Resources

Contents

Questionnaire

Design Guidelines

Common Webpages

Costs

Technical Details

Glossary

This technical information supplement is not targeted at casual readers. It is for users who require specific information on the subjects listed below.

Multimedia

Multimedia is a general term which includes audio, video, animation, software interactivity etc. Multimedia on the web comes with significant bandwidth and technology restrictions. Only use multimedia if it enhances the users experience. As Broadband becomes more common, multimedia usage will increase.

Animation

• Animated GIF's: The simplest form of animation. Supported on all systems. Tends to be jerky in nature.
• DHTML: Implemented by using JavaScript. Tend to be choppy. Useful for button rollovers and scrolling text animation. Can be problematic in some browsers.
• Flash: Is the leading format for sophisticated web-based animation's. Very compact file size. Most users will have Flash pre-installed on their system, those that don't will need to download software.
• Shockwave: These are compressed Macromedia director files. Their main benefit over flash is their support for complex scripting. However, they can be significantly larger than Flash files. Is not always installed on users computers.

Sound

Two forms exist: Download-and-play requires the user to download the entire audio track before playback. Streaming technology means the user can hear audio as it downloads. It is not predictable or error free, and tends to be unreliable.

File formats include:

• WAV: Wave is the most common sound format on Windows platforms. Can be played on Macs and other systems with the right software
• MPEG (.MP3): Significant compression capabilities. Generally downloaded completely first then played.
• RealAudio (.rm): Predominant streaming technology on the web.
• MIDI: Is not a digitised audio format. Useful on certain applications only. Extreme compression.
• AIFF: Audio Interchange File Format is very common on Macs. Widely used in multimedia applications, it is not very common on the web.

Video

For download-and-play delivery, AVI and QuickTime are the safest formats for short video clips. MPEG is a good choice for extremely high quality playback

• AVI: Audio Video Interchange. Supported well but file size is significant.
• MOV (QuickTime): Most common video format. Strong following in multimedia development community.
• MPEG: Considered standard format for digital videos. Although compression and image quality are impressive, this format can be difficult to work with at times.
• ASF: Used by Microsoft's Windows Media Server technology. A rising competitor to RealVIdeo.
• RM: RealVideo is the current leader in streaming video technology. Can be saved in a variety of quality levels, depending on end-user bandwidth availability.

Search Engines

Getting a high ranking in the search engines is the holy grail of website optimisation. Below are some areas that can be optimised. (For a detailed explanation of how Google index's pages click here .

Content Design

• It is important to have the title of the page reflect the site.
  The title of your webpage is often the subject line seen in search engine results. Hence, if you want someone to click on a link in their search results to your website, you should make sure your title tag looks very inviting.
  
• Start the title of each webpage with a keyword phrase and make sure that keyword phrase is all over that webpage. It is advised that about 60 characters is a maximum for a title tag and they should be customised to each webpage.
  
• Actual site content has an impact on rankings.
  
• Optimise headings: Many search engines regard the words and phrases in your headlines as being more relevant to your search engine results than the page title.

Create Meta Tags

• Meta tags are descriptions about a website that cannot be seen by users but allow search engines to index your site. The two most important Meta Tags are the KEYWORDS and DESCRIPTION tags.
  
• keywords: Should contain about 20 words or combinations of words that a potential visitor is most likely to type in a search engine. It is good to repeat the most important keywords a few times in various combinations.
  
• Description: This is a small description about your site. two to four sentences will suffice. This description is often displayed in a search engines results list. Your descriptive tags should include the same keyword phrases as your title and your webpage. It is advised that about 150 characters is appropriate for a description tag and they should be customised to each webpage.

Submit Your Site

You can either manually or with a submission program get your site listed in a search engines database. It is important not to try and use trickery or deceit to get a high ranking as this can cause your site to be banned altogether. The problem with most automatic submission programs is that they cannot optimise your application for each individual search engines. It takes approximately 2 weeks to 6 months to be listed after submitting your site. Many search engines now charge to give you a higher ranking.

Linking Sites

Probably the most important factor determining how high a listing you will get is how many other websites have links to your site. The more the better. The higher quality of the site the better. The more similar the site to yours the better.

Programming languages

Are used to add interactivity and functionality to websites. Each technology has its pros and cons, and it is often useful to use more than one.

Programming languages are divided into two main categories, clients side programming languages (which are run on the users computer) and server side programming languages (which are run on the server that hosts the website)

Client Side

Good: Faster than server side programming as no server round-trip is required.
Bad: One serious downside is lack of control. For example, the developer does not know what type of browsers, systems or features are available on the users computer - so may not always work due to user system differences. It is important to create a fallback state if the functions do not work properly.

Client side programs include:

Helpers: Generally run outside the browser window. E.g. WinZip or Word. Can be problematic due to communication problems between the browser and the helper program.

Plug-ins: Addresses communication problems of helper programs (because they are run as part of the browser). Not all users will have the correct plug-ins installed - often need to be downloaded and installed before they can run. Popular Plug-ins include: Flash, Shockwave, Acrobat, and RealVideo.

ActiveX: Internet portion of the Component Object Model (COM) is Microsoft's component technology for creating small components, or controls, within web page. For Internet Explorer only - you will need an alternative for Netscape users. Components are downloaded and installed automatically. Security is a big problem. ActiveX controls could potentially have full access to a users system.

Java: The main downside of component technologies like Netscape plug-ins and ActiveX is that they are platform specific (i.e. Mac Vs PC, or Netscape vs Internet Explorer). Java is platform independent. Though this is becoming a myth, as programs often need to be rewritten for different Java Virtual Machines. The major benefit just isn't there. Good in intranet's, or on the server side in the form of Java servlets. Web pages use small Java programs, called Applets that are downloaded and run directly within a browser to provide new functionality.
Java can be slow.

