James Peterson

Design Report

This project consists of creating an ecommerce website for the company Sauce Haus Co. Sauce Haus Co provides unique sauces from across the country to customers that otherwise would have limited access. The addition of a website will drastically increase sales and is a good way to increase in size without opening physical retail stores. It is also a lot less expensive and necessarily from recent statistics of increased online shopping trends. To date, a beta version of the website is up and running at saucehaus.weebly.com for desktop and mobile. However, there are some limitations applied before confirming to move towards the final launch. We are currently receiving feedback from the users on the design, theme, usefulness, and efficiency of the web site. Brief descriptions of some of the key aspects of the beta are mentioned below.

Designing the user interface:

The interface is easy to use and maneuver through pages. It gives accurate feedback of available products, prices, and the current transaction. The cart allows products to be added and removed until user’s final decision is made. Inputting user information is straightforward and can be remembered for future transactions. Various methods of communication are available via social media links and the “Contact” web page, which includes company phone number, email, and address. The theme is consistent across all pages and pages include visually pleasing, appropriate images. Highlighted, bolded headings/titles grab the user’s attention and guide them to what they are looking for.

Input/output design:

Templates/forms make it easy for users to input data and include validation rules, restricting acceptable values the user can enter. Input maps reduce the number of input errors and improves data quality. Data integrity is enforced by a verification email and/or text message for new customers on the “Register” page. Messages are displayed for each field to inform the user of acceptable values and if an input must be done again. The user is able to leave the data entry screen at any time without entering the current record. To protect customer information, the “Checkout” page where customers enter credit card and billing address information is secured. The website uses Stripe to instantly accept credit cards and deposit funds into our bank account. A printable receipt of the transaction is available to the customer upon completion.

Currently the company is using a free version from Weebly.com to create and operate the website. We chose Weebly because they allowed us experiment with the numerous layouts and themes without a subscription. To publish our initial launch free of charge we have Weebly in the domain and advertisement at the bottom of the pages. This beta version is limited to only five products on the storefront, no member database, and 3% fee per transaction. Upgrading to their business plan will enable all available features including additional payment options such as Paypal, which allows you to send invoices and collect payment.

To upgrade to the Weebly business plan, it will cost $29.00 per month or $299.04 per year or $468.96 per 2 years. The business plan will include the following features:

The website will use cloud computing, which provide a total online software and data environment hosted by a third party, in our case Weebly. The cloud will perform all processing and computing tasks. No updates or maintenance are required for the user, and there are no compatibility issues. The system will operate over a TCP/IP network, in other words the Internet. This architecture provides scaling on demand, which matches resources to needs at any given time. However, the service provider has complete control of the system because it hosts the resources and manages data storage and access. In previous reports, we chose this option as more feasible to an in-house option due to the smaller size of our IT department (Me).

Below is an entity-relationship diagram of the data collected:

^order date; status

Using Weebly.com, the company is still able to create a unique Web site, with the look and feel consistent with the company’s other marketing efforts. The company will have control of the organization and customization of the site provided by access to HTML/CSS coding. The company will have complete flexibility to modify and manage the site as the products and company changes. We have control over the unlimited amount of products offered and their prices. With our own domain name and integrated shopping cart, there will be no additional

transaction fee. Inventory levels will fluctuate accordingly to the amount in the warehouse before and after transactions. Sales will need to be monitored every day for the next couple of months until demand is determined and transaction volumes can be supported. Finally, customers will be able to create/update accounts that will securely store their personal information.

The IT department will be able complete the project in one week, with a finish date of May 8 2015. This includes locking in final designs and formats along with updating certain information based on received suggestions and complaints. The business operations will continue to run smoothly and will integrate well with the online system. Total cost to date includes salary of IT staff given the project of getting the beta up and running. I advise we start with the monthly plan and go from there based on the success of the website. No additional staffing will be required unless the website becomes the next Amazon.com. The IT department will be able to maintain and update the website from this point on.