Topic 2

1. Topic 2 Designing Your Website

2. Lecture Objectives • Identify target customers • Website’s blueprint and design • Web hosting service models • Types of hosting accounts and its needs • Choosing the right web hosting

3. Overview of a Successful EC business • Well-coordinated plan that into account the following:- • Design competency • Programming abilities • Server configuration • Public relations • Sales and marketing abilities

4. What’s your line?? If YES? • Decide which website model you’re building • Consider what your website is offering • Build it and expend effort in driving customers • Entrepreneur? Find your niche market • Design website accordingly • Let customers know… If NO? • A website still is necessary • Build good brochureware site brick and mortar • Incorporate forum for customers

5. Target “your” customers • Declaring site as public document by placing “COMMENT TAG” • What model will your site emulate? • What will drive your potential customers to your website?

6. Website’s Blueprint • What are the objectives of your new website? • How will the new website produce income? • What makes your new website unique? • How will you ensure on-time delivery? • How will you manage and maintain your website?

7. Website’s blueprint • How will you convey your trustworthiness and the high quality of your product/services? Essential steps in creating blueprint:- • A storyboard • A site description • Website content

8. Website’s blueprint • Storyboard • Tool in multimedia production • Visual representation of the website • Able to map out the progression and relationship between individual webpages

9. (a) Storyboard guidelines • Storyboard should be legible • Must be complete • Every design elements (headings, text objects, links,buttons, graphics images should be noted in the storyboard • Typeface and print size should appear exactly as they will be in the final web pages • Number of buttons and functions should be clearly indicated on each page

10. Links between pages should be clearly indicated using arrows. • Each graphic images should be noted with a box identifying it as a graphic image with a short note describing its content. • Web pages should be numbered for easy reference.

11. (b) Site Description • Detailed explanation of workflow, data flow and other items in storyboard • Explains how the site functions from web page to web page or section to section • Example, 3Com.com or Healthtex.com (where only visitors who are familiar with the site know the navigational structure of the website.

12. (c) Website content • What digital art (photos of products) is needed? • Is there to be written content? If so, who is the author and how it will be delivered?

13. Design • Designs are attractive, easy to understand and fast loading • Will influence customers’ perception of your business which will affect their purchasing decisions. • Design SPEC

14. SPEC S – tickiness and traffic generation - content, search engines P – erformance - speedy downloads, tables E – ase of use - site navigation C – ontent visibility - viewable site, frames, Java, plug-ins

15. Lab Exercise • Search and list down 3 websites and try to differentiate them using these categories: • Retail-food • Weather • Sports • Retail-flowers/gifts/greetings • Entertainment-TV • Hobbies-lifestyle-home • Hobbies-lifestyle-home • Online trading • Entertainment-music • news

16. Lab Exercise • Visit these websites, identify their website models and state their clear characteristics. • Championdev.com • Hayproperty.com.au • Healthtex.com • Parkaveliquor.com • www.soccer-books.co.uk • www.politinfo.com • www.iencentral.com

17. Lab Exercise • Cnet.com • www.howstuffworks.com • Thekidzpage.com • Freemerchants.com • www.arrowheads.com/main.htm • eBay.com • Yahoo Auctions • Weblogs (blogger.com, eatonweb.com • Bearshare.com