microsoft SQL Server Oracle

These packages cost between US$5,000 and US$200,000

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dDatabases Cont’d An increasing number of companies and

organisations are beginning to use MySQL which is open source software Customers pay for service support if required

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dApplication Integration Application programs perform specific functions,

e.g. creates invoices An application server receives its input from Web

servers which in turn is supplied by the user The function of the application software is

dictated by the rules of the business; this is called business logic

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dApplication Servers Application servers are divided into two groups:

Page-based application systems which return pages generated by scripts containing rules for presenting the data Examples include Macromedia ColdFusion, Java Server

Pages (JSP), Active Serer pages (ASP) and PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP)

This technology works well for small to mid size sites

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dApplication Servers Cont’d

Component-based application systems separate the presentation logic from the business logic. Each logical component is created in a separate module E.g. Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs), Microsoft

Component Object Model (COM) and Object Management Group Common Object Request Broker Architecture (COBRA)

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dWeb Services An accepted definition. is not yet available However it is a combination of software

tools that allow application software in one organisation to speak to application software in another organisation over a network

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dWeb Services Cont’d

E.g. a mortgage application service company obtaining information from consumers

forwarding the information to a Building Society for a mortgage decision

decision is relayed back to the service company

These services use XML

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dE-Commerce Software for Small to Mid-Size E-

Businesses E-commerce software for small to mid-size

business is typically provided by commerce service providers (CSP)

CSP have the advantage of Offering free or low-cost e-commerce site building

software Cost typically less than US$20 month

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dE-Commerce Software for Small to Mid-

Size E-Businesses Cont’d Service appropriate for small businesses

selling no more than 50 items Transaction volumes of fewer than 20 a day

E.g. ValueWeb hosts over 180,000 Web site for over 130 countries

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dMall-style CSP Provide small businesses with:

An Internet connection Web site creation tools Little or no banner advertising clutter Shopping cart software, and payment processing

The monthly fee is higher than lower-end providers (therefore less ads) May charge a one-time setup fee Percentage or fixed charge for every transaction

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dMall-style CSP Cont’d Examples include eBay Stores and Yahoo!

Stores

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dEstimating Operating Costs For Small Web

Business Using ISP The first year cost (in US dollars) for Web businesses that

sell less than 50 different items Initial site setup fee $200 Annual maintenance $1200 Domain name registration $70 Scanner or digital camera $500 Photo editing software $100 Occasional HTML design help $400 Merchant credit card setup $200 Total first year cost $2670

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dCost of Self Hosting a Site for a Small Business Setup and Web site maintenance includes

Equipment: (server and network gear) one time cost of US$3000 - $20000

Communication: T1 or fractional T1 cost US$1200 - US$12,000 per year

Physical location: (e.g. room security, air conditioning and communication access) cost $5,000 a year

Staff: minimum cost US$50,000 - US$100,000 annually Total cost US$60,000 - US$100,000 or more for the

first year, and about the same in subsequent years

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dCost of Self Hosting a Site for a Medium-

Size and Large Business The startup cost is US$100,000 -

US$500,000 Recurring annual cost of 50% this amount

Large businesses spend US$1 million - US$50 million to launch, with 50% recurring annual cost

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dSoftware Tools For Medium-Size to Large E-

Businesses The software tools for midsize to large businesses

include: Macromedia Dreamweaver Microsoft FrontPage Visual Studio .Net – for dynamic pages Shopping carts, content management software Middleware

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dSoftware Tools For Medium-Size to Large E-

Businesses Cont’d Buying and using mid-range e-commerce

software has an annual cost of US$2,000 - US$50,000 Offers connectivity to database systems Provides connections to existing inventory control

software E,g, IBM Websphere Commerce Professional

Edition (cost US$80,000 per processor)

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dE-Commerce Software for Large Businesses Higher transaction loads required Software cost much more Extensive support for B2B commerce Requires several dedicated computers, Web

server systems and firewalls E.g. IBM WebSphere Commerce Business

Edition

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dCustomer Relationship Management The goal is to understand the customer’s

specific needs and customise the product to suit them

A customer whose needs are being met exactly is willing to pay more for goods or services

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dCustomer Relationship Management Cont’d CRM software requires input from

Sales automation Customer service centre operation Marketing campaigns Customer activity data from the Web site

This helps managers to: Gather business intelligence Plan marketing strategy Perform customer behaviour modelling Product and service customisation

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dCustomer Relationship Management

Cont’d E.g. Siebel Systems; price starts at around

US$200,000; an average of about US$5,000 per user

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dSupply Chain Management Helps to coordinate planning and operations with

industry partners SCM software helps with

Planning: helps companies develop coordinated demand forecast using information from partners

