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A Maintainable Database Driven Website for non-IT

1. Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments 12 Page filename location_delete2 asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename location_delete asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename menu_edit asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments 13 Page filename edit prop asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename menu_update asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename default asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments 74 Page filename prop Joc all asp
2. Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename availability asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename admin_concole htm Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments 68 Page filename new_prop asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename new_prop_update asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename prop_select asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments 69 Page filename edit prop asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename prop_update asp
3. Text input field for image 4 link input optional Text area input field for property short description input required Text area input field for property long description input required Text area input field for accommodation description input required Drop down selection box populated with location names form the prop_locations table of the database to assign primary location of a property input required Drop down selection box populated with location names form the prop_locations table of the database to assign secondary location of a property input optional Drop down selection box populated with map location names form the map_locations table of the database to assign the map location of a property input required Input text field for username input required Input password field for password input required Submit and reset buttons Modification to design The location description text input field should have the default value Enter Location Description The property name text input field should have the default value Enter Property Name The property id text input filed should have the default value Enter Ref ID The property short description text area input field should be removed as to remove confusion Short descriptions should be entered only while editing a previously created property 51 Web page filename new Drop update asp Requirements Design Specification
4. user friendly To test page layout and user friendly ness the tools to create new properties and the page to display them were implemented first as prototypes allowing for user input and for me to gain valuable user feedback that would improve the quality of the finished product User input at this stage of the project and the use of prototyping was made possible by my choice of the iterated waterfall development life cycle allowing elements of the system to be first tested by users before full implementation took place 39 8 0 Prototyping 8 1 Implementation of the Prototype In order for the prototype to work the sections of database first had to be built To allow for possible changes in design as a result of user feedback only the required elements of the database were created namely the Info table The web pages were then written as to the specifications that can be found in the appendix of this report It was very important to develop a good prototype as this would be the first hands on experience users received and I believe first impressions always count in a system s success 8 2 Prototype Testing and User Involvement On completion of the prototype a morning was spent with staff at Vancouver Island Holidays I sat with users observing what elements of the page they found hard to understand and discussing possible improvements From the meeting the following improvements were agreed on e To reduce confusion
5. 1 Check to make sure the property id is unique in the database if not throw error 2 Submit all form data to the database 3 Write success message Modification to design None Web page filename prop_select asp Requirements Design Specification 1 Produce a list of property ids in the database 2 Each property id should act as a hyperlink to the edit_prop asp page Modification to design None Web page filename edit_prop asp Requirements Design Specification Web form Text input field for location description value from database Text input field for property name value from database Display of property ref id value from database SEE Se bas he Text input field for number of people property can sleep digits only value from 16 17 18 19 20 21 database Text input field for high season rental price digits only value from database Text input field for low season rental price digits only value from database Text input field for image 1 link value from database Text input field for image 2 link input optional value from database Text input field for image 3 link input optional value from database Text input field for image 4 link input optional value from database Text area input field for property short description input required Text area input field for property long description value from database Text area input field for accommodati
6. 6 prop_update asp Submit edited property information to database 7 prop_deletel asp Verify selection to delete property 8 prop_delete asp Delete a property from the database 9 new_location asp Create a new location 10 new_loc_up asp Submit new location information to database 11 location_list asp Select location to edit 12 location_edit asp Edit location information 13 location_edit_up asp Submit edited location information 14 location_delete2 asp Verify selection to delete location 15 location_delete asp Delete location from database 16 Menu_edit asp Edit NavBar 17 Menu_update asp Sumbit updates to NavBar 7 3 2 Public Access Pages Page No Page File Name Description Function 18 default asp Update of home page incorporating database driven NavBar 19 contact asp Update of contact details page incorporating database driven NavBar 20 travel asp Update of travel links page incorporating database driven NavBar 37 21 check asp booking asp Update of check availability page incorporating database driven NavBar 22 prop_loc_all asp New page giving a brief summary of all property locations included in the NavBar with hyperlinks to individual location pages 23 property_location asp New Individual location page populated with text and image links from the database giving a brief overview of the location and properties available 24 property_display asp New Individual property page po
7. Enter Image Link 3 7 Enter Image Link 4 Image4 Cen avaiabiity Select Primary Property Location Primary Location SelectLocation e Select Secondary Property Location Secondary Location SelectLocation x Map Location Select Map Location Selec Mee ee Select Map Location ser Name Password Update Page Reset Enter Username and Password Vancouver Island com Web Site Admin V 1 0 4 2 Editing Properties and Adding a Property Short Description e Select Edit Property from the Admin Console home page e Select the House Ref Number Id you require to edit The page will load as shown in Fig with the already uploaded house information An additional text box will be shown where a short text description can be added e Make all neccesary alterations e Enter username and password e Click Update Page button If error please follow the on screen instructions 4 3 Deleting Properties e Select Edit Property from the Admin Console home page e Select the House Ref Number Id you want to delete The page will load as shown in Fig with the already uploaded house information An additional text box will be shown for the property s short description e Select Delete Property e Enter username and password e Select Delete Button If error please follow the on screen instructions Vancouver Island com Web Site Admin V 1 0 5 0 Property Locations 5 1 Adding New Property Location
8. Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename property_location asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename prop_display asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments 75 Page filename prop search asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename imagemap asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename map_location asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments 76 Page filename thankyou asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments 77 1 2 Quick System Tests Te
9. e g Shopping marinas vehicle rental public transport information etc o Local activities what to see and do e g Golf sailing hiking canoeing whale watching etc Links could be fostered with local businesses and either a link exchange program created or advertising space sold on the website The use of pictures would greatly increase the visitor s appreciation of the location A standard property location template could be developed using active server pages technology to allow the company to easily create update and remove property locations On using active server pages users could be given greater property browsing and searching functionalities allowing them to compare for example properties on price or accommodation type rather than on only geographical location A detailed map of the location could be included to indicate the approximate geographical position of properties Threats With the introduction of rich content care should be taken not to dramatically increase page download time On pages containing too much information there is a risk of them becoming too busy resulting in the user experiencing difficulties with reading and absorbing the content Reliability of the website could be reduced by using poorly tested and written active server pages 2 3 4 Individual Property Pages Each property is displayed on its own html page There is no standard layout however the majority of properties are displayed with the
