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Web design

Web design. Dr. Tim King 9 th May 2006. My CV. Computer Lab 1973-1981 Wrote a relational database for Ph.D. Lecturer, University of Bath 1981-1983 R&D Director 1984-1986 Wrote AmigaDOS Founded Perihelion with Jack Lang 1986 Distributed OS, embedded systems, database systems

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Web design

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  1. Web design Dr. Tim King 9th May 2006

  2. My CV • Computer Lab 1973-1981 • Wrote a relational database for Ph.D. • Lecturer, University of Bath 1981-1983 • R&D Director 1984-1986 • Wrote AmigaDOS • Founded Perihelion with Jack Lang 1986 • Distributed OS, embedded systems, database systems • Founded UK Online 1994 • First UK ISP with content • Sold to EasyNet 1996 • Independent consultant • Technical Due Diligence for VCs • Advice for Sainsbury’s, Sony, Home Office etc • Strategy for small companies and following M&As

  3. I have an idea • Can you source? • Purchasing: where from and with what? • Can you fulfil? • Warehousing • Tesco vs Sainsbury model • Delivery • Returns • Electronic fulfilment • Stock control • Do it? Show it? Pending delivery? Dabs.com • Cannibalisation • Can you make money from it? • Simple fact which seemed to elude people 1998-2001

  4. Domain Names • All 5 letter .com URLs now taken • Be inventive • Greetingcards.com, Cybercards.com, Mousegreetings • Fish4cars, fish4homes etc • Business.com went for $10m • And it certainly isn’t Google • $25,000 for CitiCorp registered that morning • .com .net .co.uk .eu .fr .de .be .biz .info • The isles of Tivalu and Tonga • .tv and .to • New TLDs: .info, .biz, .pro • More harm than good

  5. Web design • HTML WYSIWYG Editors make it easy • Too easy! • Design is important • But functionality more so • Many web design houses don’t understand about databases • Managing Directors do not make good web designers • It’s another type of publishing • Web publishing is no different from other types of publishing • Spelling, grammar, point size, broken links, incorrect captions • Navigation is important • Make the navigation clear • Three clicks maximum to get anywhere • Hard when Sainsbury’s have 25,000 line items

  6. Common mistakes • Too much text • Frames • Huge images • Distracting colour schemes • Flashing gifs, scrolling text • Music • Unclear navigation • Unreadable • Cluttered • Useless Title • Mystery Meat Navigation you have to roll over Zero intelligible content • Refuses to work with IE • Only works with IE • Requires Flash • Assumes screen size • Assumes font size www.webpagesthatsuck.com

  7. Poor design example Mixture of fonts Title seems to be confused with keywords Navigation a mess Far too much material Needs more than 1024x768

  8. Good design example Quick links to sub areas Search clearly available Services for subscribers Pop-over sub-menus Special event links Recent news stories Discussion forums Clear link to technical support Consistent navigation

  9. Protected pages • Most web sites are open to all • Protected pages for • Subscribers • Suppliers • Customers • Staff • Protected by • Username / pw • IP address • Domain name of browser • Combinations of these

  10. Dynamic pages • HTML with extra tags pre-processed • Java Server Pages (JSP) • Active Server Pages (ASP) <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Connecting to an Access database</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY><TABLE><% SET myConn=SERVER.createobject("adodb.connection") strConn="PROVIDER=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;DATA SOURCE=emp.mdb" myConn.Open (strConn) SQLStr="SELECT Empno, ename, deptno FROM Emp ORDER BY deptno, ename" SET result=myConn.execute(SQLStr) %> <H2>ASP Example</H2><P>Connecting to an Access Database</P> <TR><TH>Employee No</TH><TH>Name</TH><% WHILE NOT result.EOF%> <TR><TD> <%=result("empno")%> </TD <TD> <%=result("ename")%> </TD><% result.movenext() WEND %> </TABLE> </BODY> </HTML>

  11. Encrypted pages • Most traffic to and from web sites is in clear • Potential eavesdropping possible • Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encrypts data • Computationally expensive at server • Hardware assist boards are available • Widely used technology • In all browsers • Used whenever privacy is important • Payment • Secure communication (spooks, terrorists, medical)

  12. Page transition diagram Home page Help Company Products Services Support Product search Service 1 Free Paid Search Sitemap About Us Contact Service 2 Downloads Chat Payment Service 3 Static pages Service 4 Protected pages Dynamic pages Applications Shortcuts Search from every page Payment from free support page Encrypted pages

  13. Content Management • Change once, changes all versions • Input • Data and news feeds • Editorial, pictures • Price, stock, changes • Output • Staging server • Business/advert manager • Web farm • Content Management Systems (CMS) • Interwoven • Vignette • ATG Dynamo • Broadvision • MS Siteserver

  14. Multiple targets • Different devices • Different browsers • Different bandwidth, resolutions, screen sizes, colours, printers • Phones & PDAs • TV: Open TV, DVB-TAM-HTML, WebTV • XML helps, but doesn’t solve everything • Phones and PDAs have different physical characteristics • WAP issues • Small screens • Battery life essential issue • Java Midlets a step forward • TV and other streaming media have different metaphors to the Web • Device limitations • Audio important • High colour depth, poor display quality • Evolution: Text -> Still Pictures-> Moving Pix-> 3D

  15. Workflow New products Content repository Press releases StagingServer Web Job vacancies Template repository Compliance officer Web designers Database designers Webmaster/editor

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