Execution: helps with warehousing and transportation management

E.g. i2 Technologies. A wholesaler with 3-4 distribution Centres might have to pay US$1 million for the SCM software

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dContent Management Software Used to update or maintain Web site

content Allows control of large amount of text,

graphics and media files E.g. Documentum which cost between

US$200,000 - $500,000

Constructing a Web Site Cont’dKnowledge Management Software Helps companies to

Collect and organise information Share information among users Enhance the ability of users to collaborate Retain knowledge gained to be used by future users E.g. IBM Lotus Discovery Server KM software can cost between US$50,000 to US$1

million or more

Evaluating Web Sites4

The Internet provides a rich source of information, however Although it is tempting

to think that everything is on the Internet, it is not

There are many Web sites with inaccurate, confusing and misleading information

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Evaluating Web Sites Cont’d Since there is no editor in charge of the

Internet it is necessary to evaluate Web sites before using the information on them

Many criteria have been suggested in the literature for the evaluation of the credibility of an Internet source

Evaluating Web Sites Cont’d However the criteria that this course will

adopt are: Authority Accuracy Objectivity Currency Coverage

Evaluating Web Sites Cont’dAuthority Authority is concerned with the credentials of the

author of the information Who has created the Web page content? Is there any author contact information? What degrees or experience does the author have?

These questions help to determine whether the author is a reliable source or even an expert in the subject area

Evaluating Web Sites Cont’dAccuracy This is concerned with the accuracy of the

information contained in the Web site Can any of the facts be verified against another

source? Are there spelling or grammatical errors (since this

helps to indicate whether the author took care in writing the material)?

Is there a person or body responsible for the accuracy of the information (e.g. the Publishers of a Journal do blind peer reviews)?

Evaluating Web Sites Cont’dObjectivity This is an attempt to determine whether the

information is objective or biased Does the author have a clear point of view? Is the site run by Government, a University or

a business trying to sell a product?

Evaluating Web Sites Cont’dCurrency This is concerned with the publication date of the

article On Web sites this is not always clear Information that is updated regularly is more

likely to be useful as references for research papers

Web sites with links that go nowhere (i.e. dead links) often indicate that it has been abandoned or that the information is simply not up to date

Evaluating Web Sites Cont’dCoverage This is concerned with whether information about

a given topic is covered in-depth Shorter articles, which are most common on the

Internet, tend not to have the depth of information required for research papers

Articles for bibliographies or a list of references provide a valuable source of additional articles that can be used

Evaluating Web Sites Cont’d Typically, the order of importance of

sources are: Peer-reviewed Journals Peer-reviewed conference proceedings .gov, .edu sites (run by the government and

Universities) .org, .com, .net sites (run by individuals or

companies)

Web Site Usability5,9,10,11

“From whence we came” Early Web sites

simply provided information and often did not include e-mail addresses; those who did did not have enough staff to respond to the email

Web Site Usability Cont’d A visitor should be given access to the:

organisation’s history, A statement of objectives/mission statement Information about products or services A way to communicate with the organisation

Every visitor to a Web site is a potential customer It is difficult to meet all the needs of visitors

Web Site Usability Cont’d Some of the motivations of visitors

include: Learning about products and services Buying products or services Obtaining general company information Identification of the management team and

their contact information Obtaining company financial information in

order to make investment decisions

Web Site Usability Cont’dMeeting Visitors Needs To meet the needs of Web site visitors you must

consider: The expectation level and experience when they

enter your site The communication channel used to connect and the

bandwidth The web browser used The add-ins available for the browser being used

Web Site Usability Cont’dBuild Flexible Web sites Separate version with and without frames Text-only versions (for visually impaired people

who use special browser software) Get user the option to download smaller versions

of graphics If audio or video clips included, give user the

option to select the connection type (so that adjustments may be made for bandwidth)

Web Site Usability Cont’dBuild Flexible Web sites Cont’d Let users select the level of detail, viewing

format and download format Offer visitors multiple information formats

(e.g. HTML, PDF or Excel spreadsheet for financial data)

Web Site Usability Cont’dMacromedia Flash There has been some controversy

surrounding the use of Macromedia Flash: The files (which are not rendered in HTML)

take a long time to download, especially if you do not have a broadband connection

Few major e-commerce sites use these type of animated graphics pages

Web Site Usability Cont’dMacromedia Flash Cont’d

Some tasks however do lend themselves to animation (e.g. pants fitting at http://www.leefit.com/)

One solution is to offer Flash or non-Flash pages

Web Site Usability Cont’dWeb Site Design Goals A Web site developer should try to meet the

following goals: Provide easily accessible organisational information Provide a two-way communication link with the

organisation Encourage return visitors (e.g. announce upcoming

content) and keep the attention of existing visitors Provide full access to products and services