10. database server e g SQL Server from Microsoft Electronic postcards Benefits Website users will send e postcards to more than likely non website users and so this activity will help market Vancouver Island com this facility could be seen as a form of free advertising for the company Implementation With the natural beauty and splendour of Vancouver Island it would not be difficult task to find postcard quality photographs from the libraries held by the company Postcards would be created by completing a web form which on submission would create a new database entry and send an email to the chosen recipient The email would contain a link to an active server page that would retrieve the text and image link information to be displayed as a web page 23 Dangers Usage should be monitored as not to allow the mail servers performance to deteriorate and affect the performance of business critical company e mail Interactive FAQ Frequently Asked Questions section Benefits This section of the website at the start would contain the most commonly asked questions and solutions currently dealt with by staff at Vancouver Island Holidays This would increase the information content of the site and reducing the amount of time spent by staff answering the commonly asked questions New questions and answers would be posted to the section as the need arose Implementation Information would be stored in a secured Microsoft Access Database and be inpu
11. design process the website administration tool is in constant use whenever required As described in section 13 2 web visitors are making good use of the new functionality and benefiting from more up to date and more accurate content enabled by the direct business ownership of the property and location pages A good project requires good project management by planning a project in detail any potential small issues that effect the smooth running of the project can be identified and dealt with before they escalate and allow the whole project s success and time schedule to be threatened Through excellent management the project was delivered on time and without any incursion of additional hardware software website hosting or training costs The project s ontime delivery was aided greatly from the early creation of a project plan including a detailed time chart in the form of a Gantt chart see appendix A and my good self discipline forcing myself to keep to the timescale throughout the projects entirety In the eyes of both the company Vancouver Island Holidays and myself the project was a definite success 46 Bibliography Avison DE and Fitzgerald G 1995 Information Systems Development Methodologies Techniques and Tools second edition McGraw Hill Book Company Europe Avison DE and Fitzgerald G 1988 Information Systems Development Methodologies Techniques and Tools first edition Blackwell Scientific Publications B
12. erty Long forests and mountains from the large rear deck and most rooms Immediate access to the private sandy beach below and the owner s rowing boat assure a wonderful vacation E Property Image 2 Accommodation 1 double bedro om 1 bedro om with bunks 1 single n fully fitted and Location of of Image 3 Description idgeffreezer Accommodation omy room with fir mem anc ds acc o oke Se deck having patio Description furniture and BBO laundry cloakroom lounge with fireplace TV VCR Upstairs 1 double bedroom having private deck off 1 bathroom wc with jacuzzi tub Children welcome Smoking outdoors only Click here to make travel arrangements Property Image 4 chA CS Local intranet 11
13. members of staff with no HTML or web programming skills Creation of web pages would no longer have to be outsourced producing a large cost saving On using standard Active Server Page templates layout and design across the entire website would become consistent allowing easier site navigation and an overall more professional look and feel Implementation Many different technologies could be adopted however due to recent experience with active server pages this would be my preferred choice of technology ASP template pages would be created for the display amendment and deletion of location and individual property information pages Information including property descriptions and image links would be stored in a small secured Microsoft Access Database Image files would be uploaded to the web server by the use of Internet Explorer 5 s FTP functionality a process that members of staff are already familiar with Dangers Strict regular backups of the database should be made to avoid data loss Some older web browsers may not support active server pages e Business ownership of property and location information Benefits Information on the website would be easily and regularly updated A large percentage of the cost currently incurred by outsourcing web page updates could be removed The information on the website would become more accurate as third parties i e web developers would not be involved Existing members of staff could have their jobs en
14. no property search facility A 15 section of the website that could be adopted by Vancouver Island Holidays is the New Listing area listing properties new to the site GreatSpots Conclusion The level of service and guarantees offered to clients of Vancouver Island Holidays is far superior than that offered by GreatSpots The website of Vancouver Island Holidays looks and feels a lot more professional is easier to read and richer in content To conclude Vancouver Island Holidays offers a higher level of quality and value to its customers 3 3 Ideal Vacation Rentals Business Analysis Ideal Vacation Rentals does not act as a rental agency but simply provides a website where property owners can advertise their accommodation Its geographical market is enormous offering property owners in any country of the world the feasibility to advertise their house or apartment Property owners pay to advertise on their site No guarantees are made as to the accuracy of the website content customers rent at their own risk Website Analysis The Ideal Vacation Rentals website looks on first impressions unplanned and unprofessional Very little use is made of graphics No information is available to the visitor on property locations browsers are simply met with a list of accommodation The site has no search facility making it difficult to select properties to view in similar price brackets or size Due to the site using only extremely bas
15. ten therefore a Microsoft Access 2000 Database will be used This will provide a very cost effective solution as Vancouver Island Holidays already has the necessary licence and no additional hosting costs will be incurred by requiring the use of an SQL server Microsoft Access 2000 Databases have the potential to support up to two hundred and fifty five concurrent database users If usage levels increase significantly the database should be moved onto an SQL server or other dedicated database server The database will be designed for this process to be performed quickly and easily via the Microsoft upgrade wizard 31 The database should be designed to allow for a large increase in property locations and individual properties It was decided that a menu bar should not consist of more than 20 items any more was thought to reduce the navigability of the site All data input to the database will be via web forms allowing for data integrity constraints to be at data submission coded into the active sever pages This reduces unnecessary database connections and allows for easy upgrade of the database at a later date if required to an SQL server database or equivalent Unique property ids and location names are immediately assigned via Vancouver Island Holidays for invoice and brochure design purposes The uniqueness of these fields will however be checked again at the database level in case of unplanned duplicate entries All imag
16. use of 360 degree images Visitors would experience an almost virtual reality tour of properties Implementation New series of pictures would have to be taken for each 360 degree image Images would need to be taken with the aid of a tripod at a 30 degree angle adjacent to each other each 360 image would require 12 images The pictures should be taken with a wide angled lens of approximate 24mm a new camera lens would need to be purchased by Vancouver Island Holidays or a professional photographer contracted to undertake the work An alternative would be to use a video camera mounted also on a tripod and then sample frames of the video footage to create a 360 degree image this process would work in theory however the quality of the video camera would first need to be tested The series of images would then be stitched together using a graphics package e g Adobe Photoshop 6 and then imported into Macromedia Flash an animation package in order to create a small animated image file that could be viewed on the web Dangers Not all browsers support Macromedia Flash files a non flash version of the site 26 using standard images should be available for unsupported users 360 degree images are large in file size and so will require a lengthy download users may become impatient and exit the site care must be taken to ensure reasonable page download times are kept and that users are informed as to when a large download is taking place Video C
17. use of two or three small poor resolution images and a short text description At the bottom of each page a graphic hyperlink gives the visitor access to the check availability page Strengths Good down load speed Good accommodation layout descriptions Weaknesses Low resolution small images No standard page layout Each new property addition requires the building of an entirely new page which is time consuming and expensive for the company to create and update which often causes the website to contain out of date information Price information is only available in Canadian Dollars and Pounds Sterling Opportunities An active server page template could be used for all property pages powered by a small database A user friendly online tool could be built to allow the company to easily develop new pages update and remove existing pages With the use of a database and active server pages the visitor could be given a greater choice of currencies including Euros and US Dollars The quality of the small images should be improved and used as hyperlinks to larger higher resolution images Threats With the page content increase pages may become cluttered and hard for the user to read With the increase of image quality page download time may increase Poorly written and tested active server pages may reduce website reliability and lengthen downtime 2 3 5 Check Availability Page The page consists of a html web fo
