An Overview of Website Design Issues

International Journal of Research in Engineering Technology and Management

ISSN 2347 - 7539

An Overview of Website Design Issues Jatinder Manhas1 1

Sr. Assistant Professor, Department Of Computer Sciences & IT (BC), University of Jammu, J&K, India

Abstract Websites are getting a very important means of communication between different users and the different organizations in recent years. Users instead of visiting physically to the different organizations simply prefers to get there work done through online medium and which also saves lot of time and money. With few clicks a user is going to be presented with multiple types of information regarding there choice of subject. All these things are possible with the introduction of websites where the organizations post there past, present and future prospects and also render different services to the users. Different kinds of websites render different types of services. Different organizations instead of creating big physical structures put more and whole hearted intention in designing beautiful and effective websites these on the other way will satisfies the user needs to a greater extent. Author in this paper have examined number of different categories of the websites and find out that there are number of issues which are to be kept into mind during the design phase of a website. The author in his study identified and discussed nine parameters which includes Browser Compatibility, Technology Used, Website Size, Color Combination, Page Loading Speed, Sitemap, Number of Hyperlinks, Website Security, Feedback and Search, which are of utmost important during the design phase and have also gave there importance and relevance in website Design.

Keywords: Websites, Design, parameters, users, services. --------------------------------------------------------------------***----------------------------------------------------------------------

1. INTRODUCTION A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a set of related web pages served from a single web domain. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the internet or a private local area network through an Internet address known as a uniform resource locator. All publicly accessible websites collectively constitute the WWW document is a template. An electronic copy can be downloaded from the Journal website. For questions on paper guidelines, please contact the journal publications committee as indicated on the journal website. Information about final paper submission is available from the conference website. WebPages are accessed and transported with the Hyper Text Transfer protocol (HTTP), which may optionally employ encryption to provide security and privacy for the user of the webpage content. The user's application called as web browser, renders the page content according to its HTML markup instructions onto a display terminal. There are different kinds of websites available these days like static and dynamic websites. The dynamic websites are different from the static websites the latter are also called as data driven websites and works as per the data supplied by the users. There are other kinds of websites such as government, commercial, social networking, job portals, educational etc, all these websites tackle different categories of the users and all these users are needs to be satisfied in terms of services rendered by the different organizations. To satisfies a vast categories of the users a careful design of the websites are to be carried out, so that a user can spent more time on your site which one are the other way achieve the organization goal of attracting more number of users.

2. WEBSITE DESIGN A design is nothing but to incorporate all the different facilities to satisfy the different categories of the users. As discussed earlier that if a careful intention is to be given to the website during its design phase the organization will be able to attract more number of potential users. Web design is the planning and creation of websites. This includes the information architecture, user interface, site structure, navigation, layout, colors, fonts, and imagery. All of these are combined with the principle of design to create a website that meets the goals of the owner and designer. It encompasses many different techniques and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The other areas of web design in addition to the above include web authoring, including standardized code and proprietary software; user experience design; and search engine optimization. Often many individuals will work in teams covering different aspects of the design process, although some designers will cover them all. The term web design is normally used to describe the design process relating to the front-end (client side) design of a website including writing mark up. Web design partially overlaps web engineering in the broader scope of web development. Web designers are expected to have an awareness of usability and if their role involves creating mark up then they are also expected to be up to date with web accessibility guidelines. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users can have equal access to information and functionality. For example, when a site is coded with semantically meaningful HTML, with textual equivalents provided for images and with links named meaningfully, this helps blind users using text-to-speech software and/or text-to-Braille hardware. When text and images

_______________________________________________________________________________________ Special Issue | June-2014, Available @ http://www.ijretm.com| Paper id - IJRETM-2014-SP-001

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are large and/or enlargeable, it is easier for users with poor sight to read and understand the content. When links are underlined (or otherwise differentiated) as well as colored, this ensures that color blind users will be able to notice them. When clickable links and areas are large, this helps users who cannot control a mouse with precision. Well-conceived and planned web sites are an integral part of every organization's communication needs. Offering an attractive, intuitive interface with a logical and easy to use navigation layout will make the difference between a happy visitor (and potential client) and a frustrated web surfer at your website.

