Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition

1. MIS/ENTR 375 Global E-Commerce Creating a Winning E-BusinessSecond Edition Understanding Web Technologies Chapter 9

2. Case Studies Read “Resource Sports Network”: Page 325, 353 Consider ways that RSN.com could have better anticipated its customers’ needs and wants when planning changes to the Web site. What classic mistake did RSN.com make concerning changes to its Web site content? What technologies did RSN.com use to attempt to understand its visitor wants and needs? What did an evaluation of visitor wants and needs show? Was the management team at RSN.com surprised by the evaluation? Why? What business decisions about the RSN.com Web site have been made as a result of the evaluation?

3. Learning Objectives • Identify Web site and Web page development tools • Explain the importance of Web site testing • Define Web site benchmarking • Describe ways to measure Web site ROI using Web analytics • Identify Web analytics software and service providers

4. Web Site Development Tools • Tools a programmer/developer uses to create Web pages • Markup languages • Text editors • HTML/XHTML editors • Web authoring software • Multimedia tools and scripting languages • Markup languages • Set of rules or tags embedded in an electronic document • Describe data or define layout and formatting

5. Web Site Development Tools (continued) • Markup languages (continued) • Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) • The ISO standard on which markup languages for the Web are based, including • Extensible Markup Language (XML) • Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) • Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML)

6. Web Site Development Tools (continued)

7. Web Site Development Tools (continued) • Extensible Markup Language (XML) • Streamlined subset of SGML • Developed in 1996 by the XML Working Group at the W3C • Used to describe data in documents transmitted over the Web • XML tags are customizable and can identify any data—the sender and receiver must agree on what the tags represent

8. Web Site Development Tools (continued)

9. Web Site Development Tools (continued) • Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) • Originally developed by Tim Berners-Lee • Created to lay out and format documents for the Web • Headings, text, tables, bulleted or numbered lists, images, links, and other style issues • Became an SGML standard in the mid-1990s • Tags are predefined

10. Web Site Development Tools (continued)

11. Web Site Development Tools (continued)

12. Web Site Development Tools (continued) • W3C sets the standards for HTML • Adds or deletes predefined tags and properties • Current standard is version 4.0.1 • More strict coding standards • All tags now in opening/closing pairs<img> and </img> • Tags written in lowercase • Properties (attributes) used to define formatting being deprecated in favor of cascading style sheets

13. Web Site Development Tools (continued) • Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML) • Reformulation of HTML 4.0.1 into XML • Current W3C standard for Web pages • Benefits of XHTML • Stricter coding rules to help eliminate coding errors and omissions • Better structured documents that display in a browser more quickly • Flexibility of custom tags

14. Web Site Development Tools (continued) • Basic text editor software • Used to create Web pages by manually typing tags and their properties as well as text content • Lacks special features common to word processors • Windows Notepad • Wordpad

15. Web Site Development Tools (continued)

16. Web Site Development Tools (continued) • HTML/XHTML editors • Software designed specifically to create HTML or XHTML documents • Special features that make inserting tags and properties easier • TextPad • BBEdit • HomeSite • HTMLPad

17. Web Site Development Tools (continued)

18. Web Site Development Tools (continued) • Web authoring software • WYSIWYG environment • Similar to creating a document in a word processor • Menu commands • Toolbar buttons • Automatically inserts HTML/XHTML code as user inserts and formats text, images, links, and other elements

19. Web Site Development Tools (continued) • FrontPage (SharePoint Designer) • Similar to working in Microsoft Word • Familiar working environment that shares common features with Microsoft Office products • Easy to learn and use • Inexpensive • Offers design templates and multiple working views and sub-views

20. Web Site Development Tools (continued) • Dreamweaver • “Industrial strength” version of Web authoring software used by professionals • More complex and perhaps more difficult to learn to use for a novice • WYSIWYG environment • Multiple working views

21. Web Site Development Tools (continued) • Tools used to create and edit multimedia content • Photoshop and Fireworks • Create and edit animated GIFs • Draw vector graphics • Edit bitmap (raster) graphics

