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h t t p : / / w w w . p r o g r a m m i n g a s s i g n m e n t s h e l p . n e t /
2016
ZCBC Website Designing Assignment
Augustine Barlow
Programming Assignment Help
Programming Assignment Help Page 1
ZCBC Website Designing Assignment
Introduction
This coursework to be submitted by student in subject of Website Design covering deep understanding of web design
concepts, good understanding of web design concept usage while designing web application/sites, understand the
business requirement and then design the website based on user requirements. I am organizing this report in the
same way as it is asked to organize in the task sheet. I will complete all the tasks as specified in assessment
Websites are providing a new way of information sharing across the globe with ease of a single click. Now it is very
easy to share/communicate the required information with the intended audience through the websites which in turn
providing the chance to grow IT sector. Any website, once it is published over the internet, can be accessed from
anywhere in the world. This information availability makes enterprises to be present globally and help them to grow
their business. With the increase in business, website shall also be interactive enough that it can easily provide the
information to the customers as and when it is required and also shall be able to resolve or store the user queries (if
any). With the use of websites, enterprises can promote their business and can share the updated information with
the intended audience in an easy manner. An interactive website allows two way communication between the
customer and the organization.
P1.1: Web Design Concepts
There are certain concepts available for web designing which one web designer shall follow in order to create an
interactive, responsive and user friendly website. Web designer/developer shall use the organization details and
logos on all the pages for which the website is being designed. Designers or developers must provide frame/forms for
user inputs/feedback. Not properly designed or un-organized information may get user frustrated and he/she might
navigate another similar kind of website for information which he/she could not find here. A good website shall cater
requirement of all type of users which were identified during user requirement gathering.
Below are some of the major web design concepts which one should follow in order to make a good and responsive
website.
Requirement Gathering
Requirement gathering is one of the major element in designing of any website/application as it will decide how the
website should look and what all functionalities shall be available there. It is also important to freeze the requirement
from user before start working on actual development which will help to avoid last minute changes. Website
design will depend on the requirement gathered such as there might be different kind of users who will be accessing
the website and what information shall be made available to whom. A good website shall fulfil all the requirements
gathered during this phase. Information shall be categorized based on access mechanism so that only relevant
persons can get the relevant information. As website will be designed based on user inputs and will be accessed by
rest of the world, hence this phase plays an important role in the success of website that will be designed.
Website Contents
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Contents are very important aspect of any website as irrelevant content may lead to users get frustrated and he/she
may walk away from website to another website where he/she can find required information. Success of website
depends on how accurate and fast we can provide the required information to the targeted audience. A good website
shall understand the user requirement and then organize the website content based on targeted audience so that
users find it useful to navigate the website and may also refer it to the friends or relatives. This way it will help
organisation to grow his business.
Usability
Usability is something which defines behavior of a website. A good website shall behave in a rational and expected
way.
E.g. we will never read an article on a news portal which will require users to register on portal before they allow them
to read any content. Another example may be of search engine which is not providing the expected result for the
search made by user.
Above are examples of bad usability for any website which may be because of wrong user inputs captured during
requirement gathering phase. By considering user needs at the center of the experience, the website will be designed
in satisfying and rewarding manner.
Creating usable sites is not easy, however, and much of the knowledge simply comes from experience. Suggested
way to look on similar websites and make a note of annoying things on those websites which will help us to not to
repeat those in our design. Finally website shall be tested before making them move to production as it will help us to
identify:
If people can find pages they are looking for
If images/audio/video work in their browser
If they get annoyed at anything
are they pleased by anything
Usability testing is costly but same can be achieved with the help of friends and family, who can test and provide
valuable feedback on the same.
Audiences of Website
Audience identification is also one of the important aspect in making a website successful because it is something for
which website is being designed and information shall be organized as per their needs. Before starting actual
development we shall know about the target audiences like:
Navigation pattern of user
Activities in which user is involved
Products used by them
Age group of audience
Once we have answers for such questions, it may help web designer to better understand the targeted people who
will be accessing the website and it will be helpful for him to design website in good and organized manner. Getting
an understanding of these individuals helps to create and end up communicating well. Again, this is very important to
know the target audience. If web designer is not aware about the target audiences of website, it will be similar to
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make a guess in dark and hoping that everything will go well. If there are multiple audiences for a website, then web
designers shall identify the common interest area between all of them.
