Choosing a Free Web Host

Choosing a Free Web Host
1. Advertising
2. Amount of web space
3. FTP access
4. File type and size limitations
5. Reliability and speed of access
6. Perl and PHP
7. Bandwidth allotment


Choosing a Commercial Web Host
1 Reliability and speed of access
2 Data Transfer (Traffic/Bandwidth)
3 Disk space
4 Technical support
5 FTP, PHP, Perl, SSI, .htaccess, telnet, SSH, MySQL, crontabs
6 SSL (secure server), Shopping Cart
7 Email, Autoresponders, POP3, Mail Forwarding
8 Technical support
9 FTP, PHP, Perl, SSI, .htaccess, telnet, SSH, MySQL, crontabs
10 SSL (secure server), Shopping Cart
11 Email, Autoresponders, POP3, Mail Forwarding
12 Control Panel
13 Multiple Domain Hosting and Subdomains
14 Server
15 Price
16 Monthly/Quarterly/Annual Payment Plans
17 Resellers?
18 International

Web Evaluation

Why we need to evaluate?

Web – has becoming one of the main resources of learning – therefore it has to be evaluated.

To assess the instructional qualities of a Web page/site

Classic methods of evaluation:

¨ the use of experts

¨ let people test

¨ use the results of others and

¨ have a look of the use in real life

Experts can be the teacher himself or an external person.

What do experts check?

¨ the content of a software,

¨ have a look at the quality of finding fast an information

¨ make an assessment (just explain his impression),

¨ draw a comparison between different versions

Web Evaluation Process:

- Formative Evaluation & Summative Evaluation

Formative Evaluation:

¨ A method of judging the worth of a program/product while the program activities/products are forming or happening. Formative evaluation focuses on the process (Bhola, 1990)

Summative Evaluation:

¨ A method of judging the worth of a program/product at the end of the program activities/products. The focus is on the outcome (Bhola 1990).

Usability Testing for web:

¨ Usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use.

¨ The word "usability" also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process.

Why usability testing is important?

¨ Usability is a necessary condition for survival.

¨ If a website is difficult to use, people leave.

¨ If the homepage fails to clearly state what a company offers and what users can do on the site, people leave.

¨ If users get lost on a website, they leave.

¨ If a website's information is hard to read or doesn't answer users' key questions, they leave.

Usability is defined by five quality components:

¨ Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?

¨ Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?

¨ Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?

¨ Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?

¨ Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?

Accessibility & Usability Testing for web: Seven Factors

¨ Navigation & Page Layout - Web Site navigation design and page layout

¨ Visual Presentation & Customization - Design, color and presentation issues including the requirements for user control

¨ Text Descriptions for Images - Implementation and appropriate use of various tags or attributes for images

¨ Accessible Mark-up for forms, lists, scripts and tables - Use of appropriate mark-up language to achieve accessible elements

¨ Use & Presentation of Written Language - Use of clear and concise, recognizable language conventions and configuration of letters, words, sentence and paragraphs

¨ Accessible Issues for Other Media Types - Providing accessible media (e.g. video and audio files), accessible documents formats (e.g. PowerPoint and PDF document files)

¨ Help, Searches, Errors & Documentation - Contextual help, dealing with errors and other useful documentation

What are the tools??

¨ Observation, In-depth interviews

¨ Surveys, Focus Groups, Analysis, Reports, and Dialogue with Users

¨ Form, Checklist or Rubric

Interaction & Interface Web Design

• Interaction Design is often associated with the design of system interfaces in a variety of media but concentrates on the aspects of the interface that define and present its behavior over time, with a focus on developing the system to respond to the user's experience and not the other way around.

• The system interface can be thought of as the artifact (whether visual or other sensory) that represents an offering's designed interactions.
• Encompass three distinct, but related constructs:
  • Usability – Interaction design – Usability - usually refers to the elegance and clarity with which the interaction with a computer program or a web site is designed
  • Visualization, and
  • Functionality (Vertelney, Arent, & Lieberman, 1990) – relates with interaction design

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• Tips for Designing Visuals:

  • select your visuals on the basis of age, culture, and education
  • icons should clearly and logically represent the content they are linking to
  • While a combination of visual/verbal information is suggested, do not overwhelm the learner with extraneous verbal information.
  • Use arrows or other visual cues to highlight important components of your visuals.
  • The largest item in a display will attract the most attention
  • Understand the directionality of visual elements and their hidden meanings.
  • Vertically-oriented visuals (e.g., city skyline) are best placed at the bottom of a page to draw the eye upward toward the instructional message.
  • Horizontal visuals (e.g., camera) are neutral and stable
  
  
• Tips for Designing Text
• • Avoid the use of all capital letters for body text.
  • Text items in bold face or other style will command attention. Contrasted colors may also attract attention.
  • San Serif fonts without feet are most appropriate for titles or bulleted items on charts and projected presentations.
  • Provide for adequate contrast between figure and ground (i.e., text and background).
  
  Tips of Using Colors
  • Avoid the use of too many colors on one screen, especially font colors.
  • Pay attention to the psychology of color (Holzschlag, 1999).
  • Dominant red colors evoke feelings of passion, aggression, or danger.
  • Blue symbolizes cleanliness and order or security and trust.
  • Green is often associated with luck or nature.
  • Brown can be used to represent the earth.
  • White symbolizes purity and sterility, but death in many eastern countries.
  • Black can be used to represent death and fear, or power and elegance.
  • Purple represents royalty or spirituality.
  • Yellow can portray hope and optimism or dishonesty and cowardice.
  • Orange can represent energy and balance.