Design Considerations in Web Development

By Kris Weylo

When you design, create and deploy websites, the following design considerations can be factored into your web development cycle:

1.1   Technical issues

A simple website created with a few HTML pages and content is usually quite easy to develop and maintain. When more functionality and pages are added, the HTML page format quickly becomes unwieldy to maintain and update, since the pages must be manually updated, and hardcoded scripts must be changed.

Ideally, content must be edited at one point only, even if that content is reused throughout the site. ASP and XML offer some solutions in content management, particularly XML, which allows single sourcing. Many web CMS applications, including open source applications are available, that enable content management. There is a learning curve involved in installing, troubleshooting and using a CMS, which can be factored into your development and maintenance costs.

ASP can be used to dynamically parse pages to the user client. This is very beneficial in larger websites with dynamic content such as syndicated content. To run ASP, Internet Information Services (IIS) must be installed on the server. This can mean that sourcing an IIS enabled host at the outset can be useful if ASP functionality is required later. The more complex the website is, such as if the website uses multiple databases and plenty of scripting, the more technical issues can arise. Many of these problems can be avoided by planning in the pre web development stage. The projected progress path must consider changes in technology, and how the website will adapt when migrating to newer technologies.

Future-proofing a website means, among other things, that the developer should plan for a site that can attain viral growth to something far beyond the original site.

2.1   Web design

If the design is successful, the user interface and site structure complement each other and work in harmony to enhance user experience. However, the less homogenous the audience is, the more the user interface tends to be a compromise. If the site audience consists of both adults and children, the user interface must be a compromise between their preferences.

There is a gap between identifying the audience, and knowing how to satisfy the needs of the audience. There are very few rules on how to customise interfaces for various audiences. Although common sense dictates that a corporate website should look and feel different to the Disneyland website, how should the user interface for a law website differ from an online stock trading website? This is an area where User Experience Design (UXD) can play an important role. This area now receives a lot of attention and there is serious research being done in the field of usability in web design.

The site structure is decided by other factors such as the navigation, and how the pages are linked together. The structure of the site changes as time goes by and the site morphs by cumulative change. Good planning in the design stage allows the structure to grow with the site. These are also issues connected to scalability and improvements in design. A site must be designed for scalability and have the design flexibility to adapt to future changes.

3.1   Website delivery

According to Subtle as a fish, “Currently, over 20% of people on the Internet use one of the many alternatives to Internet Explorer (IE). This figure will only continue to grow as users become more knowledgeable and more comfortable with new technology. Within the IT industry today, over 35% already use an alternative browser.” The major challenge in web delivery today is the cross-browser compatibility and how different browsers interpret and display the same page. The rapidly changing trends in browser usage mean that websites optimised for a browser in current favour can display incorrectly or behave unpredictably when that browser becomes obsolete and is replaced by another. Internet connection speeds are becoming less of an issue due to the rapid penetration of broadband. However, page loading speeds and bandwidth must be considered while designing a page. The faster a page loads, the fewer users click away from the site before the page loads completely.

4.1   Legal, ethical and copyright

Regulations for website accessibility and the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) are some of the legal factors that can eventually require you to change the content and design of your site to be more disabled-friendly. The Subtle as a fish website http://www.subtleasafish.com/use.html states that “The main aim of the Disability Discrimination Act is to give disabled users equal rights in the area of access to goods, facilities and services.” The act first came into force in the UK in December 1996, with further rights included in additions in October 1999 and October 2004.

The Subtle as a fish website also asserts that the majority of websites online are in breach of the DDA for over 5 years. The UK Disability Rights Commission DRC  investigated over 1000 websites for breach of the DDA. An astounding 80% were shown to fail to provide even the most basic access to disabled users. Although there have not been any prosecutions in the UK, there have been several successful cases in both Australia (which has a similar disability law to the UK) and the USA. There is no specific information currently available to tell companies exactly what their websites need to do to fulfil their commitment to the DDA. However, it is widely believed that the W3C Accessibility Guidelines will be used when a case makes it to court to assess if the website meets the DDA Guidelines.” It is good policy to comply with these W3C guidelines.