3. WEBSITE DESIGN ISSUES As discussed earlier that website design issues are the most important aspect during the design phase of the website and needs to be given more attention. A careful and beautifully designed website is able to attract number of potential users and also able to retain them for a longer period of time. A design is the first and foremost thing which creates an overall impression of an organization in this globe through websites. To achieve this goal a careful look needs to be taken into account during the design phase and we have to identify that what are those parameters which are taken in consideration effectively so that a well designed websites can be produced. Author in this paper after visiting lot of websites identified nine parameters on which a lot of attention needs to be given so that it is able to satisfy all the different categories of the website users.

3.1 Browser Compatibility The most designers feel that they should be supporting all or at least as many browsers as they possibly can. But honestly, this is impossible. If there are 5 major browsers, IE has over 7 versions, Firefox has over 3, Opera has over 9, Safari over 3, and n ow Chrome has come out. So even if you try to support just the 2 latest versions of each common browser you're looking at 10 browsers, 8 of which you'll have to test on both Macintosh and Windows - so that's 18 tests for every page. And that's not even close to all, or even most, of the browsers available. Browser compatibility determines the cross browser compatibility of site on different browsers .i.e. the browser which can support it. Today the commonly employed browsers are IE.7, IE.8, IE.9, Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox as shown in fig.2.1 below. It is regarded as a design parameter as specified in W3C guidelines document UAAG 2.0. Since each browser has its own way to display the contents of a web page. So the web pages must be designed in such way as it can be supported by each of commonly employed browser.

3.2 Technology Used Another important parameter that is of great concern during the web development process is technology as specified in W3C guideline document WAI-ARIA 1.0. By technology we mean the operations and activities that are executed at the client –side and the server-side. Clients are typically computer applications such as web browsers that are present on a user's local workstation and which connect to servers when necessary. Client side technologies can significantly reduce the time and effort that goes into updating websites or web applications because information does not need to be sent to a live sever. Scripting programs are used to enable client side development; they can change content, application environments and the layout of a website or application. Common client side scripting programs and languages include: 3.2.1 HTML HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the main markup language for creating web pages and other information that can be displayed in a web browser. 3.2.2 CSS Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation semantics (the look and formatting) of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML. 3.2.3 XHTML XHTML (Extensible HyperText Markup Language) is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely used Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the language in which web pages are written. 3.2.4 AJAX Ajax (also AJAX; an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a group of interrelated web development techniques used on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications. With Ajax, web applications can send data to, and retrieve data from, a server asynchronously (in the background) without interfering with the display and behavior of the existing page.


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3.2.5 JavaScript JavaScript (JS) is an interpreted computer programming language. It was originally implemented as part of web browsers so that client-side scripts could interact with the user , control the browser, communicate asynchronously, and alter the document content that was displayed. 3.2.6 Flash Flash is frequently used to add streamed video or audio players, advertisement and interactive multimedia content to web pages, although usage of Flash on websites is declining. 3.2.7 JSON JSON or JavaScript Object Notation is a text-based open standard designed for human-readable data interchange. It is derived from the JavaScript scripting language for representing simple data structures and associative arrays, called objects. Despite its relationship to JavaScript, it is language-independent, with parsers available for many languages. Servers are often specific software programs such as web servers which run on local servers that are connected to the clients. Server side technologies require a higher level of web development skills, but are an efficient way for developers to directly access live websites and applications to make immediate changes. Server side technologies also use scripting programs to make changes to website content and layout, and they are powerful enough to allow web developers to make constant and regular changes in a secure way. Common server side scripting programs and languages include: 3.2.8 PHP PHP is a server-side scripting language designed for web development but also used as a general-purpose programming language. While PHP originally stood for Personal Home Page, it now stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, a recursive acronym. 3.2.9 CGI Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a standard method for web server software to delegate the generation of web content to executable files. Such files are known as CGI scripts or simply CGIs; they are usually written in a scripting language. 3.2.10 XML /XSL Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications. Extensible Style sheet Language (XSL) is used to refer to a family of languages used to transform and render XML documents. 3.2.11 PERL Perl is a family of high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming languages. The languages in this family include Perl 5 and Perl 6. 3.2.12 My SQL My SQL ( "My S-Q-L",) is an open source relational database management system (RDBMS) that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases.