18. work for the company and the company relies on you resulting in a lot more pressure to produce a completed on time project As I find pressure a good motivator this proved to be to my advantage however this could be seen in other circumstances to be negative The project often suffered during the initial detailed planning stages because of changes in requirements however this experience taught me just how quickly system requirements can change in business and importance of remaining flexible during the project design stages The projects progress was also hindered by the amount of time taken for the company s Internet service provider to switch the website s hosting platform from Unix to a Windows NT environment In hindsight this request should have been made earlier on in the project The detailed planning and documenting of the implementation stage of the project produced unbelievable advantages in ease of implementation This was the first time I had fully designed a system on paper first before commencing implementation where possible in the future I will definitely do the same as the benefit was un measurable I also realised the true benefits of prototyping although few design enhancements were executed as a result project interest and support from future users of the system was generated which was a vital factor in the projects success at go live At the start of the project a considerable amount of time was spent investigating the
19. A Maintainable Database Driven Website for non IT Specialists Scott McLeod Information Systems Session 2001 2002 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is their ow n and the appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others I understand that failure to attribute materi al which is obtained from another source may be considered as plagiarism Signature of student Project Summary The project evaluates the operations and current web presence of Vancouver Island Holidays UK Ltd recommends new functionality and information content that could be added to its website and produces a marketing plan to increase the company s online exposure The project also includes the design implementation and integration of three of the recommended new functionality components A key element of the project is that all of the new web site functionality must have the capability tobe administered via the use of very easy to use online administration tools as none of the employees of Vancouver Island Holidays have a high level of IT knowledge or experience and there is no budget available for IT training Contents 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 3 2 0 2 1 2 2 2 3 2 3 1 2 3 2 2 3 3 2 3 4 2 3 5 2 3 6 2 3 7 2 3 8 2 4 2 5 2 6 2 7 3 0 3 1 3 2 3 3 3 4 3 5 Project Summary ccsscccsccssecesesccccccseccees Initial Research cccccccccccccccccccccccccccces Choice of System De
20. Rentals http www idealvationrentals com Tofino Beach Homes http www TofinoBeach com 3 2 Great Spots Business Analysis GreatSpots like Vancouver Island Holidays purely acts as a property rental agency GreatSpots operates throughout the entire of British Columbia resulting in a much larger property catchment area than that of Vancouver Island Holidays enabling the company to offer its clients a more varied choice of holiday location however this reduces its capacity to gain in depth specialist local knowledge on all property locations Unlike Vancouver Island Holidays the company does not have a full high gloss brochure its market is solely web based The content of their website is not guaranteed as only a handful of properties that are within easy reach of their Vancouver office are inspected Their primary geographical rental market is Canada and America Website Analysis On first impressions the basic page layout is very hard to read and understand The navigation system is very limited by only sectioning the whole of British Columbia into just five locations Each location page consists of only a list of the available properties no information or images are given on each property location Each property has its page with up to four images per property Property availability can be only checked via the use of standard email there is no use of web forms etc Properties can only be selected via browsing the website there is
21. Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename prop_deletel asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments 70 Page filename prop delete asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename new_location asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename new_loc_up asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments 71 Page filename location_list asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename location_edit asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename location_edit_up asp
22. abase Field Data Default Required U Access Source Name Field Value nique Field Type Type Unique Menu Menu_Id Text Yes Yes Text Database Name Admin Menu Item 1 Pos1 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location Name Field Menu Item 2 Pos2 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location Name Field Menu Item 3 Pos3 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location Name Field Menu Item 4 Pos4 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location Name Field Menu Item 5 Pos5 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location Name Field Menu Item 6 Pos6 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location Name Field Menu Item 7 Pos7 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location Name Field Menu Item 8 Pos8 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location Name Field 34 Menu Item 9 Pos9 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location Name Field Menu Item 10 Pos10 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location Name Field Menu Item 11 Pos11 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location Name Field Menu Item 12 Pos12 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location Name Field Menu Item 13 Pos13 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location Name Field Menu Item 14 Pos14 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location Name Field Menu Item 15 Pos15 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location Name Field Menu Item 16 Pos16 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location Name Field Menu Item 17 Pos17 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location Name Field Menu Item 18 Pos18 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location Name Field Menu Item 19 Pos19 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location N
23. ame Field Menu Item 20 Pos20 Text BLANK Yes No Text Location Name Field Menu Item 21 Pos21 Test BLANK Yes Yes Text Database Admin 7 2 5 Database Tables On examining the data field sources the relationships between data fields were easily identified allowing for the easy creation of database table schemes The database fields were then assigned to tables as detailed below The table name is highlighted in bold type and unique primary key in italics The uniqueness of primary keys will be validated at the database level 35 Prop_Locations Location_Name Location_ShortD Location_LongD Location_Imagel Location_Image2 Location_Image3 Map_Locations Map_Location Location_LongD Location_Imagel Location_Image2 Location_Image3 Info d Location ShortD LongD Accommodation PriceHigh PriceLow Sleeps Imagel Image2 Image3 Image4 Primary_Loc Secondary_Loc Map_Location Menus Menu_Id Pos1 Pos2 Pos3 Pos4 Pos5 Pos6 Pos7 Pos8 Pos9 Pos10 Pos11 Pos12 Pos13 Pos14 Pos15 Pos16 Pos17 Pos18 Pos19 Pos20 Pos21 In the database described above the design does not limit in any way the number of properties locations or map locations that can be added and a menu has the capability to support 20 menu items as specified in the requirements Designing the menu table in this way allowed multip
24. an Implementation of Computer Based Systems ETHICS The methodology is aimed at allowing users to design their own information systems in order to increase job satisfaction As the majority of the users of the website will be the anonymous general public it would be practically impossible to enable them to design their own system so I chose not to use this methodology The Waterfall Life Cycle is also a very old methodology that originates from the manufacturing industry A project is split up into five easily definable stages as shown in the diagram below Needs Analysis amp Specification Program Design l Implementation Testing Maintenance amp Upgrades Figure 2 The Waterfall Life Cycle As indicated above this methodology is a lot move flexible than the more traditional SSADM and SDLC methodologies previously described It allows simple iterations to take place It is possible to move back up the waterfall to a previous stage if severe problems are experienced for example if pitfalls in design were found Due to its flexibility I choose to use this methodology as a basis for the project Using it helped identify key required decision points and helped give the project structure I also believed that since I would be working primarily on the project it would be easy to move between iterations if required if I was working as part of large project team moving between stages would be a lot more difficult and costly a
25. and comjadmin_console htm Pao Links G Totabse VIHAdmin VIH Old Website 2 New WebSite aj Add New Property Edit Property Add New Property Location Edit Property Location Edit NavBar Menu E Done Internet Vancouver Island com Web Site Admin V 1 0 4 0 Properties 4 1 Adding Properties Select Add New Property from the Admin Console homepage The page below will load Complete all mandatory fields and click the Update Page button All fields are mandatory except those labelled in italics On error please follow on screen instructions Pacii Breeze Microsoft ternet esplore CONVIENT ee ALES File Edit View Favorites Tools Help Back D A Gsearch Favorites Gmeda lt 4 B S JS A0 Address Lei http www vancouver island com new_prop asp zl G Links lTotake S VIH Admin ui Old Website LE VIH New WebSite Enter Location Desg Enter Location Description Enter Property Name Enter Property Namal Kef No nter Ret ID Enter Max No of People et Enter Enter Unique Property Ref No Property Ref No eps Image W Price per week in UK fs DS Low Season Enter Image Link 1 aimo High Season Ke Enter High and Low Season Rental Price per Week Long Description Enter Long Property Description Image Enter Image Link 2 Enter Accommodation Description Click kere Accommodation to make travel arrangements Accommodation Description Image 3
