Audience-Driven Web Design

2011 ◽  
pp. 463-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga De Troyer
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Web Sites ◽  
Web Applications ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Classical Information ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The One ◽  
The Web

Today Web-related software development seems to be faced with a crisis not unlike the one that occurred a generation ago when in the 1970s. Computer hardware experienced an order of magnitude increase in computational power. This made possible the implementation of a new class of applications larger both in size and complexity, the methods for software development available at that time were not able to scale up to such large projects. The “software crisis” was a fact with its legendary stories of delays, unreliability, maintenance bottlenecks and costs. Now we seem to be starting to deal painfully with a corresponding “web site crisis”. Over the last few years, the Internet has boomed and the World Wide Web with it. Web browsers are the basic user platform of the Internet. Because of the immense potential audience, and because publishing on the web is in principle very easy, the number of web applications has exploded. Most of the web sites are created opportunistically without prior planning or analysis. Moreover, even large mission-critical intranet projects are being started without any regard for methodology. The resulting problems of maintenance and development backlog, so well-known in “classical” information systems, can easily be predicted and will happen on a much larger scale. Because web sites are almost by definition required to adapt and grow, and have to interact with other sites and systems unknown at the moment of creation, these problems will also be much more complex and severe. In addition to the predictable maintenance and development problems, a new problem unknown in classical information systems has emerged: competition for the user’s attention. Especially for commercial web sites it is important to hold the interest of the user and to keep them coming back to the site. If for some reason visitors are not satisfied with the site or cannot find (fast enough) the information they are looking for, there is a high chance that they will leave the site and not return. Much more than in “classical” software systems, the usability of web applications are primordial for their success.

scholarly journals Failure Detection Algorithm for Testing Dynamic Web Applications

2017 ◽  
pp. 37-41
Author(s):  
J. Vijaya Sagar Reddy ◽  
G. Ramesh
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Experimental Evaluation ◽  
Web Application ◽  
Web Applications ◽  
Failure Detection ◽  
Detection Algorithm ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Test Cases ◽  
Dynamic Web ◽  
The Web

Web applications are the most widely used software in the internet. When a web application is developed and deployed in the real environment, It is very severe if any bug found by the attacker or the customer or the owner of the web application. It is the very important to do the proper pre-analysis testing before the release. It is very costly thing if the proper testing of web application is not done at the development location and any bug found at the customer location. For web application testing the existing systems such as DART, Cute and EXE are available. These tools generate test cases by executing the web application on concrete user inputs. These tools are best suitable for testing static web sites and are not suitable for dynamic web applications. The existing systems needs user inputs for generating the test cases. It is most difficult thing for the human being to provide dynamic inputs for all the possible cases. This paper presents algorithms and implementation, and an experimental evaluation that revealed HTML Failures, Execution Failures, Includes in PHP Web applications.

Evolution Stages in Web Applications

2011 ◽  
pp. 502-507
Author(s):  
Alberto de Medeiros ◽  
Marcelo Schneck de Pessoa ◽  
Fernando José Barbin Laurindo
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Web Applications ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Management Policies ◽  
The Many ◽  
Web Research ◽  
The Web

Among the many important contributions that information technology (IT) applications provide to organizations, Internet based applications may be considered the most important for strategic purposes, according to different authors like Porter (2001). Initially, companies tried many different alternatives for using the great potential of the Web and a great number of completely new businesses that were enabled by the new technology. However, there were many failures (not only successes) and the situation has changed since the late 1990s. Thus, the time of experimentation is over and a business-oriented approach is required (Chen & Tan, 2004; Souitaris & Cohen, 2003). The Internet has indeed represented an opportunity, if properly used, for small and for big enterprises anywhere in the world (Drew, 2003; Kula & Tatoglu, 2003; Wresch, 2003). This article describes the initial steps of an ongoing research that intends to compare the phases of Web dissemination in organizations with the adoption stages of traditional computer systems, based on Nolan’s six stage model (Nolan, 1979). This approach could help describe and predict the integration of WWW into the work of organizations as well as provide a basis for improving management policies and decisions (Laurindo, Carvalho, & Shimizu, 2003). Nolan’s model (Nolan, 1979) is still an important and widespread known reference. In 1977, ARPANet (the network that gave origin to the Internet) had only 107 hosts (Ruthfield, 1995). This number increased to 317 million of hosts in January of 2005 (ISC, 2005). This article is based in secondary data collection, some interviews with professionals from companies present on the Web, research on Web sites, in addition to a bibliography about the issue.