This is also being captured during the requirement gathering phase of website development. Also the organization
will also specify the users from organization of that website like top management, middle management, admins who
will manage the website, stock managers who will manage the stock data for that organization. In short, there shall be
clear vision on targeted audience and information they might be seeking while accessing this website.
Why Web site?
Why an organization shall get developed a website? Organization must have answer this question before proceeding
further. One of the main purpose for having a website is to provide the equal information access to users. Every user
will get the similar screen, similar contents. A well designed web site always leaves a good impression on the users
than a poor designed.
Earlier, websites are getting created in same manner, printed brochures and other marketing tools were used. By
using this method companies were able to post their information to the Web quickly. Later stage, companies felt that
posting “brochures” on the Web was not an effective use of this medium.
In print medium contents are linear in nature but Web is a non-linear medium and has different properties that are not
expected in traditional linear format.
The most distinctive feature of the Web is its interactivity with the user. Traditional print media cannot personalize the
user‟s experience. A website can increase the interactivity with user, which creates a direct connection between the
organization and visitor.
Navigation Layout
Navigation layout plays an important role in success of any website as it will decide how website is organized and
what information will be available where. A good website organizes required information in an easy manner for the
users. For larger sites web designer provides menu items that contain sub menu items also known as „cascading
menus‟ or „drop down menus‟. Menu lay out will depend on how many items are there in menu.
Navigation is also little bit difficult to implement as there may be requirement where one set of information is available
for registered users only and another set of information is available for all. Navigation layout can be simple or
complex, like a few main pages or many subpages. There are no set guidelines on defining website layout as it is
totally dependent on the web designer and user requirements, how organization wants to display the content.
Accessibility
A good website shall remain accessible all the time and it should work in a manner it is designed. But accessibility is
not restricted with the above said only, because accessibility issues may affect many peoples. An awareness of the
problems that people may face while accessing the website is important. E.g. we should not assume that users will
have a mouse, that people can see the images used; that everyone will have Flash installed. In such scenario, an
alternate mechanism shall also be available.
Cross Platform Compatibility
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As world is going mobile day by day, more peoples are using phones, tablets, or smartphones to browse and view
web content. It indicates that there will be missing opportunities if the designed website does not support mobile
devices and takes longer time to get loaded on different browsers. There are most of the websites are not designed
or developed in a manner that they can fit on small screens for phones, tablets and smartphones. Suggested
approach is to have lighter version of websites to be designed for such devices. This kind of treatment to the user will
give them a competitive edge, fresh look and improved value.
Other Links
For a good website, it is suggested to use one color and style for internal text or button and different color for links
that lead to another web site. Web designer shall ensure that text links are in different style than regular text so that
the viewer knows immediately that “this text is different, and it is intended to do something else”. Using underlines is
also a popular way to show that “this is a link”.
Apart from the above said, all the links given on website shall be working once it is made available to end user. It‟s
always an embarrassing situation where user could not use the links provided and he/she has to visit another website
because of such issues. It is suggested to do sanity check before making website available to the public on internet.
P1.1.1 Web Design Concepts I Used for ZCBC Website
I have considered below major web design concepts during design and development of website for Zodiac College of
Business and Computing:
Requirement Gathering
Website Content
Usability
Audience of Website
Why Web site?
Navigation Layout
Accessibility
Cross Platform Compatibility
Other Links
I have not considered below two web design concepts particularly for designing this website:
The Audience of website are pre-decided because target audiences of this website are prospect students who wish
to opt the courses in this organization and organization management who can view and manage the content of
website.
I have not considered Accessibility as I have designed this website with minimal dependency on client machine
requirement, e.g. there is no need to install flash player on client machine as I have not used any such content in
design and development of this website.
