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Web designWeb design
Dr. Tim King9th May 2006
My CVMy 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
I have an ideaI 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
Domain NamesDomain 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
Web designWeb 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
Common mistakesCommon 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 overZero intelligible content
Refuses to work with IE Only works with IE Requires Flash Assumes screen size Assumes font size
www.webpagesthatsuck.com
Poor design examplePoor design example
Needs more than 1024x768
Navigation a mess
Far too much material
Title seems to be confused
with keywords
Mixture of fonts
Good design exampleGood design example
Pop-over sub-menus
Recent news stories
Search clearly available
Discussion forumsClear link to
technical support
Consistent navigation
Special event links
Quick links to sub areas
Services for subscribers
Protected pagesProtected 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
Dynamic pagesDynamic 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>
Encrypted pagesEncrypted 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)
Page transition diagramPage transition diagram
Help Company Products Services Support
Home page
About Us ContactSearch Sitemap Free Paid
Downloads Chat
Product
search
Service 1
Service 2
Service 3
Service 4
Dynamic pages
Applications
Static pages
Protected pages
Payment
Encrypted pages
Shortcuts
Search from every pagePayment from free support page
Content ManagementContent 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
Multiple targetsMultiple 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
WorkflowWorkflow
Template
repository
Content
repository
Web
Press releases
Job vacancies
Web designers
StagingServer
Compliance officer
Webmaster/editorDatabase designers
New products