44212: web-site development

44212: Web-site Development

Introduction to Module

Ian Perry Room: C41C

Extension: 7287

E-mail: [email protected]

http://itsy.co.uk/ac/0809/Sem1&2/44212_WSD/

Ian Perry 44212: Web-site Development: Introduction to Module Slide 2

Why Web-site Development?

Most contemporary organisations already have, or require the development of, a Web-site; in order to support both their internal and external business processes. As such, there is a requirement for all

business graduates to be confident in their ability to design & develop a Web-site.

or at least understand why and how a Web-site might be developed in support of the business processes of an Organisation.


Aims & Distinctive Features

Aims To develop a set of skills (i.e. those useful in the

analysis and exploitation of Internet/Web technologies) that will enable the development of an effective 'Web Presence' in support of an organisation.

Distinctive Features An understanding of what actually makes the

Internet/Web work? An exploration of the potential of the Internet/Web

in support of the needs of a specific organisation. Experience in Web-site Development (i.e. via

HTML Authoring).


Learning Outcomes

By the end of the module you will be able to: Understand the technologies that have allowed

the Internet/Web to flourish, and the significance of the Internet’s Domain Name System.

Appraise the issues involved in, and the associated problems associated with, the development of a viable ‘Web Presence’ for a specific organisation.

Design and build a Web-site in support of specific organisational needs.


Assessment Method

TWO Assignments; based upon a common Case Study.

Ass 1 (30%) – Web Development Plan Produce a document outlining a 'Web

Development Plan', for the organisation as described by a Case Study scenario.

Deadline = Wednesday, 3rd December, 2008

Ass 2 (70%) – Web-site Implementation & Evaluation Implement an appropriate ‘Web-site’ for the

Case Study organisation, based your 'Web Development Plan' from Assignment 1.

Deadline = Wednesday, 20th May, 2009


Assignment Hand-in Process

You MUST hand in TWO copies of each Assignment; BOTH copies must be submitted by 3pm of the submission

date.

An Electronic Copy (via Turnitin) Class ID: 76873 Password: BUTQ [NB. UPPER CASE] Assignment 1: E1 – Web Development Plan Assignment 2: E2 – Web-site Implementation

See the ‘Assessment Method’ page of the ‘WSD Web-site’; in order to find out how to enrol for & use Turnitin.

A Paper Copy (to the School Office) With properly completed Front-sheets, including a Turnitin

Paper ID; in the correct drawer of the wooden filing cabinet outside of CH5.


The GIC Case Study

The General Insurance Company (GIC), is based in Manchester, and was originally set-up in 1997 by David and Jane Cowper, who had just completed their undergraduate degrees.

Since then the company has experienced modest growth, and they now employ a staff of 6 Insurance Clerks (based at the Head Office in Manchester) and 12 Insurance Advisors who deal directly with Customers in one of 4 Regions of the UK.

GIC offer a range of general insurance products, including Motor, Home, Travel and Life Insurance, which are sold to Customers by one of the Insurance Advisors for the Region in which they live.


The GIC Case Study (continued)

The 4 Regions of the UK, and the number of Insurance Advisors operating in each Region are as follows: Region Advisors The South-East 4 The South-West 2 The Midlands 3 The North 3

It is the job of the Insurance Advisors to visit Customers (both ‘New’ and ‘Existing’) in their homes in order to ascertain their insurance requirements;

and to help them fill in the Insurance Forms (some of which are quite complex) that must be completed in order to provide an accurate Insurance Quotation.



Existing Customers (i.e. those who have already bought insurance products from GIC) often contact one of the Insurance Advisors for the Region in which they live to arrange such a visit when they need advice on other insurance products.

Insurance Advisors might also instigate a visit (usually on an annual basis) to review the insurance products already held by the Customer.

New Customers might be visited: by invitation (i.e. having been introduced to

friends/family of existing Customers) Or:

as a result of advertisements in local/regional newspapers, or even by cold calling (which the Insurance Advisors do not like doing).



First thing every morning, each Insurance Advisor sends any Insurance Forms that they helped their Customers to complete the previous day back to the Head Office in Manchester.

When the Insurance Forms arrive at the Head Office, the Insurance Clerks set about the task of interpreting the data on the forms in order to calculate Insurance Quotations.

GIC deal with a wide variety of Insurance Providers, and will ‘shop-around’ on behalf of their Customers in order to find the best deal on offer.

Once an Insurance Quotation has been calculated it is sent by post directly to the Customer.

Upon receipt of an Insurance Quotation, the Customer must then decide if they wish to go ahead with the insurance, in which case they must sign an Acceptance Form and send this, together with a cheque for the full amount of the premium back to GIC’s Head Office.

If they do not want to go ahead, then they simply do nothing. Upon receipt of a signed Acceptance Form, and accompanying

payment, the Insurance Clerks send out the relevant Insurance Certificate to the Customer.



GIC are having particular problems with the following areas of their business activity:

Building up their customer base – they want more people who require general insurance to know they exist and what they have to offer.

Supporting new and existing customers with information – to help them decide on the right type of insurance to match their requirements. Insurance Advisors often spend a great deal of their time, travelling to visit customers, and answering the same, predictable, questions.

Capturing the data for insurance calculations – some of the data that needs to be gathered before an Insurance Quotation can be calculated is quite extensive, and often involves filling in quite complex Insurance Forms.