P2: Website Design of ZCBC
Zodiac College of Business and Computing is recently open college at the heart of London and looking to develop
website where they can provide the information about the courses, fee structure etc. and also prospect students can
leave their queries to the college administration using the website. Courses offered by college are as given below:
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EDexecl HND Computing and System Development
o Business Skills for eCommerce
o Computer Systems
o Employability and systems Development
o Management in IT
o System and Analysis and Design
o Human Computer Interaction
o Web Design
o Networking Infrastructures
EDexcel HND Tourism and Hospitality Management
o The Travel and Tourism Sector
o Finance and Funding in the Travel and Tourism Sector
o Marketing in Travel and Tourism
o Contemporary Issues in Travel and Tourism
o Sustainable Tourism Development
o Travel and Tourism Entrepreneurs
o Heritage and Cultural Tourism Management
o Incoming and Domestic Tourism
o Tourist Destinations
o Business Health Check
EDexcel HND in Business (Management Pathway)
o Organization Behavior
o Aspects of Contract
o Business Environment
o Managing Financial Resources and Decisions
o Managing Business Activities to achieve results
o Managing Communications, knowledge and information
British Computer Society Certificate in IT
o Information Systems
o Software Development
o Computer & Network Technology
Here the requirement from college administration here is to design website by which they can provide the information
about the above mentioned courses like course details, fee structure etc. This website shall be available to the world
wide users but mainly will be used by prospective students to get the required information in an easy manner and as
and when it is required.
I have designed website in the same manner as stated in the task sheet.
P2.1 what is Storyboard
Storyboard is also known as blueprint for any web project. Storyboard is mainly used to outline the design approach
before starting actual design and development work. It also defines the layouts of website, contents of website and
organization of information on website. In this project also, I have created the navigation layout of ZCBC website.
It is advisable to take customer consent on navigation layout before starting actual implementation of the same.
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P2.1.1 ZCBC Website Navigation Layout
ZCBC website navigation layout defines the access mechanism and information availability on website. It will
demonstrate how the information available will be accessed and where it will be available on website. It will also
display the details of menu and sub menus so that it will give a feel of how website will look like once it is designed
and developed. ZCBC website navigation layout given below will display the organization of pages, sub-pages i.e.
menus and their respective sub-menus.
Figure: Navigation Layout
Four main sections of any webpage, where information is displayed and organized are:
Headers
Footers
Menu Items
Contents of webpages
P2.2 Competitors Website Evaluation
Before starting actual development of website, I have decided to visit the websites of major colleges in London to get
an understanding of their website design and content arrangement. It gave me a clear picture of what information is
being provided by the competitors on their websites and how contents is being organized there. How easily the
required information accessible. So I have identified the competitor who are providing similar services in London and
decided to study their websites.
This process, helped me a lot to identify the weak and strong point of the competitor.
In this case I visited four websites of major higher study schools in London and tried to evaluate them as per below
criteria:
Design of Web Site
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Organization of Content
Information Availability
Accessibility
P2.2.1. City University London
Web site of the organization: http://www.city.ac.uk/
City University website is designed well and contents are organized properly. Information related to students is
organized in such a manner that students can find it in easy manner. Lots of contents are available there on home
page itself. Courses offered by university are organized in different categories like Study courses, Research courses,
business course etc. Study courses further segregated in categories like Graduate Course, Post Graduate Courses,
diploma courses etc. Site is designed in consistent manner and the contents of Header and Footer are same on all
pages which gives this website a consistent look and feel and attracts user. The sub pages are properly organized
with relevant contents. Once used drills down the selected course from the respective menu item, he/she may find
lots on information on the subpages related with that course including fee and application procedure etc. Prospect
students can get the details on the available courses without navigating through all the menu items and searching the
relevant courses. All the information which might be useful for existing students or prospect students are very well
organized and places. Overall website design is very good and impressive. Home page of website is as given below:
Figure: City University
Course description pages are designed with complete information on courses and there are relevant pictures placed
on the page along with description of the course. This website allows student to obtain the information on how they
can apply for a course. You can easily identify different courses. Website navigation layout is properly designed. All
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the pictures selected are relevant and indicates the nature of the courses offered by them. The site is working
properly and there was no broken link observed on the website.
The one issue that I observed on this website is that there is no Apply Online mechanism available on this website.
Also web site is loading slowly and pages are taking more time to show information.
P2.2.2. Imperial College London
Web site of the organization: http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/
This website is designed in very simple and effective manner. Information provided on home page is very less
however all information is categorized and available in different manner like different section for prospect students
and for existing students. Also courses are available there in different categories like courses, research etc. and
further courses are categorized as undergraduate courses, post graduate course, diploma courses etc. Menu bar is
very well designed and assist to navigate site in easy manner. All the subpages have a link to go back to home page
of website so that once user is done on that page, he/she can return to home page in easy manner. This website
provides the information to the courses offered by them, information related to the course, fee structure, and duration
of the course and apply mechanism available for that course i.e. how to apply for that course is available on website.