Web Site Usability Cont’dCustomer Trust and Loyalty Customer trust/loyalty translates to return visits

A customer that purchases a product from a business and gets good service will begin to trust the business. Multiple good experiences leads to loyalty A 5% increase in customer loyalty can yield 25-80% profit

Customer service on E-commerce sites Research indicates a rating between average to low There is often a lack of integration between the call centres

and the Web site E-mail responsiveness is also an issue (slow or no replies to

emails)

Web Site Usability Cont’dUsability Testing Companies are only now performing usability

testing on their Web sites Average e-commerce sites frustrate up to 70% of

their users (resulting in the user leaving the site without purchasing anything) Sites are confusing or difficult to use

In many cases simple changes can improve the usability of the site(See http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/ and http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ for further details)

Web Site Usability Cont’dCustomer-centric Web Design The following guidelines serve to meet the needs

of the customer (as opposed to any Web site visitor): Arrange links in the way that a customer would use

them It should be possible to access information quickly Keep product and service descriptions simple, do not

over sell by including a lot of marketing Keep the language simple and jargon free

Web Site Usability Cont’dCustomer-centric Web Design Cont’d

The Web site should work with the oldest browser, running on the oldest computer at the lowest bandwidth This might mean several different versions of the

Web site are required (what about the cost of updating content?)

Label all navigational aids clearly Test text visibility on smaller monitors

Web Site Usability Cont’dCustomer-centric Web Design Cont’d

Choose colour combinations that would not impair the vision of colour-blind visitors

Test the usability of your site using potential users

Always ensure that enough information has been provided for the customer otherwise they will go elsewhere.

Web Site Usability Cont’dWeb site Response Times 9,10,11

The required response time for hypertext navigation is one second, therefore your Web pages should be no more than 3KB (assuming a 28.8kbps modem which most users have).

The above limitation rules out most graphics

Web Site Usability Cont’dThree Important Response Times The basic advice on response times are:

0.1 seconds for a user to feel that a system is instantaneous

1.0 seconds for the user’s thought to remain uninterrupted

10 seconds for keeping a users attention

Generally, the response time should be as fast as possible

Web Site Usability Cont’dContinuous Feedback When an immediate response is not possible

continuous feedback should be provided Myers11 suggests a percentage completed indicator,

if the operation takes more than 10 seconds, which has three advantages: It assure the user that the system has not crashed It indicates how long the user has to wait It provides the user with something to look at, which

makes the wait less painful (for this reason a graphic progress bar is far better than text)

Web Site Usability Cont’dContinuous Feedback Cont’d When the amount of work to be done by an operation

is unknown a percentage completed indicator might be inappropriate

In this case a number of progress indicators are still available: If an operation goes through a defined set of steps, these

steps could be displayed as they are started and completed As a last resort progress indicator, such as dots printed on

a status line or a spinning ball could be used – which indicates that the system is working

Web Site Usability Cont’dContinuous Feedback Cont’d For operations that complete within 2 – 10

seconds a percentage done indicator is unnecessary

References[1] Darnell, Rick, et al., “HTML4: Unleased”, Sams.net Publishing, First Edition, 1997

[2] Zhao, Jensen J., “Web design and development for e-business”, Prentice Hall, 2003

[3] INetU, “Load Balancing”, 2004. Online document available at www.inetu.net/services/loadbalancing.php

[4] Burrell, Carolyn, Hingley, Chris, “Evaluating Business Web Sites”, 2002. Online document available at http://avconline.avc.edu/library/Distance_Ed/Business/eval_business_web_sites.htm

[5] Nielsen, Jakob, “Flash: 99% Bad”, Alertbox, Oct. 2000. Online document available at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20001029.html

[6] Schneider, Gary, P., “Electronic Commerce: The second wave”, Thomson Course Technology, Fifth Annual Edition, 2004

[7] W3C, “HyperText Markup Language (HTML) Home Page”, 2004. Online document available at http://www.w3c.org/MarkUp/

[8] Deitel, H., Deitel, P., Nieto, Frank, L., Lin, Ted, M., Sadhu, Praveen, “XML: How to Program”, Prentice-Hall Inc., 2001

References[9] Jakob Nielsen, “Why this site has almost no graphics”, 2005. Online document available at

http://www.useit.com/about/nographics.html

[10] Jakob Nielsen, “Response Times: The Three Important Limits”, 1994. Online document available at http://www.useit.com/papers/responsetime.html

[11] Myers, B. A., “The importance of percent-done progress indicators for computer-human interfaces.”, Proc. ACM CHI'85 Conf. (San Francisco, CA, 14-18 April), 1985, 11-17