JavaScript: Has no relation to Java. Easy to use, non-compiled (execute one line of code at a time(which can be slower)) and useful in small chunks. Many versions exist that different browsers may or may not support - therefore JavaScript Should be done in a very conservative manner.

Server Side

Good: The developer has a lot of control.
Bad: Major downside is speed because interactivity takes place on the server. Can falter under large user usage due to bandwidth. Used by most high traffic sites.

Server side programs include:

CGI scripts and programs: CGI (Common Gateway Interface) is the oldest version of server-side programming. Can be slow (esp. interpreted languages like PERL). A CGI program is a program written to conform to a standard way of passing data into an external program through the use of HTTP methods (GET and POST) and environmental variables. Can be written in any language that can be used on the server executing the program. PERL is the most common. Always incurs some performance hit because they are generally run in a separate memory space from a web server. Most CGI scripts are relatively simple to build.

Server API's: API's (Application programming interface) Avoids CGI performance bottlenecks by writing programs that are tightly bound to the actual web server via a server API. Netscape API called NSAPI, Microsoft called ISAPI. Apache servers provide modules. Often to complex or expensive for many projects. Code may need to be rewritten for a different server platforms.

Server-Side Scripting: Contains a mixture of HTML and Script that is read be the server when requested.
Includes Coldfusion, PHP and ASP. Many exist but the main difference is in syntax. The actual benefits of one technology over another are minor, choice is personal preference.

All suffer from relatively slow execution speeds vs. more advanced server-side programming like APIs. The advantage is that the technology is relatively simple. Many designers like ColdFusion for its simple syntax, while programmers prefer other technologies.

Web Servers

A web server is a special computer that houses and delivers web pages upon request. Having the server close to users will increase page rendition speed.

Web Server Software

This is the software that is responsible for delivering webpages to users upon request.

Apache: Most popular web server. Free and Fast. Also very powerful. Not a commercial package. Mainly for UNIX.

IIS (Internet Information Services): Microsoft's server for Windows NT. Tightly integrated with Windows environment. Not quite a scalable as some UNIX servers. Free with the Operating System.

Others server software include: Iplanet, WebSite, WebStar, Lotus Domino.

Web Server Operating Systems

UNIX

Good: Fast, flexible. High-end applications and servers are available
Bad: Can be complicated to use and difficult to set up and maintain. Labour costs may be high. Buy in costs for hardware and software relatively high.

Windows NT

Good: Runs on both high end and low-end hardware. Many servers and development tools available. Basic administration is simple.
Bad: May require multiple servers for high volume sites. Advanced administration may rival UNIX in difficulty. Guaranteeing server stability can be troublesome.

Linux

Good: Available on low-end equipment. Cost is low. Many servers and development tools available.
Bad: Can be complicated to use and difficult to maintain.

Download Speed Issues

The World Wide Web is often termed the World Wide Wait. This is because downloading web pages can be infuriatingly slow for users on dial-up conncetions. For those users with Broadband, speed is much less of an issue.

Causes of Slow Downloading Website's

• Users local System: System and browser speed, user connection speed
• File size: Amount of text, images - etc., in the page.
• Page interactivity: Database driven sites can be slower than static sites.
• Traffic: The amount of Internet traffic and bottlenecks.
• Network issues: Network outages, latency from extreme physical distances and effects of protocols like TCP/IP or HTTP.
• Server used: Having your site hosted on a dedicated server will be faster than a shared server with many other websites Some servers are faster than others. The closer the server to your potential market, the faster.

The important point is that the end user will always perceive it as the website that is slow - that is your organisation!

Optimising site download times

To increase download speed the web developer can optimise only the file size and server used.

Reduce the file size by:

• Image Optimisation: Using the correct file formats: GIF for broad flat colour like logos. JPG for photos. Compressing images in the JPG format.
• HTML Code: Optimising HTML by not nesting too many tables and by keeping the code 'clean'
• Textual Content: Although plain text downloads quickly - it still takes time, so less is faster
• Multimedia: Only using multimedia (sound, animation etc) if it enhances the users experience. Can cause sites to be very slow.
• Database Interactivity: Any activity other than just downloading a static page will cause delays. This includes Database driven sites that will often require computational calculation and Database accessing by the server before the page is downloaded - this can add significant delays.

Server Type Used

Dedicated hosting: Having a dedicated server for your site is faster and more secure but quite a bit more expensive.

Close proximity to users: Having the server physically close to your potential users will increase speed.

Fast Server: Having your site hosted on a fast server will obviously help. This includes the servers CPU and disk drive speed, as well as the server software and maintenance crew used.

Types of Website's

Website's can be categorised as:

Static vs Interactive

Interactive: Users are able to interact directly with the content on the site. This includes the ability to manipulate the data for viewing, or even adding their own data to the site.

Static: The user is unable to affect in anyway the data they view. It is a bit like a newspaper - fixed.

Dynamic

Here the pages of a website are generated at the time the user requests them. These types are much more complicated to build. Usually they use a database to store the information. These type are server intensive, therefore can be slower than static sites.

Wide vs Narrow Sites

Wide sites: have many initial choices for the visitor to choose from. The advantage is that users can see more of what's contained within the site. The disadvantage is that it may present too many options for the user (and overwhelm them).

Narrow sites: Have only a few initial choices for the visitor to choose from. The advantage is that users are not overloaded with choices. The disadvantage is that a user may not find what they want and leave the site (when in actual fact, what they want is buried deeper in the site).