Calculating insurance quotations – which often requires a number of quite time-consuming, and hence error prone, manual calculations to be performed.


Lectures & Workshops (Sem 1)[ Lec = Friday, 2:15, CG6 | Wks = Friday, 2:15, IT3 ]

2. Introduction to Module (Lec)3. Case Study & Assignment 1 (Wks)4. How the Internet/Web Works (Lec)5. Looking for ‘Similar’ Organisations (Wks)6. What is a Web Presence? (Lec)7. What is a Web Development Plan? (Wks)8. Review & Assignment 1 Requirements (Lec)9. Assignment 1 Support (Wks)

Assignment 1 Deadline (Wed, 03 Dec, 2008)

10. Building Web Documents (Lec)11. Introduction to Web Authoring (Wks)12. Over the Christmas Break? (Lec)


The WSD Web-site

All Documents for the WSD Module, i.e.: Module Handbook, Assessment Method, Lectures &

Workshops, etc.

can be found at the following Web-address: http://itsy.co.uk/ac/0809/Sem1&2/44212_WSD/

The Lecture or Workshop document(s) for next week’s session should ‘appear’ (as if by magic), before 5pm every Friday.

If they don’t, could someone please e-mail me ([email protected]), and I will remedy the situation.


Assessment Method

Case Study Download (and print!) a copy of The ‘General

Insurance Company’ Case Study; you will need to refer constantly to this document prior to the submission of both Assignments.

Both Assignments are based upon this common Case Study, so it would pay you to really understand this organisation & its problems.

Assignment 1 Download (and print!) a copy of Assignment 1; you

will need to refer constantly to this document prior to the submission of Assignment 1.

The Assignment 1 Requirements may not mean very much to you now, but, hopefully, after the next few Lecture & Workshop sessions they will begin to make some sense.


What is the Internet?

often defined in terms of computers as; a world-wide network of computer networks,

specifically those using TCP/IP. an experiment that went right!

began as US Department of Defense (sic) communications technology in 1969. Technological ‘revolutions’ often occur because of

war, or the threat of war.

at base the Internet is about; people communicating with each other using

computers.


Key Internet Services

E-mail (inc. mailing lists) & Discussion Groups; For asynchronous communication.

Chat-rooms & Voice/Video over IP; For synchronous communication.

ftp (file transfer protocol); To copy files from one Computer to another.

The Web; Providing a standard, user friendly, interface

to the Internet.


Mass Communications (1)

The Web is the mass communications medium; replacing: book/magazine; focussed material, for a

particular audience, shaped by editorial view.

CD-ROM; various media in one ‘document’. text, graphics, video, sound, animation, with hyperlinked navigation.

radio/television; entertainment, ‘hot off the press’, & time critical.

telephone; immediate, direct, & personal contact.


Mass Communications (2)

library; providing data to a wide audience at low cost. Allowing people to pursue their interests & acquire knowledge.

opinion poll; grabbing feedback so publishers learn about their audience in real time.

park bench; ‘communities of interests’, people can join in conversations and/or post own thoughts.

frontier town (the wild-wild-Web); pioneering, creative & lawless.


Collaboration & Communication

Web-sites tend to be thought of as places that you visit, not as books to read, or films to watch.

The Web is: a vehicle for collaboration;

a world-wide network facilitating collaboration by enabling video & telephone conferencing, file sharing/transfer, etc.

a channel for communication; if your product/service is digital (business

intelligence, drawings, fonts, research reports, music, video, software, etc.) it can be located, ordered, paid for & delivered via the Web.


Internet/Web Growth

Measuring Internet/Web growth is quite tricky! What would you measure?

We will have a brief look at the following: Host Computers Web-sites


H'obbes' Internet Timeline (v8.2) - Host Computers (http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/)

394.992

317.646

147.345

0.313 0.992 3.212 14.352

29.67

72.398

233.101

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

Year

Ho

sts

(M

illi

on

s)

Internet Growth: Host Computers

ARPANET (1969) - 4 ‘Host’ computers

‘Birth’ of the World Wide Web

WWW ‘adopted’ by Academia


H'obbes' Internet Timeline (v8.2) - Web-sites (http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/)

0.001 0.027 0.23 0.1 0.65 1.83 4.06

9.95

27.59

36.69

35.42

46.07

58.19

75.25

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Year

We

b-s

ite

s (

Millio

ns

)

Internet Growth: Web-sites

Web ‘invented’ in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee

WWW ‘adopted’ by Academia

WWW ‘adopted’ by Business


The Internet/Web?

The Internet is fast becoming an essential part of modern business. The Web tends to be used as the front-end

to all/most Internet-based Services. The Internet can be defined as:

a world-wide network of computer networks, specifically those using TCP/IP.

Can also be described in many other ways:http://www.cybergeography.org/atlas/atlas.html

a beautiful Web-site: with links to a wide variety of ways of ‘visualising’ the Internet/Web; e.g. conceptual, artistic, geographic, etc.


Next Week is a Workshop!

The Lectures and Workshops for WSD happen in alternating Weeks.

Next week’s session is a Workshop, i.e.; Friday, 2:15pm, in IT3

Make sure that you turn up for ALL of the Workshop sessions: as I will be taking a Register.