3.3 Website Size By website size we mean the total memory required by the site .The various components of the website that contribute to the size include size of the total HTML used, total JavaScript, CSS, static images, CSS images etc. Size is of course only part of the “performance formula” for a website. But it’s often an important one, especially if you’re targeting users that won’t necessarily have optimal Internet connections. Web pages have been growing in size all along. The Web experience is constantly getting richer, getting more content, and people in general are getting increasingly capable Internet connections. It’s a natural progression. That doesn’t mean we should stop caring about page size, though. It’s still an important speed factor, and with today’s freely available developer tools there are so many easy ways to analyze and optimize web pages that there really are no excuses for overly bloated websites. Today 100kB limit is still a great rule of thumb. Broadband is commonplace now, and yes, many pages are substantially over that. But dialup is still in use, mobile phones are being used more often (and are not as fast as desktop browsers), and people usually get broadband so they can get the same stuff faster, not so you can stuff pages with more pictures. Another important factor is that Google is now using page speeds in its search ranking algorithms.


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3.4 Color Combination Color is an equally important factor in Webpage design considerations. Choosing inappropriate color combination in website design, can have a devastating effects. These days people are working a lot on website accessibility .So in order to cater to the need of the user of each category it is highly required that we must make web sites which will be accessible to the peoples with different type of disabilities. Many people today have color blindness problem. In such case while making website we should consider such issues. If a person is not able to differentiate between two colors and these colors are used in site, than the person is not able to get the info from site. Another important aspect of color combination is its effect in the online industry, as it can control the decision making power of a consumer. According to a survey conducted by Institute of Color Research, a large section of consumers make a quick assessment of a product within one and a half minute and the base of this quick assessment is its color combination. Therefore, using right color combination in a website can do or undo your chance of getting success in the virtual world. Similarly, there are other factors on which there is a direct compact of the color combination used by the website. So, the choice of appropriate color selection during the design process is of great importance for the accessibility purposes as per W3C guidelines given in WCAG 2.0 in guideline 1.4(Distinguishable).

3.5 Page Loading Speed. Be Load speed optimization is an important factor in web page designing. In today’s fast paced mobile environment no one wants to wait. Even though your website may be unique, you are not the only result when someone searches for your type of business. That being said, if your website takes too long to load, potential users will quickly move on to your competition. There are several ways to fix your current site, but being conscious of page loading times during the website design process will save your headache in future. Another factor is that search engines hate websites with heavy load times. They know that if a person gets frustrated by high loading times, they are likely to leave the site very quickly. This exodus of visitors causes a site to have high bounce rate. A bounce rate is based on how quickly a visitor leaves a site once having arrived. If they detect a high bounce rate and slow page load speeds, they are likely to send users to another site. By employing best practices during your website design process, you will ensure the best possible experience for your customer, and this will contribute to better page speed score. Fast loading times mean higher visitor engagement, visitor retention, and ultimately a higher conversion rate. These are all goals of any successful web development strategy. Page loading speed is inversely proportional to size of the web page [23]. As size increases the more time it takes to load a page. Another factor that shows up on the load time of a web page is the type of modem used like 14.4k, 28.8k , 56k etc.

