Answers vary to this question. One thing that students may do is to review the Web sites of other

Lab 1-1 Solution

Answers vary to this question. One thing that students may do is to review the Web sites of other government Web sites (e.g., www.whitehouse.gov, www.fbi.gov) to compare those to onguardonline.gov. The onguardonline.gov site is webbed in that it provides multiple links to the same Web pages. For instance, on the home page, there is a link on the menu bar (top of page) to a Web page for Topics. There is also a graphic link further down the page that takes the visitors to that same Web page for Topics. The Web site has a linear look as well. If you look for a specific item (e.g., games), you can also search linearly by clicking the “see next item” button.

Students should try to search all of the Web sites for specific information that is found on each Web site. They should then compare the ease of use of each site together with the results attained for the same search request. Do all of the Web sites provide a search capability? If so, how effectively does each search work? As Web developers, students should always be aware of new, improved Web development techniques. Watch the big name sites like Amazon.com, Microsoft.com, and Dell.com and see what they are doing. Try to apply their techniques to your own Web sites.(HTML5 and CSS Comprehensive 7e Denise M. Woods, William J. Dorin) (Solution Manual, For Complete File, Download link at the end of this File) 1 / 2

CASES AND PLACES

• – Academic

It is important for students to be able to develop an effective usability survey. Testing their surveys with different groups of people is sometimes the best way to determine effectiveness.When developing a user survey, you must be clear about what information you are trying to gather. As mentioned in Chapter 1, you should provide a scale if necessary. If a Yes/No answer is not enough, you need to elaborate on the questions asked. Always provide room for the user to enter additional information in their own words. Keep the number of questions short because extraordinarily long surveys can immediately prompt people to not want to take them. You should only ask questions that address your core needs. One thing that you want to do with a user survey is to maximize your results. If you only receive back 2 out of 200 surveys, how significant is the data that you receive? With that point in mind, you need to assure that you are asking the right people to complete the survey and get the word out to those people that the survey is available. You really want students, early in their Web development careers to understand what it means for a Web site to be effective and surveys help with that concept. We have a class discussion about what “effectiveness” means to them. It’s quite interesting to hear the variety of answers from them. I always ask my students: What is more important: 1) having a good Web page design, or 2) having a Web page in which the user can find the information for which they are looking?

• – Personal

I love doing this exercise at the start of a class because it helps us develop a wonderfully comprehensive list of Web development resources throughout the semester. I generally have students hand in their reports online so that I can easily copy/paste them into one document or

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