26. ating of suitable properties by users As a direct result the legible map would also increase the information content of the site 29 7 0 7 1 Design and Implementation Requirements Lists Full individual page requirements can be found in appendix B of thisreport below are requirement lists for each new module of functionality 7 1 1 E WEB An administrator should have the facility 1 ek 0 er ON e e D ke e e D ra 13 14 15 16 7 1 2 Create new property pages Edit existing property pages Assign a primary location to a property Assign a secondary location if applicable to a property Assign a map location to a property Create and edit a short description for a property Create and edit a long description for a property Assign the VIH unique property ID to the property Create and edit a short location comment for each property Link up to four images to be displayed on a property page Delete properties On creation of a new property the property should automatically become part of the property locator tool Create new property locations Edit existing property locations Delete existing property locations Edit NavBar menu items Property Locator Users should be able to search for properties on the following fields 1 2 Price rental per week Users should have the facility to select the maximum rental price from a drop down list Property location 30 U
27. be displayed from the database via an active server page Dangers The database could become extremely large so events should automatically be deleted after a predetermined amount of time after the event has taken place to save space in the database Secure event ids would have to be issued or personal information taken to enable validation of event posters to take place for event details to be modified Vancouver Island Holidays should make clear to the browser that they are in no way liable for the content held on the events pages Form validation should be used to prevent incomplete events from being posted Dynamic home page content Vancouver Island com News Benefits Visitors would be encouraged to visit the new home page on a regular basis to find out the latest new property listings and company news Implementation News would be stored in a secured Microsoft Access Database an ASP section of the home page code would retrieve and display the latest news from the database News would be posted amended and removed via web forms on the web server Dangers Access to news posting pages and write access to the database should be kept secret it would be very harmful to the company if hackers posted milieus news items onto the front of the website The database will have a limited number of connections at any one time available server traffic should be monitored and if near capacity is reached the database should be moved to a large
28. between property long descriptions and short descriptions on the creation of a new property only a long description will be required the short description should be entered via editing the property page e On creating a new page the following text area fields should contain default examples as user aids e As users would not be using this system every week a brief training manual should be produced by myself working closely with a member of staff ensuring that it was written in a language that could be understood I am glad to say that the prototype received a very warm welcome and all users looked forward to the system go live The meeting not only enhanced the user friendly ness of the system but also eradicated user resistance to the system at go live 8 3 Modifications to Design The modification to the design of the web pages used in the prototype were made and adopted where possible by other pages of the site administration tool Full design specification of each page can be found in appendix B modifications to the initial design are also noted 40 9 0 Testing Plan Before the main part of the implementation took place a testing plan was written for each page Writing a testing plan before implementation ensured an objective and fair evaluation of how each page performed The full testing plan is included in appendix C of this report The testing not only included navigation submission of data and page errors but also the test
29. cation of links of availablity htm to newly created asp files for home page contact information travel links map search and all property locations Modification to design None Web page filename prop_loc_all asp Requirements Design Specification 1 Adopt standard page layout 2 Display list of all location names followed by short descriptions accompanied by the locations first image if available 3 Location names should link to property location pages Modification to design None Web page filename property_location asp Requirements Design Specification 1 Adopt standard page layout 62 Display location Name Display location long description Display all available location images Display list of properties assigned to location Ns OI aR CG tS Each property should have a property id property name how many people the property sleeps short description and first image 7 Each property title should link to the individual property information page Modification to design None Web page filename prop_display asp Requirements Design Specification Adopt standard page layout Display location description Display property reference id Display the number of people the property can accommodate Display property long description Display accommodation description Display high season rental price Display low season rental price Sch 00 ES Ne TO i A Direct link via check graph
30. culture of the company giving to gain a good insight into the internal operations without this knowledge the solution could not have been designed and implemented to successfully meet business requirements This proved to be an extremely valuable stage of the project 48 6t Uodat Joalo1d Jo FUNI M TI Ayyeuonjoun pa19a es Jo siskjeuy 9 aJis QoM ou 107 ued Aas Suraxieu e zo 10atdotaAap aq yoday Aryiqiseay Apis Angiqrseog C aq IM 399 o1d ay Jo AJoINUS y SULINp a pIs SuIOSUO UY Il svopl JO UONPIOUID amp ssa9ons p u99q P ford ay sey uorsnjouos 199014 OI S SIINO JOJJO UCD PURIST oY JEUM 0 Sp J99ds91 YIM eJOUs UT AyeuoTOUN AIS Q M MOU JO MAI pue SUIJSO I e PUPISI I9ADOOUE A pue uonyodwoo skeprl oH DUEISt I2ANOOUE A 201 JO SISAIEUN Ayyeuonoun pafs jo uonejuaue duy 9 Ayeuonouny pue Ayreuonounx paS JO USIsEq L 7U34U09 JIS Gam JUNI SAPDUOH PUPISI JoAnoour y JO SIS IEUN z s epoH DUEIST JoAnooue A JO SISAIEUN I suwy 3291014 03 Avy 9 Sr by Ep CV OM cl IT N OT O 6 N I 8 O S L I S 9 L I M W W a a E V Nn T A S I JUSUHIA 3991014 apnpayos yoforg Jo VYD NULD T Am Appendix B 1 0 System Specification Requirements 1 1 NavBar Requirements Design Specification Adopt the existin
31. e s only animated graphics a FrontPage banner ad manager rotating 3 images e Strengths The user is not overwhelmed with information or animated graphics The page is fast to download e Weaknesses The information contained on the page is extremely brief The images used in the banner ad are small and of poor quality The page consists entirely of static content it has not been updated for over 3 years e Opportunities Information on both Vancouver Island and the company could be easily extended through the use of additional pages and hyperlinks The activity images could be converted to hyperlinks to link to further information pages Visitors could be encouraged to revisit the home page by the introduction of dynamic content e g a What s new section displaying company news messages and newly available properties e Threats The page could become overloaded with content which would greatly increase download time and decrease user readability 2 3 2 Property Location Summary Page The page provides very brief text descriptions of all locations where accommodation is on offer A link to each property location page is provided from each location title Properties are currently divided into 7 locations Victoria and Sooke Salt Spring Island Nanaimo Schooner Cove Comox Valley Cortes Island Tofino Strengths Short download time Users are given a brief overview of all property locations on one page Wea
32. e written using the application s HTML editor I will use the application to automatically format text and tables Microsoft PhotoDraw offers excellent functionality for creating web compatible images I would be inclined to use this tool for image creation where possible simply for ease and speed of use 2 0 Analysis of Vancouver Island com 2 1 Overview The existing website of Vancouver Island Holidays provides users with a well structured easy to use site The site consists one hundred percent of static content and is purely html based There is at present no use of any cascading style sheets the layout of each page is controlled by tables The website is only available in English In order to structure the analysis I chose to use SWOT to identify the key strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats of each web element page 2 2 The Navigation Bar The standard navigation bar can be found on the left of every page in the site giving the user a consistent navigation system throughout the site interface The navigation bar provides direct access to the e Property location summary page Web page for each property location page contains brief location information and relevant property listings for the area e All property location pages Web page summarising all property locations e Home page e Check availability form Web form enabling users to easily check property availability e Contact details page e Map page e Tra
