Creating

1
Creating Building the Web Site

• Week 8

2
Objectives

• Planning web site development
• Initiation of the project
• Analysis for web site development
• Designing web site content
• Site promotion
• Success factors in developing web sites

3
Summary of Process of Web Site Development
Select ISP
Register domain name
Analyze and design content
Develop content
Maintain site
Test, review and revise content
Publish content
Promote site
4
Planning Web Site Development

• Forward planning
• Design of a site must occur before creation of
  web pages
• Work the design around the needs of users
• Structured plan is a must

5
Web Site Prototyping

• Analysis understanding the requirements of the
  audience of the site and the requirements of the
  business, defined by business and marketing
  strategy
• Design specifying different features of the
  site that will fulfill the requirements of the
  users and the business identified during analysis
• Development creation of the web pages and the
  dynamic content of the web site
• Testing and review structured checks are
  conducted to ensure that different aspects of the
  site meet the original requirements and work
  correctly

6
Four Stages of Web Site Prototyping
Start
Analysis
Testing review
Design
Development
7
Benefits of Prototyping

• It prevents major design or functional errors
  being made during the construction of the web
  site
• It involves the marketers responsible for the web
  site and ideally the potential audience of the
  web site in proactively shaping the web site
• The iterative approach is intended to be rapid,
  and a site can be produced in a period of months
  or weeks

8
Initiation of the Web Site Project

• Aims and objectives of the web site are reviewed
  to ensure
• There is management and staff commitment to the
  project
• Objectives are clearly defined
• The costs and benefits are reviewed in order that
  the appropriate amount of investment in the site
  occurs
• The project will follow a structured path, with
  clearly identified responsibilities for different
  aspects such as project management, analysis,
  promotion and maintenance
• The implementation phase will ensure that
  important aspects of the project such as testing
  and promotion are not skimped

9
Domain Name Registration

• Register the domain name as early as possible
• Register multiple domain names
• Use the potential of non-company brand names to
  help promote a product
• Avoid sitting your site on an ISP server that
  uses the name of the ISP such as
  www.ltisp_namegt.com.lb/gtcompany_namegt

10
Who is Involved in a Web site Project

• Site sponsors
• Site owner
• Project manager
• Site design
• Content developer
• Webmaster
• Stakeholders

11
Analysis for Web Site Development

• What are the key audiences for the site
• What should the content of site be
• Which customer service capabilities will we
  provide for customers
• How will the site be structured
• How will navigation around the site occur

12
Methods of Finding Customer Needs

• Interviews with marketing staff
• Questionnaire to companies
• Informal interview with key accounts
• Focus groups
• Reviewing competitors web sites

13
Ten Key reasons for Returning to Site
Reason to return Percentage of respondents
1 High quality content 75
2 Ease of use 66
3 Quick to download 58
4 Updated frequently 54
5 Coupons and incentives 14
6 Favorite brands 13
7 Cutting-edge technology 12
8 Games 12
9 Purchasing capabilities 11
10 Customizable content 10
14
Designing Web Site Content
Personalized
Easy to find
Relevant
Information
Timely
Detailed
Clear
Up to date
Accurate
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Developing Customer Oriented Content

• Familiarity of the customer with a
  product/company
• Familiarity of the customer with the Internet
• Familiarity of a customer with a company web site
• Stage of the customer in the buying process
• Type of customer

16
Information Cues

• Performance (what does the product do?)
• Components/content (what is the product made up
  of?)
• Price/value
• Implicit comparison
• Availability
• Quality
• Special offers
• Explicit comparisons

17
Site Structure

• Decided early in the development stage
• Storyboarding used to develop site structure
• Map or diagram site structure
• Links should be available to move from one branch
  to another
• Ease of moving is dependent on the menu options
  available.

18
Web Site Map
19
Site Navigation

• Navigation describes how easy it is to find move
  between different information on a web site. It
  is governed by menu arrangements, site structure
  and the layout of individual pages
• Flow describes how easy it is for users of a site
  to move between the different pages of content of
  the site

20
Navigation Aspects

• Consistency one consistent user interface
• Simplicity limited number of options (max three
  levels of menu)
• Context use of signposts to indicate to users
  where they located within the site (reassuring
  users that they are not lost)

21
Menu Options

• Test menus, buttons or images
• Rollovers
• Positioning
• Frames
• Number of levels
• Number of options

22
Graphic Design Constraints

• The speed of downloading graphics
• The screen resolutions of the computer
• The number of colors on screen
• The type of web browser used

23
Furthermore the site should be consistent with
offline brand of web site and appropriate to
different audiences in different countries
Brand identity and Localization are very important
24
Measuring Service Quality

• Reliability the ability to perform the service
  dependably and accurately
• Responsiveness a willingness to help customers
  and provide prompt service
• Assurance the knowledge and courtesy of
  employees and their ability to convey trust and
  confidence
• Tangibles the physical appearance of facilities
  and communications
• Empathy providing caring, individualized
  attention

25
Site Promotion

• Online promotion
• Offline promotion
• Integrating online and offline techniques

26
Success Factors in Developing Web Sites

• Management support necessary to promote project
  across company
• Clearly defined strategy and objectives
• Strong project management to ensure targets are
  achieved through effective planning and
  resourcing of the project
• Good skills and experience amongst developers of
  the project
• Co-operation amongst different parts of the
  business involved in the project and integration
  of information systems from different areas.

27
Reasons for failure

• Lack of real executive support
• A failure to identify the business goals of
  systems
• A lack of communication between marketing and IT
  departments
• Limited technical knowledge of developers of the
  system, either in-house or third-party companies
• Lack of integration between the e-commerce system
  and other systems