ECT 455/HCI 513
Website Testing
Technology and architecture
Agenda
• Market News
• Site Testing
• Technology
• Projects– Project Presentation– Final Deliverables– Peer Evaluation
• Final Exam Review
Testing
• Visual Acceptance Testing– Consistency in layout, color, and style.– Under different browsers, resolutions, and viewing
environments equivalent to those of a real user.– Printed pages.
• Functionality Testing– No broken links.– Test all interactive elements (forms, shopping carts,
search engines)– Test functions with realistic and extreme cases.
Testing
• Delivery Testing – Simulate site traffic– Test the site on the actual production server
• User Acceptance Testing – Beta testing – Perform user acceptance testing after fixing
obvious problems
• Release and Beyond– The maintenance phase has just begun.
Testing
• Content Proofing– Word usage, grammar, proof reading– Product names, copyright dates, and
trademarks
• System and Browser Compatibility Testing– Use detailed browser requirements– Use same types of systems and browsers that
real users will have.
Expert Evaluation
• Expert evaluation versus usability study.
• Goals:– To uncover obvious execution flaws.– To identify obvious usability problems
• Not a substitute for usability study.
Evaluation • First impression.• Home page pretesting
– Identify– Navigation: clickable zone
• Sub page pretesting• Site navigation testing
– Consistency of placement of navigation, search facility• Task analysis
– Readability– Findability (browsing)– Interactivity
• Execution analysis– Up-to-date content; standards for HTML, CSS, XML– Visual execution: image quality and file size; Delivery: speed and
server capacity• Final impression.
User Testing
• Log files
• Pay attention more to what users do than to what they say.
• Consider having a person not involved in the site design process to conduct a user test.
• http://www.useit.com
• http://www.usableweb.com
Web Services for e-Commerce
WSDL
http
WSDL
http
SOAP callSOAP response
Web Services: Using XML for communicationWeb service environment:1. Encapsulate the logic of the application logic into a
subroutine.
2. Define the API for the logic using WSDL.
3. Host the subroutine on a Web server supporting the SOAP.
4. Publish the subroutine definition to an UDDI directory.
5. Look up the service in the UDDI directory
6. Use SOAP to make a remote call from the client application to the subroutine.
7. Use the results of the call in the application.
The Vision of Web Services
• Provide a straightforward and interoperable means for programs to communicate with each other over the Web.
• Provide directories so that providers can advertise and users can search for services
• Create a market for remote services, such as payment systems, logistics, and business messaging.
• Knit together disparate applications by the use of service discovery and negotiation.
Advantages of Web Services• Based on open and ubiquitous standards.
– HTTP for communication and XML for information exchange
– Work across hardware and software boundaries
• Allow creation of business service stacks– Expose software systems over the Internet to create
value-added service stacks by melding discrete Web services over a network
– Standardize machine-to-machine interaction– Publish your service to broad audience without worrying
about custom coding and interoperability issues
• Enjoy a broad-based industry support.– Microsoft, Sun, IBM, Oracle– The open source movement
Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs)
• Based on RPC models – YDDI standards (for service directory)– WSDL – an XML schema (API)– Web servers and HTTP (binary wire protocols)
• New factors– Remote and less reliable than local procedure
calls. – Built on open standards, leading to wide
interoperability among different implementations.
Core Enabling Technology
• XML• SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)
– The transport that facilitates the exchange of XML messages between machines.
– Calling conventions for remote procedure calls, encoding rules for parameters and return values, and the envelope.
– Performs business method requests as XML documents and supports a variety of lower-level protocols (HTTP(S), SMTP)
– Consists of request and response XML documents that have an envelope over them.
Core Enabling Technology
• WSDL (Web Services Description Language)– Interface definition language for Web services.– Describe services that are accessible via SOAP
and HTTP. – An XML language that permits standardized
description of Web services.– Describe the interface, semantics, and
administration-related information of a Web service call.
– Allows simple services to be quickly and easily described, documented, and discovered.
Core Enabling Technology
• UDDI (Universal Description Discovery and Integration)– A process not a protocol. – Provides a specification that permits the publication
and location of services in a universal service registry. – Publishes an available service along with its call
interface and semantics/– Provides a discovery and meeting point for service
providers and consumers.
UDDI Specification
• Business information (businessEntity element)– Business name, contact details
• Service information (businessService element)– Services relevant to a function or a service category
• Biding information (bindingTemplate element)– Network access point, supported interfaces
• Specification information (tModels)– Specification or interfaces supported by a Web
services– Data structure
Web Service Layers
Examples
• Amazon.com
• Auto industry
E-Commerce Solutions for Small Business
• Valueweb
• Storesense
• 1&1 Professional eShop
• Yahoo Merchant Starter
E-Commerce Building Blocks
E-Commerce Application Building Blocks
Sell-Side E-Commerce Systems
Projects
• Testing
• Guidelines
• Documentation
• Presentation
• Peer Evaluation
Final Exam Review
• Treese & Steward 2nd edition– Chapters 2, 3, 4, 11, 13, 15
• Web Design and Complete Reference 2nd edition– Chapters 1, 2, 4, 6 (165-185), 9 (302-312), 17
(725-733)