33. e the time database connections were left open The results of each test in the testing plan can be found in the appendix C of this report 43 12 0 System Go Live The go live of the new system was in two phases Vancouver Island Holidays was first given access to the system in a hidden directory on the web server to allow for database population the second phase was to give public access to the site 12 1 Phase 1 Vancouver Island Holidays Go Live A day was spent at the company to aid the staff in using the website administration tool to populate the database A new image preparation procedure was also developed documentation of which can be found in the training manual in appendix E of this report Image preparation includes image scanning resizing touch up and FTP suitable image filename selection and FTP upload via Internet Explorer By midday all were expert users of the system The afternoon was spent talking to users gaining first system impressions and post go live user feedback to aid me in future projects 12 2 Phase 2 Public Access Go Live A full backup of the old website was made and new site given public access Old website files were not removed but amended to point to the new site s equivalent page so hyperlinks stored by either search engines or users where not broken 44 13 0 System Evaluation 13 1 System Usage by Vancouver Island Holidays The system was designed with user friendliness in mind at ev
34. e whole website allows the user to feel relaxed using natural soft colours and an easy to follow layout The website s content is solely based around the properties on offer apart from a good interactive picture gallery from Chesterman Beach on the home page Tofino Beach Homes Conclusion Tofino Beach Homes can be classed as a direct competitor of Vancouver Island Holidays The design of Vancouver Island Holidays new website would also benefit from a Flash splash introduction screen to give the website visitor a good first impression of the site 3 5 Competition Analysis Conclusion From analysing the competition of Vancouver Island Holidays is was clear that a lot can be learned from the mistakes and successes of other companies in the vacation rental industry in British Columbia 17 4 0 Generation of Ideas After reviewing the existing website for Vancouver Island Holidays and from conducting competition analysis the current website of the company is clearly lacking in content and functionality In order to decide which areas of functionality and content to expand the project took on a phase of ideas generation The ideas were categorised as either content enhancements e g increased use of images additional location information or as functionality enhancements e g a property search facility All members of the company s staff were asked to contribute with ideas This not only allowed them to influence the new website design with
35. ery stage of the project Good functionality and reliability were also critical success factors The system has now been live for five weeks and I have not received any support requests from the company Since the public go live four additional properties have been created and one existing property location deleted showing clearly that the system is in use A recent courtesy telephone conversation with the company confirmed that members of staff were not only using but enjoyed the task variation offered by using the website administration tool The company now only wishes that creating a new brochure page would be as easy The website is now more up to date than the company brochure A full project evaluation can be found in appendix A 13 2 Website Usage Since public go live of the new website visitor levels as expected have remained constant On execution of the marketing plan found in appendix D for VancouverIsland com I would predict the number of site visits to increase From analysis of individual page visits just over 45 of the site visitors that browsed the site further than the home page choose to use the property locator tool to search for suitable properties A good enhancement to the tool would be to record all of the search queries for analysis allowing the company to identify the most sort after locations average number of people in group parties and the maximum weekly rental price visitors are looking to pay All of this in
36. es Database Security New Web Page Requirements Web Site Administration Pages Public Access Pages New Graphic Requirements Graphical User Interface Design and Prototyping e Prototyping ideas Implementation of the Prototype Prototype Testing and User Involvement Modifications to Design Destin Plan ous Implementation enr 18 19 20 20 25 29 30 30 30 30 31 31 32 33 34 34 35 36 36 37 37 38 38 40 40 40 40 11 0 Testing ie anis nanas en nn borsos ESET saved dE Seat 43 11 1 Testing Feedback 43 120 System Go LIVE ees 44 12 1 Phase 1 Vancouver Island Holidays Go Live 44 12 2 Phase 2 Public Access Go Live 44 13 0 System Evaluation 5 iss ss eege ge ENER 45 13 1 System Usage by Vancouver Island Holidays 45 132 Website Usage 45 13 3 Website Limitations 46 13 4 Success or Failure 46 TT Leiden ane retiennent Rien ere 47 Appendices A Project Evaluation vccces serie EENEG 48 B System Requirements Design ss 50 C Completed Testing Plan ccccscossscccsccssscccscoscccseccees 67 D Marketing Report sienne 79 E Training Manual ares stereo 81 1 0 Initial Research In order for this project to be a success I first had to choose a good development methodology to use as an aid in the structuring of the project A good project structure is almost essential in keeping a project on schedule and maximising the chances of its success I also needed to research the company Vancouver Island Hol
37. es will be stored in the same directory on the server to allow for easy image sharing throughout the website therefore requiring unique image filenames Guidance on the naming convention and FTP process is covered in the training manual a copy of which can be found in appendix E The data integrity of image file names will be automatically checked by the NT file store The initial stage of the design process was to identity all of the data field including its size type default value and source 7 2 1 Data fields for Property Pages Data Field Name Database Field Data Default Required Access Source Name Field Value Unique Field Type Type Unique Id Id Digits Yes Yes Number User Input Location Location Text Yes No Text User Input Description Short Description ShortD Text No No Memo User Input Long Description LongD Text Yes No Memo User Input Accommodation Accommodation Text Yes No Memo User Input Description Rental price per PriceHigh Digits Yes No Number User Input week high season 32 Rental price per PriceLow Digits Yes No Number User Input week low season Sleeps Sleeps Digits Yes No Number User Input Image Link 1 Imagel Text Yes Yes Text User Input Image Link 2 Image2 Text No Yes Text User Input Image Link 3 Image3 Text No Yes Text User Input Image Link 4 Image4 Text N
38. esent the website contains only one map of Vancouver Island This map image has a large file size resulting in visitors connecting via a low band width connection 1 e an analogue telephone line of which approximately eighty percent of users use experiencing high download times On presentation of the map most users are disappointed with its content as many property locations are not marked and the majority of town names are illegible due to the use of poorly contrasting colours On converting the map image to a click able image map the map could be sectioned allowing users to click locations on the map which would behave as hyperlinks linking to relevant properties The quality of the map should also be improved to allow all place names to be legible Implementation The original map image taken form the colour brochure should be re scanned at the correct resolution using a graphics suite e g Corel Draw 8 or Microsoft PhotoDraw of which the company already has licensed copies installed the image should be converted to a click able image map sectioned into business defined locations The images produced for the image map would then be saved at a suitable compression to improve and so reduce download time but not drastically reduce the legibility of the map Dangers The map property locations must be carefully designed by the business as image maps are not dynamically created and therefore will not be easily modified Care must be taken as to no
39. formation would aid in future marketing projects executed by the company The map page also saw high visitor usage approximately 35 of visitors visited the page however only 10 selected a map location suggesting that further instructions to the visitor may be required or that users only wanted to use it for property location reference purposes only It can be concluded that visitors to the website prefer to search for properties using the property locator rather using the click able image map This conclusion should be re assessed once more site usage information becomes available 45 13 3 Website Limitations The entire website utilises a Microsoft Access Database which could limit its access levels to the site in the future if usage levels on the site dramatically increase this has already been documented and a contingency plan mentioned in section 7 2 of this report At present the database has the potential to support up to two hundred and fifty five concurrent users however a noticeable reduction in performance would be noticeable with over 100 concurrent database users 13 4 Success or Failure The finished product meets all the project objectives set out during the initialisation phase however a new system not only needs to work to be a success it has to be used to achieve its full business advantage potential Due to excellent user acceptance by the staff of Vancouver Island Holidays partly due to the use of prototyping in the