22. Web Site Development Tools (continued) • Tools used to create and edit multimedia content (continued) • Flash • Originally designed to provide animation for vector graphics • Used to create Web page ads or online product tutorials • Used to create interactive Web sites • Viewer must have Flash player plug-in installed

23. Web Site Development Tools (continued) • Tools used to create and edit multimedia content (continued) • FreeHand • Graphics design program • Used to plan the layout of any document that contains graphics • Brochures • Product catalogs • Web pages

24. Web Site Development Tools (continued) • Tools used to create interactive Web page elements • Java applets and servlets and ActiveX controls • JavaScript, JScript, PHP (Hyper Text processor, CGI (Common Gateway Interface ), and ASP (Active Server Page ), Visual Basic • A variety of tools used to create Web-page interactivity, such as clickable buttons and scroll bars, create Web pages “on the fly” from elements stored in databases, and update databases with data collected via Web-based forms. Control interactive Web page elements, such as clickable buttons and scroll bars

25. Web Site Development Tools (continued) • Tools used to create interactive Web page elements (continued) • Scripting or programming languages used to embed run-time instructions in a Web page • Build Web pages “on the fly” from elements stored in databases • Update databases with information from Web-based forms • Open pages in pop-up windows

26. Web Site Testing • Test all Web page features and functions before they are published to a final destination server • Links work correctly • Data submitted by visitors on Web-based forms updates databases correctly • Dynamic or interactive elements function properly • Web site should also undergo a “stress test” • Ensure that the site can function properly with a heavy load of customer/visitor activity • Hire outside testers, if necessary

27. Evaluating Web SitePerformance • Measure the performance of a “live” site on a regular basis • Establish measurable performance benchmarks • Evaluate actual performance against the benchmarks • Learn from the experience and make necessary changes • Revisit performance benchmarks and make changes, if necessary • Begin again

28. Evaluating Web SitePerformance (continued) • Benchmarks • Performance-based goals • Developed by observing actual performance of similar e-businesses or reviewing industry averages • Typically include sales goals • Typically include evaluation of visitors’ actions at the Web site

29. Evaluating Web SitePerformance (continued) • Web analytics – Google Analytics • Used to help determine Web site return on investment (ROI) • Identifies and measures visitor behaviors and actions • Visit or session measures continuous requests for pages by a single visitor’s Web browser for a specific period of time

30. Evaluating Web SitePerformance (continued) • Web analytics (continued) • Unique visitors measures the number of individual visitors to a site • Repeat visitors measures unique visitors who return to the site • Page views or impressions measures the number of times a specific page is viewed • Page views per visitor measures how deep a visitor goes into a site

31. Evaluating Web SitePerformance (continued) • Web analytics (continued) • IP addresses identifies origin of unique visitors • Referring URLs indicates how visitors reached the site • Browser type identifies which browsers visitors are using • Click-stream analysis shows the path visitors take from page to page at the site • Conversion rate indicates the rate at which visitors become customers

32. Evaluating Web SitePerformance (continued) • Web analytics (continued) • Shopping cart abandonment indicates how many customers fail to complete their purchase • Web analytics measurement tools • Server log analysis • Page tagging

33. Evaluating Web SitePerformance (continued)

34. Case Studies Read “A Multimedia Vision”: Page 342 Why is Marc Canter sometimes called the “father of multimedia?” What roles did Marc Canter, MacroMind, and Macromedia play in the evolution of Web page content from early static pages to the interactive pages we see today? What e-business factors enabled Macromedia to become a powerhouse in the Web development software market? Why would Adobe Systems be interested in acquiring Macromedia?

35. Case Studies Read “Smart Aggressiveness and Good Timing”: Page 344 What marketplace changes led to redirecting the Oak technologies under development into Java? How did the development of the Java programming language change Web page development? How did Kim Polese use her entrepreneurial skills in a corporate environment? How was Polese able to capitalize on her skills to make a life-long dream come true? Would Kim Polese be considered a serial entrepreneur? If yes, why? If no, why not?