Follow the accessibility guidelines set out by the W3C, WAI , and the DDA to ensure your website fulfils its present and future legal requirements. It is a distinct possibility in the future that websites that do not comply with the DDA will be closed down and possibly face financial penalties.

If a website collects and stores information on the users, such as when the users join a mailing list or discussion board by giving some information about themselves, the stored data is protected under the Data Protection Act, 1998. The Data Controller, in this case the Web Developer or Administrator, is bound by the Data Protection Act, 1998. The Data Protection Act requires the Data Controller to take adequate measures to ensure the data they collect is protected from misuse.

Compliance with the various disability and data protection laws of different countries is a difficult issue. In a borderless media like the web, deciding which country has jurisdiction is difficult to establish. For example, if the website of an Australian company that is hosted in Hong Kong is sued by an American user, which country’s laws will apply? The creation of a common law framework for the Internet can provide a simple solution to the problem.

Corporate websites now have to comply with the changed Companies Act that was passed into law on the 1st January 2007.

Copyright protection in web publishing can be classified into two categories. One category is the copyright protection of your content, and the other category is the copyright protection of other’s content. The web developer should make sure that others do not use the copyrighted content without permission. A web developer must also exercise due care and avoid infringing other people’s copyright by using their copyrighted content without permission. Copyright laws vary widely between countries. According to Kingston University in London, for copyright protection in the United Kingdom, there has to be some “skill, labour and judgment” used in the creation of the work. In the United States, copyright protection is automatic.”

Commerically available software such as AeroTags TagsLock Pro can protect website content from unauthorised copying by encrypting the content of the web pages and hiding the source code of the HTML and XML documents.

The web developer must ensure that the content on the website, both text, images, and video or audio media are original, and do not infringe on copyrights. It is wise to obtain a written copyright release or written permission when using texts, stock photos, or graphics created by external agencies.

Ethical issues in website development can cover a lot of ground. Some of the possible areas where ethics are involved are:
• Ensuring that the web content does not infringe anyone’s rights or cause offence
• Ensuring that the ideas espoused by the site are ethically sound
• Using ethical principles in search engine optimisation
• Ensuring that all users can access the site
• Requesting permission before linking to other sites
• Avoiding deep linking by bypassing the homepage of other sites
• Avoiding the use of any malicious code in the site that might cause harm to the user’s computers or communication networks
• Taking reasonable measures to ensure that the site cannot be not used by hackers to launch attacks against other websites

This list is not comprehensive, and you can add or subtract items to suit your specific needs.

5.1 Economic considerations

When  the economic viability of a website, consider the costs versus benefits, or development and maintenance costs versus the revenue. In general, given the proliferation of websites on an astronomical scale, one can conclude that at least several thousand low cost websites are being created a day. This can be considered proof that websites are generally cost-effective and viable.

1.  The Disability Rights Commission (DRC), located in the UK, has helped secure civil rights for disabled people. It closed on 28 September 2007, and has transferred to the new Equality and Human Rights Commission which opened for business in 1 October 2007.
 2. The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) develops strategies, guidelines, and resources to help make the Web accessible to people with disabilities. This WAI is not a legislative body. You can visit the WAI website at http://www.w3.org/WAI/.

6.1 About the author

Kris Weylo is a technical writer with over 20 years of experience in the IT/software, financial, medical, hardware/electronics, optoelectronics, engineering/marine and aerospace sectors. During this time, Kris has written documentation for various levels of users, delivering them over media such as e-learning modules, data modules, help kits, online help, intranet, and print. Kris has also managed geographically distributed projects and authoring teams to successfully produce the deliverables within time and budget.  Kris is currently writing his thesis to complete the final year of his Masters degree in Technical Communication.

Kris has a keen interest in identifying and applying new technologies to enhance technical writing.