Audience-Drive Design Approach for Web Systems

2011 ◽  
pp. 274-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga De Troyer
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Web Applications ◽  
Web Design ◽  
Primary Factor ◽  
Software Systems ◽  
Classical Information ◽  
Business Applications ◽  
The World ◽  
The Web ◽  
Web Systems

In the last years, Web systems have evolved from a simple collection of hypertext pages toward applications supporting complex (business) applications, offering (rapidly changing) information and functionality to a highly diversified audience. Although it is still easy to publish a couple of pages, it is now recognized that appropriate Web design methods are needed to develop more complex Web sites and applications (generally called Web systems). In the past, Web systems were created opportunistically without prior planning or analysis, and without any regard for methodology, resulting in Web systems that were lacking consistency in structure, navigation, and presentation, and were not transparent. A lot of these systems were also suffering from the classical maintenance problems and development backlog. In the same period, Web technology evolved at an equally dazzling rate enabling more advanced Web applications, but with the unfavorable consequence that Web development is no longer simple and easy. The latest developments in the field of the Web are related to the vision of the Semantic Web: an extension of the current Web in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers, and people to work in cooperation (Berners-Lee, Hendler, & Lassila, 2001). Together with the Web, a new problem unknown in classical information systems emerged: competition for the visitor’s attention. Especially for commercial Web systems, it is important to hold the interest of the visitors and to keep them coming back. As stated by usability expert Nielsen (2000, p. 9), “all the competitors in the world are but a mouse click away.” Much more than in “classical” software systems, the usability of Web systems is a primary factor for their success.

scholarly journals Web technology and farmers

2012 ◽  
Vol 50 (No. 6) ◽  
pp. 243-248
Author(s):  
Z. Havlíček
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Major Element ◽  
Web Technology ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Rural And Urban Areas ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
The Web

Web technology is a major element of the Internet. The various and inexpensive possibilities to use this technology allow for the minimisation of differences between rural and urban areas. This article focuses on the use of www technology for creating web sites. It outlines theoretical starting points for planning web sites, as well as practical methods, which are utilised for setting up the web presentation of a farm.

Shopping Agent Web Sites

2011 ◽  
pp. 222-231
Author(s):  
Ming Wang
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Internet Marketing ◽  
Agent Technology ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Price Information ◽  
Comparison Shopping ◽  
Online Shoppers ◽  
Software Programs ◽  
The Web

This chapter introduces the shopping agent technology as a new Internet marketing trend. The recent development of shopping agent Web sites has offered online shoppers an excellent comparative shopping environment. Shopping agent Web sites, also called shopping agents or shopping bots, are software programs that search the Internet stores on the Web and find products that meet a buyer’s specifications. Not only do these agent Web sites bring comparative product and price information from individual merchants’ Web sites, but also provide the online merchant ratings to customers. In summary, these agent Web sites take a query, search the Web sites of individual merchants that may have the product sought, bring back the results, and present them in a consolidated and compact format that allows comparison shopping at a glance.

OODM

2003 ◽  
pp. 189-229
Author(s):  
Abad Shah
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Web Applications ◽  
Object Oriented ◽  
Life Cycle Model ◽  
Cycle Model ◽  
Development Life Cycle ◽  
Software Development Life Cycle ◽  
Waterfall Model ◽  
The Web

Today, the Internet and the Web are the most amazingly and dynamically growing computer technologies. The number of users accessing the Web is growing exponentially all over the world. The Web has become a popular environment for new generation of interactive computer applications called Web (or hypermedia) application. The Web applications (WAs) have special characteristics that have made them different from other traditional applications. Hence, many design methodologies for the development of WAs have been proposed. However, most of these methodologies concentrate on the design aspects of applications, and they often do not strictly follow any software development life-cycle model such as the WaterFall software development life-cycle model. In this chapter, we propose an object-oriented design methodology for the development of WAs. The main features of this proposed methodology are that it follows WaterFall model and captures the operations in objects of the applications; thus making the methodology an object-oriented methodology.

Web Accessibility

2011 ◽  
pp. 1205-1210
Author(s):  
Gennaro Costagliola ◽  
Sergio Di Martino ◽  
Filomena Ferrucci ◽  
Carmine Gravino
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Web Sites ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Blind Users ◽  
Wheelchair Users ◽  
Internet Technologies ◽  
Use Of Services ◽  
Accessibility Issues ◽  
The Web