Figure: Imperial College of London
Website is getting loaded at good speed and there was no delay observed in page loading. All the pictures chosen
here are related to the courses offered and provides a nice look to website. This site is providing detail information
about the courses offered. It is displaying the list of available courses with initials so that if user is aware about the
course name, he/she can directly go to that page by clicking on the Initial Letter of that course. Site is having lots of
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useful information for everyone who is looking to go for higher studies. Site also provides to get connected with old
students with the help of Alumni link.
The major problem that I observed with this website is that there is no navigation path is being displayed on the
subpages, hence it becomes difficult for user to know how he reaches on this web page and where currently he/she
is navigating. Read about Website Designing and Testing
P2.2.3. King‟s College London
Web site of the organization: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/index.aspx
The Home page of this website is full of pictures and lots of links which needs to be further drilled down to get the
required information. However few important links with little information is provided on images as well using links.
They have provided the links for Alumni so that old students can also get connected with each other. There are
different links provided on home page like Prospect Students, Campus life, Research etc. Courses are categorized in
different categories like undergraduate courses, Postgraduate courses, diploma courses etc. This website is
providing all the information related to the course in one go and in an efficient manner. The menus on site are simple,
organized and easy to navigate. Subpages are designed properly and the required information is available in
presentable manner.
Figure: King’s College London
This website is providing an option to view the course details by navigating through the course page and you can get
the detailed information once you are there on the required course page. It is providing complete information of
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course like, duration of course, course eligibility, course contents etc. This website allows to search by subject area
and browse by course title which is one of the good feature as it will help to retrieve the course information in an easy
and efficient manner. Pictures and videos used to represent the course are relevant.
User‟s current navigation path is not displayed on pages which makes it quite difficult for the user to remember the
current navigation path which he/she has followed to reach on this page but there is one link provided on each page
to go back to Home Page which is quite good option.
Site is working properly and there was no delay observed in pages loading without any error on the screen. There
was no broken links on this site as well.
P2.2.4. London South Bank University
Web site of the organization: http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/
The Website of London South Bank University is loaded with lots of contents on the home page. Menu items are
categorized in different streams like Courses, Student Life, and International etc. Under main menus as described
above, sub menus are created e.g. under courses, courses are categorized in Graduate Course, Post Graduate
Courses, Employer Sponsored Courses etc., which leads to the respective web pages of selected course. Also there
is search available on Home page itself for the courses offered by university where student can search the specific
course and visit to the page to get more information.
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Figure 4: London South Bank University
This university is offering courses for international students also and provides information in all aspects like visa
process, funding process etc. Images and content chosen for subpages are relevant and providing detailed
information on the courses offered. University website is also providing information about the different aspect of
Student Life in university like accommodation, facilities, sports etc. Since there are courses available in multiple
stream, student can chose as per their wish from the available courses.
Searching of the course is available by entering the relevant keyword and by navigating the Initials of course as it is
providing the available course listing based on Course Initials. You can compare the available courses as well. Once
you are on the desired course, it offers all the information related to the course on that page related to that courses.
Navigation path is also available on all the pages which is giving users an easy to navigate feel.
Site is working well and there was no delay observed in page loading also.
P3.1 Output Design and Development of website
For designing and developing a website, there are tools available on web which can be used to do the same. A
developer can use normal text editors as well but that will increase the development time. These tools help
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developers to develop the websites in an easy, fast and efficient manner. These tools are known as Web Authoring
Tools. Most commonly used web authoring tools are:
Adobe Dreamweaver
MS FrontPage
Google Sites
Scripting languages are used to validate user input before proceeding that data to the server. Commonly
used Scripting Languages are as given below:
Java Script: JavaScript is used to validate user input. It can be used to: Change HTML elements, Delete
HTML elements, Create new HTML elements, Copy and clone HTML elements and many more. It is one of
the most popular scripting language in world.
PHP: is open source scripting language which is used for web development. It can be embedded in HTML.
JavaScript can also be used along with it to validate the data.
ASP: also known as Classic ASP or ASP Classic, was Microsoft‟s first server-sidescript engine for
generation of dynamic web pages
JSP: JSP is java web programming i.e. to generate dynamic web pages it is used. Dynamic web pages can
be based on HTML, XML or other document types.
