1 WEB Engineering E-Commerce Strategy & Management COM350

WEB Engineering2 Contents u u The Web Eng. Process u u A Framework for Web Eng. u u Management Issues

WEB Engineering3 Web Engineering What is it? What is it? Who does it? Who does it? Why do we need it? Why do we need it? Usability Usability Functionality Functionality Reliability Reliability Maintainability Maintainability

WEB Engineering4 A Framework for Web Eng. Remembering the continuously evolving nature of web apps, a spiral model: formulation planning analysis engineering page generation and testing customer evaluation engineering: architectural / navigation / interface design content design / production

WEB Engineering5 Formulation, Planning and Analysis Formulation - ask the questions to identify the objectives and audience of the web app. Planning - costs, resources, risks, plans, timescale (always compressed!). Analysis -content, interaction, functional, confign. (cf. requirements analysis)

WEB Engineering6 Engineering Engineering - Architecture (structures), Architecture (patterns), Navigation, Interface, Production. Page Generation -Write the pages! Testing -Review content, Review design, Processing components are unit tested, Architecture integration tests, Complete Web app tested (functionality + content delivery), Environment (operating systems) compatibility testing, End-user tests Evaluation - Improve it, Revise it, Update it!

WEB Engineering7 Management Issues  The Web team - different people for different roles  Content Developers  Web Publisher  Web Engineer  Support Specialist  Administrator

WEB Engineering8 Management Issues  Project management  Project Initiation  Outsourcing issues  Estimation issues  Assessment of development schedule  Managing scope

WEB Engineering9 Management Issues  Configuration Management content control content control people / authority to make, approve, implement changes people / authority to make, approve, implement changes scale (change to scale = change to type of control) scale (change to scale = change to type of control) Politics -‘ownership’ of components (“rights and responsibilities”) Politics -‘ownership’ of components (“rights and responsibilities”)

WEB Engineering10 Enterprise Usability Management: A Compass for Top Management   Equate usability with competitiveness and quality in the enterprise   Trace cost of usability problems to the source   Incorporate design and evaluation cycles into product development   Balance the use of static design standards and dynamic research results   Systematise the learning of design principles and skills   Develop team evaluation methods for team design projects.   Align feedback loops from all sources toward new product design   Maintain cross-project collaboration in the product design process   Align all forms of communication to customers who use the products   Participate in growing the base of knowledge about usability.

WEB Engineering11 Ten Steps to Product Usability: A Roadmap for Project Managers u u Set strategic and detailed usability objectives u u Develop and incorporate user profiles u u Prioritise critical product components and task flow u u Identify a design team and clarify roles u u Define the UI design process (traditional GUI and Web interfaces) u u Develop a usability evaluation strategy a usability test plan.... when should you test? how should you structure the test? u u Establish product design guidelines (traditional GUI and Web designs) u u Develop a UI specifications documentation procedure u u Develop a user assistance strategy help, tutorials, splash screens, etc. that make-up the user assistance strategy u u Maintain a feedback channel for users

WEB Engineering12 Ten Elements of Usability: A Yardstick for Designers: u u Clarify the core concepts of the design u u Plan and maintain consistency (internal and external consistency of UI design) u u Fit content to customers who use the product u u Provide reassuring and effective feedback u u Clarify interaction rules (dialog design, data entry, selection, modes, drag and drop, etc.) u u Structure navigation clearly (menus, tree structures) u u Use plain terminology (terminology within the user's knowledge domain - know your user) u u Optimise user assistance (help tools /on-line help and documentation) u u Optimise visual design (graphics, layout, icons, metaphors, real world models) u u Design for the context of use

WEB Engineering13 Checklist for Testing Your Web Pages for Accessibility u u Turn off graphics, make sure the ALT text displayed makes the page usable u u Turn off sounds, make sure no important instructions are lost u u Turn off style sheets, to make sure the page is still readable u u Use the High Contrast option in the Accessibility Options section of Control Panel, restart the browser, make sure the page is still readable. u u Use Custom Font Sizes in the Display section of Control Panel u u Use the largest font size supported by the browser (the largest is only available when High Contrast mode is turned on) u u Resize the browser window larger and smaller u u Navigate using the keyboard, make sure TAB traverses all links in reasonable order and that CTRL+TAB moves between panes or sections u u Select all text and copy it to the clipboard, ensure it makes sense when pasted into a word processor u u Use an analysis tool, such as ‘Bobby’, to examine your pages

WEB Engineering14 Further Reading Pressman, Software Engineering, chapter 29 and RSP&A Web Engineering RSP&A Web Engineering On usability issues: useit.com: Jakob Nielsen's site (Usability and Web Design) useit.com: Jakob Nielsen's site (Usability and Web Design) The Usability Group - Leaders in Customer Experience Management The Usability Group - Leaders in Customer Experience Management