Accessibility means making resources usable by the largest number of people possible, or alternatively, allowing people with some kind of disability to effectively participate in day-to-day activities, including the use of services, goods, and information. The evolution of civil rights enhanced the physical world with several accessibility aids, such as ramps to remove architectural barriers for wheelchair users or bells near elevators for blind users. To address the size of the “disable world”, let us consider that only in the European Union there are about 37 million people with disabilities. Disabled people find in the Internet a major reference for their daily necessities to overcome their difficulties in moving and communicating. As institutional, economical, and social services provided through the Web become increasingly central to our lives, to avoid the risk for severe social exclusion, there is the need for “accessibility aids” for the Web. Informally, it means that Web-based content should be presented in a way that allows disabled users to maximally and equally benefit from the information, as well as have the faculty to fully interact with the site. People with physical, cognitive or even technological disabilities should be enabled to effectively read information, browse sites, compile forms, navigate links, download documents, and so on. This goal can be achieved by using a mix of hardware/software solutions, suited to provide specialized input and output capabilities. For example, text-to-speech systems read text on the screen, allowing blind users to navigate Web sites. However, to work effectively, such solutions require Web designers to use Internet technologies accordingly to some recommendations. Incidentally, the recommendations and principles that form the accessibility foundation are very similar to the factors affecting Web quality (Fitzpatrick, 2000; Top of the Web, 2003), and thus can provide benefits to every user of the Internet, whether disabled or not. As a result, accessibility should represent one of the most important references for Web developers. In this article, we provide an insight into the development of accessible Web sites. In particular, we will start by outlining the historical background about the accessibility issues. Then, we will focus on the design of Accessible Web sites inspired to the universal design principles (Follette, Mueller, & Mace, 1998) and World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) directives, and on the solutions to verify and validate accessibility. Finally, we will give an insight on future trends and challenges due to novel Internet technologies.

Multilingual Web Sites in Global Electronic Commerce

2011 ◽  
pp. 823-828
Author(s):  
Shaoyi He
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Commerce ◽  
Web Sites ◽  
Web Site ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Web Content ◽  
Fortune 500 Companies ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
The Many ◽  
Content Design ◽  
The Web

The World Wide Web (the Web), a distributed hypermedia information system that provides global access to the Internet, has been most widely used for exchanging information, providing services, and doing business across national boundaries. It is difficult to find out exactly when the first multilingual Web site was up and running on the Internet, but as early as January 1, 1993, EuroNews, the first multilingual Web site in Europe, was launched to simultaneously cover world news from a European perspective in seven languages: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. (EuroNews, 2005). In North America, Web site multilinguality has become an important aspect of electronic commerce (e-commerce) as more and more Fortune 500 companies rely on the Internet and the Web to reach out to millions of customers and clients. Having a successful multilingual Web site goes beyond just translating the original Web content into different languages for different locales. Besides the language issue, there are other important issues involved in Web site multilinguality: culture, technology, content, design, accessibility, usability, and management (Bingi, Mir, & Khamalah, 2000; Dempsey, 1999; Hillier, 2003; Lindenberg, 2003; MacLeod, 2000). This article will briefly address the issues related to: (1) language that is one of the many elements conforming culture, (2) culture that greatly affects the functionality and communication of multilingual Web sites, and (3) technology that enables the multilingual support of e-commerce Web sites, focusing on the challenges and strategies of Web site multilinguality in global e-commerce.

Auto-Personalitzation WAP Portal

2011 ◽  
pp. 13-19
Author(s):  
Jon T.S. Quah ◽  
Vincent L.H. Seet
Keyword(s):  
Real Estate ◽  
Web Sites ◽  
Mobile Internet ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Limiting Factors ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Multimedia Contents ◽  
Color Displays ◽  
Timely Fashion ◽  
The Moment