40. g menu design Display all select locations in the NavBar row of the Menus table of the database Blanks should not be displayed The information from the recordset should be immediately passed into an array and connection to the database closed to reduce the amount of time the database connection is open 5 Location names should link to location pages PYNP 1 2 Individual Web Page Requirements Notes Filenames in production may be versioned by suffixes 1 2 1 Administration Pages Web page filename admin_concole htm Requirements Design Specification Link to add new properties Link to edit existing properties Link to add new locations Link to edit existing locations Link edit NavBar WP Yeh Modification to design None Web page filename new_prop asp Requirements Design Specification 1 Web form 2 Text input field for location description input required 50 16 17 18 19 20 Text input field for property name input required Text input field for property ref id digits only input required Text input field for number of people property can sleep digits only input required Text input field for high season rental price digits only input required Text input field for low season rental price digits only input required Text input field for image 1 link input required Text input field for image 2 link input optional Text input field for image 3 link input optional
41. going costs e g support etc As the business is looking to increase its portfolio of property by 100 this year it was chosen to implement the facility to enable members of staff to create editand amend property location and individual property information pages The name E WEB was given to the system proposal This would allow the business to own property and location web content All the existing properties would be moved to the new system With such an increase in the number of properties members of the meeting identified that it may become an issue for web users to find suitable properties for rent so the interactive property locator search engine was also selected for implementation Designing both modules of functionality simultaneously would save time as both would use the same database so from the design perspective it also made sense to design and implement the two modules together As a direct consequence of E WEB the business will own the majority web content resulting in more up to date information and pricing and more in depth information on both locations and properties plus a new scanning procedure would be created to increase the quality of the images on the site To accommodate the creation and deletion of new property locations a dynamic navigation bar NavBar would be implemented and include on each site page It was also agreed that the current map should be replaced with a click able image map to aid further with the loc
42. he company s stock information On line booking service with merchant services Benefits Paper based booking would be replaced by electronic web forms allowing automatic checks to ensure booking forms were correctly filled in Booking information would be sent electronically to the office where it could either be manually or electronically processed As the information would be already in electronic format errors from data entry would be significantly reduced Merchant services would enable booking deposits to be taken at time of booking and not approx 5 days later due to the current system requiring mailed cheques Credit card payments could be accepted from all the world where credit card support exists Customers would have the additional security that paying by credit card offers Implementation The company would have to apply for a merchant licence from its issuing bank this could in itself be a problem as many banks are weary of web transactions particularly when involving travel companies the license could be refused or very high commissions per transaction charged Electronic web forms would be used to replace paper based booking forms Dangers Credit fraud on the Internet is at an alarmingly high level Credit numbers must be validated and customers credit card details should not only be encrypted during transmission but also securely stored at Vancouver Island Holidays An investment may not pay off into online booking as many customer
43. ic HTML the site will be extremely compatible with very old web browsers Ideal Vacation Rentals Conclusion From a business perspective Vancouver Island Holidays and Ideal Vacation Rentals are not in direct competition however their websites try to achieve the same goal by advertising properties to rent The only element found on the Ideal Vacation Rentals website that will influence the design of the new elements of functionality for the Vancouver Island Holidays was the use of code that is compatible with older browser versions of both Netscape and Internet Explorer 3 4 Tofino Beach Homes Business Analysis Tofino Beach Homes like Vancouver Island Holidays is a house rental agency operating on 16 Vancouver Island Their business as with GreatSpots Is one hundred percent web orientated Tofino Beach Homes has a very small property catchment area that of Chesterman Beach on the West Coast of Vancouver Island Vancouver Island Holidays also has properties listed at this location Tofino Beach Homes also inspects all of their houses and is so able to offer similar guarantees as Vancouver Island Holidays to its vacation tenants Tofino Beach Homes primarily targets the North American markets Website Analysis The Tofino Beach Homes website looks very professional in design and layout with a lot of attention to detail A Flash splash screen is used to give the visitor a good insight to the peacefulness and natural beauty of the area Th
44. ic to check availability page Modification to design None 63 Web page filename prop search asp Requirements Design Specification Adopt standard page layout Check box for each property locations included in the NavBar Drop down box to select number of people accommodation is required for Text input box for maximum weekly rental price in UK s digits only e Rene e ES Search and reset buttons Modification to design None Web page filename searchres asp Requirements Design Specification 1 Adopt standard page layout 2 Display list of properties that match selected search criteria 3 The display of each property should consist of its property ref id property name the number of people the property can sleep and the properties first image 4 The title of each property should link to the individual property page Modification to design None Web page filename imagemap asp Requirements Design Specification 64 Adopt the standard page layout Contain the newly created click able image map Each image map section should link to the respective map location page RR SE ES ia The image map should be divided into the following sections e North Vancouver Island e South Vancouver Island e Central Vancouver Island e West Coast Modification to design None Web page filename map_location asp Requirements Design Specification Display map location name Display map location de
45. ictoria Sooke Menu Item 3 Nanaimo Menu Item 4 SchoonerCove gt Menu Item 5 Qualicum Menu Item 6 Comox Valley Menu Item 7 Contesisiand gt Menu Item 8 Salt Spring Island Menu Iter 9 BLANK Menu Item 10 BLANI nu item BLANK Menu Item 11 Comox Valley P Cortes Island Menu Item 12 Nanaimo Menu Item 13 Qualicum Salt Spring Island Menu Item 14 Schooner Cove e Victoria Sooke Menu Item 15 West Coast Menu Item 16 BLANK D Menu Item 17 BLANK d Menu Item 18 BLANK z Menu Item 19 BLANK d Menu Item 20 BLANK User Name Ir Password Reset pone Ti tenet Vancouver Island com Web Site Admin V 1 0 7 0 Whats What 7 1 All Property Locations Page III E Yancouver Island Holiays All Property Locations Microsoft Internet Explorer Hel SA BFR 12311 lex File Edit View Favorites Tools Help Back GQ 2 GSearch Favorites Media A Es zl 8 AH Address a http jjun vancouver island com Property_Loc_All asp Poo Links Totale Juin Admin vIH Old Website vi New Website Unique Location Name Comox Valley is located midway up the east coast of Vancouver Island and enjoys almost 2000 hours of sunshine every year The mild weather creates a eae wonderful atmosphere for year round activities Short Location Descr 1p ton including golfing hiking swimming boating fishing skiing and kayaking or exploring the Islands of Hornby and Denman ideal for biking Como
46. idays to gain a good understanding as to how they operate Research also had to be made in order to decide which if any CASE computer aided software engineering tools to use at each stage of the project 1 1 Choice of System Development Methodology As discovered from studying various modules in my degree including People Centred Information Systems in my third year there is a huge choice of different system development methodologies to choose from No methodology is perfect for use in every situation as all have their strengths and weaknesses The Systems Development Life Cycle SDLC is one of the original software development methodologies to be widely used and forms the basis of many more recently developed methodologies A project is split up into six stages as shown below Preliminary Investigation Systems Analysis System Design l System Construction System Implementation Evaluation Figure 1 The SDLC The SDLC is still very appropriate to situations where system requirements are predictable and particularly where there is a system already in existence It is very inflexible as each stage must be followed in turn as illustrated in figure 1 Many weaknesses apparent in systems developed using the SDLC due to its inflexibility have been identified including the system s failure to meet management needs an un ambitious system design user dissatisfaction lack of control and incomplete systems being implemen
47. ification of default htm to include dynamic NavBar 2 Modification of links of default htm to newly created asp files for contact information availability travel links map search and all property locations Modification to design None Web page filename conatct asp Requirements Design Specification 1 Modification of contact htm to include dynamic NavBar 2 Modification of links of contact htm to newly created asp files for home page availability travel links map search and all property locations 60 Modification to design None Web page filename travel asp Requirements Design Specification 1 Modification of travel htm to include dynamic NavBar 2 Modification of links of travel htm to newly created asp files for home page availability contact information map search and all property locations Modification to design None Web page filename check asp Requirements Design Specification 1 Modification of check htm to include dynamic NavBar 2 Amend submission action link to thankyou asp 3 Modification of links of check htm to newly created asp files for home page contact information travel links map search and all property locations Modification to design None 61 Web page filename availablity asp Requirements Design Specification 1 Modification of availability htm to include dynamic NavBar 2 Amend submission action link to thankyou asp 3 Modifi
