Case Study/Final Project
Build a Web Site
For this class you will be completing a Web site. The purpose of this
case study/final project, in conjunction with the lab assignments, is to
allow you to put to practical use all the theories, concepts and skills you
will learn in this class. I hope you have some fun with this. Try to be
creative and don’t let the assignment intimidate you. As always, if you
have questions along the way, don’t hesitate to ask!
Use this document as your guide, a type of checklist, to remind you of
what you need to do to build a web site. You do not have to turn in any
assignments for the case study but your final project should reflect your
attention to the steps involved.
Determine what kind of content you want your Web site to have. You need to
decide what the purpose of the site is (informational, entertaining, etc.). You
should decide what area of interest to focus on like animals, current events,
aerospace industry, european vacations, retail, etc. Try to brainstorm as
many defining factors of the contents of the site and make an outline.
Decide what generation of Web site best fits the site contents and the
development team’s ability. An informational site could fulfill it’s purpose being
as simple as a first generation site, or as complex as a third generation site.
Look at factors like who’s my audience, what is the simplest way to
communicate the information effectively, what are my team’s capabilities,
what are our rescources, etc
Decide the site’s model. Is it a Web specific, online store, or Web enabled
site. Look at things like is the site designed to help an existing organization, or
is it something exclusive to the Web.
Define the members and roles of your development team. Make sure you
have all the rescources you need to complete the project. First decide what
needs to be done by defining all the roles that need to be fulfilled. Then match
people to those roles according to strengths and weaknesses.
Define the Web site stakeholders. Who are your system owners, users,
designers and builders.
Consider how secure transactions and cash flow, if applicable, will be handled
on your Web site.
Determine which search engines to use and why.
Decide what design process to use. If you remember from your reading there
are nine processes that you can choose from. These are milestone-driven,
versioned, incremental, use case driven, archetecture centric, user centric,
standards based, documented, and growth oriented.
Decide what methodology to use. Methodology and process go hand-in-hand,
and there are three major combinations of methodology and process;
internally developed process and methodology, internal methodology and
external process, and purchased methodology. Select the methodology that
best fits your needs.
Develop a timeline and budget for your site.
Develop the layout of your site. How will your site be presented, how will it be
connected together, what themes will you incorporate, etc. are questions to
answer. Brainstorm a few ideas and then decide which one will best fit your
site.
Decide what development tools to use and any other technologies that are
required. Look at many options (FrontPage, GoLive, Notepad, etc.) and
compare their features. Choose the best option for your site. Also decide if
you need any other technologies to accomplish the project (Photoshop, Excel,
Acrobat, etc.), or if one tool is enough.
Design the site’s navigation. How will your users jump from page to page,
which pages need to be accessed from a specific page, how will the
navigation be presented, etc.? Brainstrom several ideas and then decide
which one will best fit your site.
Decide on the interface requirements for your site. What will your site look like
to the user (color, font, text-positioning, etc.)? Brainstrom several ideas and
then decide which one(s) will best fit your site. Develop your Cascading Style
Sheet for your site.
Now gather all the elements needed for the project into one secure location.
Make sure you have all your graphics, content, etc. in an easily accessible but
secure location.
Start coding the first few pages of your web site using HTML. Use the design
tool you decided to use earlier in this lab and start building your web site.
Design at least one interactive function for your Web site that is appropriate to
it’s content.
Program that function and insert it into your web site.
If appropriate, add interaction with a database (check out tutorials on ADO)
Explore some Dynamic HTML (DHTML) Functions (Do a quick DHTML
tutorial on the Web) Add an “Event” or two (See Unit 5, Lesson 4 of your text)
Your last task is to make sure everything works. Test your site and then
submit it for grading.
Good luck?