WAP (wireless application protocol) has failed to take off exponentially as anticipated by industry players over the last few years with the slow acceptance by the consumers. The big players of WAP mobile phone manufacturers and mobile operators had over-hyped the advantages of using WAP to access the Internet ubiquitously. This had led to a mismatch in the consumers’ expectations when they eventually realized that user experience in surfing the Internet with WAP phones was not what was perceived earlier. The perceived experience was equated with that of surfing the Internet with desktop personal computers, browsing Web sites with rich multimedia contents. The reality is, WAP phones have limited screen real estate, and these came with monochrome displays initially. Thus, WAP contents have to be specially coded to suit the small screens for browsing. WAP phones with color displays were only available in quantity and variety since late 2002. Much of the WAP content available has not yet redesigned to take advantage of the new color displays. The attainable bandwidth for WAP surfing is only a small fraction when compared to broadband access. The bandwidth attainable by surfing WAP over GPRS (General Packet Radio Service, a 2.5-generation GSM packet data technology) is between 20 kbps to 40 kbps, whereas it is 256 kbps to 1,024 kbps for broadband. Prior to the availability of GPRS, WAP was carried over CSD (GSM Circuit Switch Data) and had an attainable bandwidth of merely 9.6 kbps. With these limiting factors, rich multimedia contents are simply not applicable to WAP at the moment (Gehlen & Bergs, 2004; Bai, Chou, Yen, & Lin, 2005). The limited screen real estate of WAP phones has also created navigation problems which involved many selections and too many moves between cards for consumers to achieve their goals. It was said that WAP is the “Wrong Approach to Portability,” and it is a technology designed by techies for techies, without the best interests of the consumer at heart (George & Sarch, 2001). Others said that WAP’s days were numbered and soon it would R.I.P. (rest in peace) (Saymour et al., 2001). It is certain that some amount of guidance is required for the less techie consumers during their initial encounters with WAP. Nevertheless, WAP is a good technology that allows one to access handy information in a timely fashion and ubiquitously. Like it or not, WAP will be around for some time, but much improvement is needed to make WAP surfing a less painful experience for consumers (Mahmoud, 2004; Sriskanthan, Meher, Ng, & Heng, 2004; Yeo, Hui, & Lee, 2004; Ma & Irvine, 2004; Radhamani & Siddiqi, 2004; Hung & Chang, 2005; Albastaki & Alajeeli, 2005; Gilbert & Han, 2005). Mobile Internet browsing using WAP phones has created unique problems of its kind. One of the challenges that consumers faced is that they are only equipped with a small screen for browsing WAP contents. This makes navigating to WAP sites of interest on WAP portals a hassle. WAP portals served as consumers’ gateway to the WAP sites offered by third-party content providers. These portals usually organize the list of WAP sites into a multilevel tree hierarchy structure. Consumers are required to navigate deep down the tree to access their favorite sites. This article proposes methods for making WAP portals adaptive. Such portals reduce time spent by consumers in navigation, hence there is more time for content browsing. The proposed methods do not require explicit consumers’ input for adaptation, but rather they implicitly track consumers’ navigation activities among WAP sites and use this input to form the basis of consumers’ preferences for adaptation. The methods had also taken into account possible drift of consumers’ interests over time, and weighted computation is used to achieve adaptation that will be of relevance to consumers at any point of time. Preliminary experiments with mobile users have yielded promising results.

E-Service Provision by New Zealand Local Government

2011 ◽  
pp. 718-725 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Paynter
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Web Sites ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Government Services ◽  
The World ◽  
The Web

Historically, information and services can only be obtained through narrow, one to one, phones, and agency-specific shop fronts (Caffrey, 1998). Information technology, especially the Internet, opens possibilities of using methods to distribute information and deliver services on a much grander scale. The Internet provides a foundation for a variety of communications media. The Web is one of the most important media built upon the Internet. It can be accessed from almost anywhere in the world by means of computers and electronic devices; it is possible to elicit more information, establish platforms for online payment, online consultation and e-voting. Security concerns can be overcome by data-authentication technologies. It can deliver government services and encourage greater democracy and engagement from citizens. Governments around the world are exploring the use of Web-based information technology (Grönlund, 2002). Attention has focused on the design and delivery of portals as a major component of government electronic service infrastructures. The N.Z. government portal site (http://www.govt.nz/en/home/) or the Local Government Online Ltd (LGOL) Web site, (www.localgovt.co.nz/AboutCouncils/Councils/ByRegion/) are examples. Since the mid-1990s governments have been tapping the potential of the Internet to improve and governance and service provision. “In 2001, it was estimated that globally there were well over 50,000 official government Web sites with more coming online daily. In 1996 less than 50 official government homepages could be found on the world-wide-Web” (Ronaghan, 2002). Local governments are faced with growing demands of delivering information and services more efficiently and effectively and at low cost. Along with the rapid growth of technological developments, people demand high quality services that reflect their lifestyles and are accessible after normal office hours from home or work. Thus, the goals of delivering electronic government services are to simplify procedures and documentation; eliminate interactions that fail to yield outcomes; extend contact opportunities (i.e., access) beyond office hours and improve relationships with the public (Grönlund, 2002). Having an effective Web presence is critical to the success of local governments moving to adopt new technologies. Of equal importance is the evaluation of Web sites using different manual and automated methodologies and tools. In this study an evaluation of local authority Web sites was conducted to gain a practical understanding of the impact of the Internet on local governments in New Zealand using a tailor-made model specific to local governments. Issues studied focused on the information and services provided by the local authority Web sites. What is more important is whether the local government operations can or are able to support the expectations for speed, service, convenience, and delivery that the Web creates. Through identification of best practice Web sites and a set of evaluation methods and tools, this paper will provide a set of design guidelines to local authorities that would benefit and better meet the needs of their local communities.

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