3.6 Site Map Effective websites generate an environment that is logical and does not confuse the user. A site with excellent content and facilities will be wasted if the user cannot find and access the information or facilities that they want. It is important to map a site out before inputting a single line of HTML. Having a logical overview of the path you want the user to take will make it easier to develop a site that will direct them to where they want to go. When designing the navigation system it is important to think like someone seeing the site for the first time. Site map check the navigation facility on the site as prescribed in W3C document WCAG 1.0 guidelines in priority 2 checkpoints 13.3. It gives us the graphical representation of Web pages on Web Site. Site maps are easy to understand and present a completely alternative method of navigating the site to the user.

3.7 Hyperlinks (Good and Bad) Hyperlinks determine navigation facility on the website. The way hyperlinks have been organized on the web page of a site will determine the performance of that site. The number of hyperlinks on a webpage determines total navigation facility from a site. There are two types of links in a website: active and broken. Broken links are links that lead to pages that do not exist. When clicking on a broken link, the page you land on is called a 404 error page, a standard HTTP response that indicates that the requested URL doesn’t exist. These links degrade the performance of a web site badly. Finding them and fixing them during the web development process will lead to better navigation and increase in site traffic. 404 errors and broken links also have negative effects on your search engine rankings so it is quite reasonable to be proactive in avoiding them to improve exposure and increase site traffic as mentioned in W3C guidelines document WCAG 2.0.

3.8 Website security A secure website where your customers, readers, and visitors feel safe is vital to your online success. Cyber crime has impacted the world’s largest organizations and it can also damage anyone’s business. Information systems security is a very important consideration during software application development process. It is just as important as the delivery of the functional requirement. By examining the issues early in the project's initiation phase the environment, operating system, database design and system architecture can be modeled with security built in, ensuring compliance with appropriate legislation, regulations and standards. The application's architecture should be driven from an agreed security policy for the web application or website. All inter-connected systems must be identified, specified and the dependencies documented. Data should be classified, personal and


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sensitive data identified and encryption policies considered. Functional design analysis and planning and the creation of system design specifications, including the security framework, will provide an understanding of the security issues and methods of negating or minimizing security risks. Consideration of the development, test and production environments may highlight other security issues that need to be addressed such as access to servers, data replication, configuration management, operations and maintenance as prescribed in W3C guideline document WSC-UIG 1.0.

3.9 Feedback Interacting with customers via social media is no longer enough, organizations must do more. Providing customers with a specific channel for feedback is essential and can boost your website contents. Providing customers with a feedback loop, allows organizations to use the feedback to make their websites more user-friendly and engaging, and consequently improve profits. It is also an essential part of effective learning. It helps students understand the subject being studied and gives them clear guidance on how to improve their learning. Therefore the need of providing feedback option in a website is of vital importance and must be included during its design and development as prescribed in W3C guideline document WCAG 2.0.

4. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This paper is going to beneficial for the people who are in the field of website design and the organizations for whom the websites are designed and going to be design to portray there valuable information on it. It is also going to benefit to the people in academics and moreover with this study the designer are getting aware that what needs to be concentrated more during the design phase of the websites.

5. CONCLUSIONS The author in this paper have identified nine parameters which are of great importance and have given a little discussion about their importance and have also identified that different world wide web consortium documents also refers about how to develop these parameters during the design phase of the websites. Hence the author in his discussion tries to prove that a websites design must put whole hearted attention to these nine identified parameters during the process of website design.

6. REFERENCES [1]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Internet_usage [2]. "Total Midyear Population for the World: 1950-2050", International Programs Center for Demographic and Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau, Retrieved 25 May 2013 [3]. "Key ICT indicators for developed and developing countries and the world (totals and penetration rates)", International Telecommunications Unions (ITU), Geneva, 27 February 2013 [4]. Steve Bellovin; Key Internet Features, Usenet/history/1985-1990; 10 Oct 1990 [5]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website [6]. http://www.webfoundation.org/vision/history-of-the-web/ [7]. http://www.dezineguide.com/inspiration/15-most-popular-uses-of-web/ [8]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_design [9]. http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp [10]. http://www.webstandards.org/learn/external/orgs/


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