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Assignment 2: E-Business Website Development

NOTE: All assignments are individual work.  You may NOT collaborate with your fellow students, share files or results of any kind. If you need help see your instructor or TA.

Preparation

  • Think of a business idea.  It does not need to be novel but it does need to be e-commerce. You job is to create a web-site for this business.
  • Download, install, and use SeaMonkey to create a web-site for your e-commerce business. You will host this site on your UH personal pages.
    • To create these web pages, you can download the free open source program, SeaMonkey.  The Labs will only teach SeaMonkey.  You may use other programs, such as Dreamweaver, but I will not provide assistance for these.  You may not use any web site creation tool (e.g. Shopify, Wix, Weebly, SquareSpace, etc.).
    • You will also need a file transfer protocol program (e.g.,  SSH, FileZilla) for uploading the web page files into your UH Unix account.  You can download the SSH software from the ITS Supported Software page or you can use FileZilla which is free.
  • Understand the website design rules/guidelines (see your course textbook, Chapter 4) for attracting and retaining on-line customers
  • You need to think about a business model for the site before you create the website and associated web pages.  For this assignment, make sure that your web-site has at least one page that directly realizes the business model using one of the "Key Capabilities" of the web (e.g. 7Cs)  for service innovation and differentiation. This site must be different than your group project business idea.

Main Task

  • Create a web-site that implements your e-commerce business idea and that includes (at least) the following features:
    • a homepage that links to a minimum of three other pages that you create (for a total of at least four pages that you create).
    • All pages are designed and organized using good website design principles for usability, readability and easy navigation: you should use tables for organizing the layout of the pages.
    • the homepage should include links and buttons for different "functions" or business processes (in the value chain).  At least three links and at least one button  (such as a submit button)  should actually work (e.g., have something change on the page when clicked, take the user to a shopping cart, checkout page, etc.).
    • text and/or images clearly labeling each page and link
    • multimedia content (typically video)
    • at least one table for content (i.e. not just for laying out space)
  • Write a  report about the website you created.  
    • A portion of the report grade is on your choice of the e-business.  It does not need to be innovative, but it has to make sense.   
    • You must state the e-business strategy you are employing (e.g., click-and-mortar or click only). To earn full points, you must describe your e-business model's value proposition and competitive advantage and point to the special features implemented in your web pages that realize key components of your business model.  
    • You must include screen shots of your web pages with accompanying annotations (and explanations) to clearly describe the features you implemented.   
    • Assess and justify your website design following the website design rules/guidelines.    
  • You are required to apply your business report writing skills for this assignment.   Be well-organized, clear, concise and to the point.  The report does not have a page limit as long as it is well-organized.  You must have a cover page for your report, an executive summary, a list of references cited, your business model description (including annotated webpages), and include all website pages (as a separate appendix).  Remember: You are doing a "selling" job with this report.  


Submission

Submit your report describing your web-site design via Laulima in the Assignment 2 area.  In the report AND in the submission box on Laulima, include a link to your site's URL.  The late assignment policy will be strictly followed. 
 

Grading Scheme
1.      Website design, content, and report.  (50 points)
2.      Four  (home page + at least 3 other) well-designed, working web pages.   (20 points)
3.      User interface design and easy navigation:  each page is clearly labelled, links work, a mocked-up  button (an image or a graphic drawing with a link) that works.  (15 points)
4.      Multimedia content.  (10 points)
5.      A table  (visible one, not just the table function used for the design)  (5 points)

Note: A report without a successfully implemented website will receive 0 points.    

BONUS points will be awarded to any web-site that goes well beyond the minimum requirements stated above.  Be creative!!

Handy stuff

Website Development Notes
7Cs of Website design
Web site to create custom buttons


HELP!  MY WEB-SITE ISN'T WORKING!!!

A number of your will have problems with your files not linking together, or with your images not appearing.  Why does this happen? There are several possible reasons:

1. you are naming your files inconsistently.  If your filename is "RedChili.jpg" and you refer to it as "Red Chili.jpg" or "redchili.jpg" or "RedChili.jpeg" or "RedChili.JPG" it will not match.  The names must match exactly!
2. you are using absolute references, rather than relative ones.  DO NOT use the "Choose file..." button on SeaMonkey when inserting an image.  Just type in the file name, and make sure that the file is in the same folder with all of your other files. Also, make sure that the "URL is relative to page location" box is checked. 

It should look like this:
    Seamonkey image
     

    and not this (this points to a "Downloads" folder which does not exist on uhunix):


    or this (this is an absolute file location on your computer, which will not exist on uhunix):


    This advice also holds for links.  Just type in the link name (e.g. raspberry.html), rather than using "Choose file...".

3. you are copying your files to the wrong folder.  EVERYTHING--all of your HTML files and all of your images--must be in your public_html folder on UHUnix, or in a sub-folder.  If you create a file called bananas.html and put it in your public_html folder, then you can access it by entering the following URL in your favorite browser: www2.hawaii.edu/~jquser/banana.html (where you replace "jquser" with your UH userid). If you put your file in a sub-folder of public_html then you must add the sub-folder name to the URL. For example, if I put banana.html into a folder on UHUnix within public_html called "fruit" then the URL would become: www2.hawaii.edu/~jquser/fruit/banana.html    In general, it is best to avoid using spaces or punctuation in a file or folder name.  And please note that (most) web-servers are case sensitive, so Banana.html and banana.html are two different files, accessed by two different URLs.

4. you are saving your files in the wrong folder. You may be savingg files in your Downloads folder but copying them from your Desktop or Documents.  I suggest keeping all of the assignment files in a single folder, e.g. Documents/Asst2.  This will help you avoid many such mistakes.

5. you have a permissions problem.  Make sure that permissions are set to "read" for public/everyone on files and "read + execute" on folders. To change the file's permissions, right-click on the file in your favorite file-transfer program and select "Permissions".  A window similar to the one below will pop up.