Web design Dr. Tim King My CV  Computer Lab 1973-1981 – Wrote a relational database for Ph.D.   Lecturer, University of Bath 1981-1983 R&D Director 1984-1986 –

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Transcript Web design Dr. Tim King My CV  Computer Lab 1973-1981 – Wrote a relational database for Ph.D.   Lecturer, University of Bath 1981-1983 R&D Director 1984-1986 – 

Web design
Dr. Tim King
My CV
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Computer Lab 1973-1981
– Wrote a relational database for Ph.D.
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Lecturer, University of Bath 1981-1983
R&D Director 1984-1986
– Wrote AmigaDOS
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Founded Perihelion with Jack Lang 1986
– Distributed OS, embedded systems, database systems
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Founded UK Online 1994
– First UK ISP with content
– Sold to EasyNet 1996
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Independent consultant
– Technical Due Diligence for VCs
– E-business advice for Sainsbury’s, Sony, Diageo etc
– Strategy for small companies and following M&As
I have an idea
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Can you source?
– Purchasing: where from and with what?
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Can you fulfil?
– Warehousing
• Tesco vs Sainsbury model
– Delivery
– Returns
– Electronic fulfilment
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Stock control
– Do it? Show it? Pending delivery? Dabs.com
– Cannibalisation
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Can you make money from it?
– Simple fact which seemed to elude people 1998-2001
Domain Names
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All 5 letter .com URLs now taken
Be inventive
– Greetingcards.com, Cybercards.com,
Mousegreetings
– Fish4cars, fish4homes etc
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Business.com went for $10m
$25,000 for CitiCorp registered that
morning
.com .net .co.uk .fr .de .be .biz
The isles of Tivalu and Tonga
– .tv and .to
Web design
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Design is important
– But functionality more so
– Many web design houses don’t understand about
databases
– Managing Directors do not make good web designers
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It’s another type of publishing
– Web publishing is no different from other types of
publishing
– Spelling, grammar, point size, broken links,
incorrect captions
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Navigation is important
– Three clicks maximum to get anywhere
– Hard when Sainsbury’s have 25,000 line items
Common mistakes
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Too much text
Frames
Huge images
Distracting colour schemes
Flashing gifs, scrolling text
Music
Unclear navigation
Unreadable
Cluttered
www.websitesthatsuck.com
Poor design example
Good design example
Quick links
to sub areas
Pop-over
sub-menus
Recent news
stories
Clear link to
technical
support
Search clearly
available
Services for
subscribers
Special event
links
Discussion
forums
Consistent
navigation
Protected pages
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Most web sites are open to all
Protected pages for
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Subscribers
Suppliers
Customers
Staff
Protected by
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Username / pw
IP address
Domain name of browser
Combinations of these
Dynamic pages
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HTML with extra tags pre-processed
– Java Server Pages (JSP)
– Active Server Pages (ASP)
<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Connecting to an Access database</TITLE> </HEAD>
<BODY><TABLE>
<%
SET myConn=SERVER.createobject("adodb.connection")
strConn="PROVIDER=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;DATA SOURCE=emp.mdb"
myConn.Open (strConn)
SQLStr="SELECT Empno, ename, deptno FROM Emp ORDER BY deptno, ename"
SET result=myConn.execute(SQLStr)
%>
<H2>ASP Example</H2><P>Connecting to an Access Database</P>
<TR><TH>Employee No</TH><TH>Name</TH>
<%
WHILE NOT result.EOF
%>
<TR><TD> <%=result("empno")%> </TD <TD> <%=result("ename")%> </TD>
<%
result.movenext()
WEND
%>
</TABLE> </BODY> </HTML>
Encrypted pages
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Most traffic to and from web sites is in clear
Potential eavesdropping possible
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encrypts data
Computationally expensive at server
– Hardware assist boards are available
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Widely used technology
– In all browsers
– Used whenever privacy is important
• Payment
• Secure communication (spooks, terrorists, medical)
Site structure
Home page
Help
Search
Company
Sitemap About Us Contact
Products
Product
Services
Service 1
Support
Free
Paid
search
Service 2
Payment
Downloads
Chat
Service 3
Static pages
Protected pages
Service 4
Dynamic pages
Applications
Encrypted pages
Shortcuts
Search from every page
Payment from free support page
Content Management
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Change once, changes all versions
Input
– Data and news feeds
– Editorial, pictures
– Price, stock, changes
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Output
– Staging server
– Business/advert manager
– Web farm
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Content Management Systems (CMS)
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Intewoven
Vignette
ATG Dynamo
Broadvision
MS Siteserver
Multiple targets
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Different devices
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Different browsers
Different bandwidth, resolutions, screen sizes, colours, printers
Phones & PDAs
TV: Open TV, DVB-TAM-HTML, WebTV
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XML helps, but doesn’t solve everything
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Phones and PDAs have different physical
characteristics
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WAP issues
Small screens
Battery life essential issue
Java Midlets a step forward
TV and other streaming media have different
metaphors to the Web
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Device limitations
Audio important
High colour depth, poor display quality
Evolution: Text -> Still Pictures-> Moving Pix-> 3D
Workflow
New products
Content
Press releases
repository
Staging
Server
Web
Job vacancies
Template
repository
Compliance officer
Web designers
Database designers
Webmaster/editor