Mark-up languages are used to generate and define the user interfaces of any website. Also it provides the different
kind of inputs mechanism that can be used to design website. Commonly used Mark-up Languages, which are used
widely are as given below
HTML: is the set of mark-upsymbols or codes inserted in a file intended for display on a website when it is
seen in web browser.
XHTML: this is the cleaner and stricter version of HTML i.e. HTML defined as an XML application.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheet): it defines how to display HTML elements like positioning of contents etc. As
we can re-use the same, it can save a lot of efforts.
DHTML: Stands for Dynamic HTML and major components are: JavaScript, CSS, HTML/XHTML and DOM
(Document Object Model)
Selection of Tools
For developing this website, I have decided to use the below mentioned tools:
Web Authoring Tool – Adobe Dreamweaver
Mark-up Languages – HTML, XHTML, CSS
Scripting Languages – PHP, JavaScript
Reason for Choosing Adobe Dreamweaver
This is one of the most commonly used web authoring tool, that supports to work in WYSIWYG manner i.e. you can
view the code while designing the website. It provides standard features like syntax highlighting, code completion,
and code collapsing, real-time syntax checking etc. It provides hints to assist the user while writing code which can
help user to avoid any issues of coding and results in saving development time. Design view of Dreamweaver
provides facility to design layout at a fast pace. By changing the design view, code is being update automatically by
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the Dreamweaver itself. Integrated browser also provides a quick view to the work done so far, along with this user
can configure external browsers as well, which can help the developers to check cross browser compatibility. Third
party extensions are also supported by Dreamweaver to enhance the functionality of the website. It also supports
different file transfer protocols to transfer updated website to the remote web server in an easy manner. With the help
of templates, a website can be created in an easy manner and it also speeds up the development time. Also usage of
template helps developer to maintain consistency across the website.
I used a standard HTML template offered by Dreamweaver and customized it as per the requirement. Post template
readiness, I used that template in all the pages. I have used menu bars provided by Dreamweaver to create
navigation bar for the website.
Read about: OOPS Assignment
Template Designing
Below screen shots depicts the template design for this website
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Figure: Template Design
Reason for choosing PHP & JavaScript, HTML & CSS
I have decided to use PHP for server side scripting because it is most widely accepted and used one language for
web programming. It is open source, free and easy to learn and use. Main reasons to choose PHP are its features, as
depicted below:
Faster load time
Less Expensive
Cheaper Hosting
Flexibility
Easy to Learn
Scripting language that I chose is JavaScript because it is most widely used and easy to use. JavaScript is used to
validate the user input from end user so that only authentic information will be posted to the backend systems.
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Main features of JavaScript are as depicted below:
Easy to use
Prototyping language
Compatible with all HTML editors
Supports object oriented design
More control over the browser
Supports cross browser compatibility
User input validation
To develop this website, I used HTML 5 which is the most developed HTML available as on date. Few of the key
features of HTML5 are as depicted below:
Video embedding in pages
Graphics rendering on the fly.
Fast application loading because of Application caches use
Supports Geolocation to get/track the current location of user
Supports email input so that no custom validation need to be done to validate the user input for email
address
Supports creation of context menus
CSS is used to maintain consistent styling, like fonts, placing of contents etc. across the website. It helped me to
design the layout of website in lesser time and in consistent manner. It helped me to share formatting and reduces
complexity and repetition in the structural content. It also helped in reducing the load time of web pages, because a
page without CSS can have nested loops of tables. Therefore using CSS also improves the speed of a webpage. It is
also supported well by most web browsers.
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Figure: CSS Design
Designing of Navigation Menus
Post design of templates for the content, I have added the menus to the template which will be used to navigate the
website. After that I have added all the pages to the links in menu bars.
Because of use of template, links once created in template, will automatically updated in all pages and there was not
need to update them separately. This way it helped me to reduce the development time.
Forms in Website
There are two forms I used to capture user input: one form is where we can show college contact details and can
capture the user queries. Another form is used to apply for the course online.
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Figure: Form- Course Application Form
Also Read: Reed Music School Website Designing Assignment
Appendices/References
http://www.w3schools.com
http://www.php.net/manual/
http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/dreamweaver/dreamweaver_templates.htm
www.w3.org