48. ing At present the site is hosted in Manchester on an apache web sever running on a Unix operating system 2 7 Conclusion The foundations of an excellent website are in place There is a very simple and easy to use navigation system however the website is lacking in functionality for example a property search facility and dynamic content The majority of the website content once written is never updated with new information The graphics used in the site are small and of very low quality With the introduction of a 13 couple of database driven active server pages many of the sites weaknesses could be eradicated and some of the opportunities for expansion explored at minimal cos 14 3 0 Competition Analysis 3 1 Overview In order to learn from the success and mistakes of other companies operating in the vacation rental industry on Vancouver Island a competition analysis was carried out When Vancouver Island Holidays first started its operations seven years ago it was the only holiday orientated house rental agency operating on Vancouver Island With Vancouver Island in recent years becoming a major international national holiday destination a number of other rental agendes have started to operate on the island Competitors were found by searching the web and Vancouver Island tourism brochures Vancouver Island Holidays main competitors are GreatSpots Recreation Properties http www greatspots com Ideal Vacation
49. ing of data integrity constraints 41 10 0 Implementation Construction of the database was first completed which was followed by the implementation of the web pages as to the requirements specified in appendix B of this report The final stage of implementation was to add security to the database This stage of the project went very satisfactorily due to previous in depth planning and design of the system 42 11 0 Testing During implementation each web page was briefly tested however in order to check navigation and the performance of the system as a whole the previously written testing plan that can be found in appendix C was used 11 1 Testing Feedback Testing was initially carried out using Internet Explorer 5 5 a few content errors were identified and were immediately corrected A repeat of the testing was then carried out using Internet Explorer 4 Netscape Navigator 6 and Netscape Navigator 4 Netscape 4 was the only browser to produce page layout errors However due to Netscape Navigator 4 s large user population these had to be removed before go live Two full days were required to remove the page layout browser incompatibility errors The whole site was then retested for browser compatibility with the previously mentioned web browsers During this phase of the project the code was also examined for optimisation All drop down menus populated from database data were converted to array populated menus to reduc
50. knesses The page does not make any use of graphics Opportunities The page would benefit from a map indicating the area of each property location Due to Vancouver Island having beautiful scenery in all locations information could be enhanced with the use of images Threats A page containing too much information is threatened by becoming too busy site visitors would then find the content hard to read and terminate there session On introducing images to the page care should be taken not to greatly increase download time 2 3 3 Property Location Pages There are 7 location pages one for each location Each page is headed with a repeat description of the location summary information from the property location summary page Under each description a table is situated displaying a small poor resolution image and short text description of each property available From each property name a hyperlink can be followed to individual property pages Strengths Good download time Visitors can easily see and compare all properties available in a chosen location Weaknesses A completely new page is required for each new property location The text information is simply a repeat of that contained on the property location summary page Users can only browse properties by location Opportunities Information on each location could be easily extended to cover many different aspects of the area including o Local facilities services
51. lair G and Meadows S 1996 Real Life Guide to Organisational Change Gower Damodaran L Simpson A Wilson P 1980 Designing Systems for People NCC Gough TG 2001 Notes on People Centred Information Systems Development School of Computing University of Leeds Mason D and Willcocks L 1994 Systems Analysis Systems Design Alfred Walter Ltd The Faculty of Engineering Website University of Waterloo Canada http www eng uwaterloo ca 10 December 2001 Vancouver Island Holidays UK Ltd 2001 Vancouver Island Holidays Brochure 2001 Vancouver Island Holidays Website http www vancouver island com 1 April 2002 47 Appendix A Project Evaluation I am personally very satisfied and pleased with the outcome of project particularly as the interactive website developed as part of the project is now in production I feel that there are many advantages and disadvantages of choosing to do an external project The advantages are enormous A key area of personal growth was in communication and diplomacy skills through dealing directly with the external project owner Vancouver Island Holidays the experience taught me the true value of preparing and planning meeting agendas taking minutes and task allocation Meeting the deadlines set with the company helped keep the project to the schedule shown in the Gantt chart on the following page in Figure 1 With an external project you not only work for yourself but in effect
52. land 45 mun from here to Cortes Island There are 7 S magmficent news of the snow capped mountains of Location Link Image 1 Vancouver Island and the mamland s Coastal Range Cortes Island 1s about 25km long and 13km wide as the northern tip 1s rugged and wild most islanders live in the southern region There are general stores which Location Link Image 2 cater for most provisions mannas fishing sailing charters kayak rental school restaurants gallenes and a delightful craft co op shop which shows off the diverse local talents Proper ty Re f No D d The natural setting of this interesting property at Hague Lake affords beautiful panoramic Max No of People views across lake forests and mountains from the large rear deck and most rooms Direct lake access with sandy beach Proper ty Short Property Link Image 1 Description Si Done Internet Slot for Location Image 3 Properties Property Name Click here te make travel arrangements 10 Vancouver Island com Web Site Admin V 1 0 7 3 Property Page ENE Il El El C2 L 13 File Edit View Favorites Tools Help Back gt D A 2 Reh Favorites Zeches 3 B g avFoRs Address http www vancouver island comlprop_display4dm asp House_Id 20 gt Go Links Totaise G VIH Admin lt VIH Old Website VIH New WebSite Low Season 550 A High Season 700 Lake affords beautiful panoramic views across lake Prop
53. land has experienced a major growth in tourism Tourists flock to the island to experience the unique combination of snow capped mountains un crowded beaches crystal clear lakes cascading waterfalls and ancient rainforests with cedars and Douglas The company started trading in year one with only six properties available for rental Properties where displayed in a full colour gloss brochure The company advertised in national press travel supplements in the UK and Germany and racked its brochures in Canada House in Trafalgar Square London After a successful first year the company increased its accommodation listings by heavily advertising in newspapers on Vancouver Island targeting private homeowners Sales revenue have increased significantly each successive year and is predicated to rise further for the next five years Due to the recent atrocities of September 11 in America causing a vast reduction in airline passenger confidence the company has now begun targeting holidaymakers from Canada and America within driving distance of the Island Three years ago in year three of trading Vancouver Island Holidays invested in the development of a small website to display their brochure contents online the main purpose of this exercise was to provide a home for its recently bought domain name VancouverIsland com This proved to be very successful with over 30 of booking enquires originating in year five from its website The company no
54. le menus to be created for the site should they become a requirement at a later date 7 2 6 Database Security By default Microsoft Access Databases give read and write access to all users therefore the database was secured The database was secured using a workgroup information file to control database access Three users were created Administrator Full access to the database Web User Limited read only access the database Web Admin User Limited read and write access to the database For security reasons usernames and passwords are not printed in this report To enhance security passwords with write permissions are to be changed regularly and never contained in web server hosted files 7 3 New Web Page Requirements The new website functionalities also required a number of new web pages to be created A total of four page updates and twenty five new pages were created brief details of which can be found in the tables below An in depth description of each page can be found in appendix B of this report 36 7 3 1 Website Administration Pages Page No Page File Name Description Function 1 admin_concole htm Menu for site administration 2 new_prop asp Create new property page 3 new_prop_update asp Submit new property information to database 4 prop_select asp Select a property id to edit 5 prop_edit asp Edit property information
55. letion of property locations Enable easy creation amendment deletion of individual property pages Enable business ownership of all content regarding property locations and individual property locations Online real time availability Full online booking service including secure merchant services Property search facility Click able images of maps for property searching Interactive online property guest books Interactive online what s on calendar for Vancouver Island Dynamic home page content Vancouver Island com News Dynamically created site map to aid with site navigation E Postcards Interactive FAQ Frequently Asked Questions section Virtual Tourist help centre Providing tourists with essential local information 19 5 0 Evaluation Of Ideas Due to the short timescale of this project and nature of some of the ideas it would be unreasonable to implement all of the ideas listed in the previous chapter In order to choose which ideas to design and implement a full evaluation report of all ideas was compiled In order to create a rough implementation guideline a day was spent at Vancouver Island Holidays assessing its resources E g Software licences hardware photograph libraries etc 5 1 Functionality Evaluation e Enable easy creation amendment deletion of property locations and individual property pages Benefits Information contained on the website could be easily and very efficiently updated by
56. lips of Properties Benefits As with the use of 360 degree panoramic images a much better interior display of properties could be achieved encouraging browsers to become customers Implementation Video footage taken to aid in the description of properties by house inspectors could be sampled and saved as short video files and integrated into the website For the project additional external training would have to be given to staff or the project outsourced Dangers Even the smallest of video clips are large in file size so only users with ISDN or better connections to the Internet would benefit from this form of content enrichment Information on National and Provincial Parks on Vancouver Island Benefits The National and provincial parks on Vancouver Island are a key tourist attraction marketing these parks would encourage people to visit the island and hence become customers of Vancouver Island Holidays The site content should contain more island information so browsers may enter the site initially looking for more information on Vancouver Island and not just because they require vacation accommodation hence increasing the number of visitors to the site Implementation The British Columbia Parks website contains a wealth of good well presented information an introduction to parks in the vicinity of each property location could be added to the website accompanied with a Further Information hyperlink to the relevant section of the Bri
57. ll Property Locations Page 7 2 Location Page 7 3 Property Page Page No NN Re AB BON ra ka OO GO JJ Ch Ch Li ba Vancouver Island com Web Site Admin V 1 0 1 0 Procedures 1 1 General Information Acquire Scan any required images Upload images to web server Make alterations to web site Check alterations made Pe 1 2 Adding a New Property to New Property Location 1 Create New Property Location Es Create New Property Page Vancouver Island com Web Site Admin V 1 0 Image Preparation and Upload 2 1 Scanning and preparing a new image of a property or location for upload onto the website Scanning a photo From the Windows Start Menu load Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000 Place the photo in the scanner Go to file and click on scan picture Click on your scanner software and then scan This pre scans the image Then mark the area by dragging the mouse to select what area of the image needs to be scanned As these images are being used on the Internet reduce the dpi to 72dpi and the scale to 80 Click on scan Preparing the image for the website Touch up the image to improve the picture quality by using the sharpness and contrast options available under the Touch Up Menu So that all the images appear in the same format on the website resize the picture to width of 200 pixels and create soft edges on scale of 10 For more help on using Microsoft Pho
58. m on average receives between four and five hundred individual visits per week As most users are connected to the internet via a dial up connection it is impossible to distinguish due to floating IP addresses which visits are from repeat visitors On further analysis of the website usage statistics it was concluded that the majority of visitors exit the site via the individual property pages The website offers detailed information on the properties the company has to offer however there are no freebies for the browser The site is only of interest to people who want to rent a vacation property and this is the only way a visitor would browse onto the site The site can be found on the majority of search engines however rankings are normally low The site is not advertised at all on the Internet and is not linked from any organisations apart from search engines and the Nanaimo tourism website Increase on line advertising Advertising online is not expensive there are many tourist specific websites for Vancouver Island and British Columbia The majority of web users will find these sites first as they have a high ranking with the popular search engines A good site to advertise on would be Vancouverlsland com Business listings are also offered by Yahoo Their sites are categorised so Vancouver Island Holidays could be listed under the recently created section Vancouver Island called Vacation Rentals Search Engines Search e
59. nd choose multiple date rages Accommodation availability information could be stored in an online database so that vacancies could be checked instantly online Threats Increasing the number of fields on the form may deter visitors as it may become too time consuming The online availability database could quickly and easily become out of date unless it was directly linked to a booking database 11 2 3 6 Map Page The page presents the site visitor with a map of Vancouver Island Strengths Good download time Weaknesses The map image is of extremely poor quality and due to its colour scheme light blue yellow and white is hard to read All property locations are not viewable on the map Opportunities A new map should be acquired for the website The map should have a scale and offer a zoom functionality allowing visitors to select certain areas of the map to view at an increased level of detail Users should be able to link from the map to a list of properties available in the selected location The new map should cover all property locations Travelling times and distances could be made available to visitors with incorporation of a distance time chart Threats Copyright laws on maps should be observed The map image should not be of such high quality that download time is dramatically increased 2 3 7 Contact Details Page Provides the user with full contact details of Vancouver Island Holidays UK Ltd Strength
60. ngines make use of meta data stored in the header of web pages In particular search engines examine abstract and keyword meta data At present only keyword meta data is included on the site 79 To increase search rankings abstract meta data should also be included Search engines also look at page titles so each title on the website should be checked for its suitability URL Web Addresses So that the customer can identify with the company and to avoid confusion only one URL address should be used this being www vancouver island com To promote the URL it can be displayed on all business stationary and even casual wear An Attractive Website The website statistic reports are a very useful tool in analysing how the website is being used It shows the entry and exit points indicating what users are interested in and perhaps when they become bored and leave the site The various exit points could be analysed and made more exciting to deter people from leaving the site or to encourage repeat visits This could be improved by adding dynamic content such as weather forecasts e postcards links to services such as car rental companies ferry times maps tourist offices so there is more in depth information about the various locations available an exchange rate link and even a newsletter providing information on any new properties that have been added to the site promotions special offers and seasonal attractions in the various areas The
61. o Yes Text User Input Primary Location Primary_Loc Text Yes No Text Drop Down of Unique Location Names Secondary Secondary_Loc Text No No Text Drop Down Location of Unique Location Names Map Location Map_Location Text Yes No Text Drop Down of Unique Map Locations 7 2 2 Data Fields for Location Pages Data Field Name Database Field Data Default Required U Access Source Name Field Value nique Field Type Type Unique Location Location_Name Text Yes Yes Text User Input Name Location Short Location_ShortD Text Yes No Memo User Input Description Location Long Location_LongD Text Yes No Memo User Input Description Image Link 1 Locapon Image Text No Yes Text User Input Image Link 2 Location_Image2 Text No Yes Text User Input Image Link 3 Location_Image3 Text No Yes Text User Input 33 7 2 3 Data Fields for Click able Image Map Data Field Name Database Field Data Default Required U Access Source Name Field Value nique Field Type Type Unique Map Map_Location Text Yes Yes Text User Input Location Name Location Long Location_LongD Text Yes No Memo User Input Description Image Link 1 Locapon Image Text No Yes Text User Input Image Link 2 Location_Image2 Text No Yes Text User Input Image Link 3 Location_Image3 Text No Yes Text User Input 7 2 4 Data Fields for Menus Data Field Name Dat
62. o design None Web page filename new_location asp Requirements Design Specification Text input field for location name url safe input required Text area input field for location short description input required Text area input field for location long description input required Text input field for image 1 link input optional Text input field for image 2 link input optional Text input field for image 3 link input optional Text input field for image 4 link input optional Text input field for username input required d El ON eer see AE E Text input field for password password required 10 Add location and reset buttons Modification to design None 55 Web page filename new_loc_up asp Requirements Design Specification 1 Check for uniqueness of submitted location name if not unique then throw error 2 Submit new location to database Modification to design None Web page filename location_list asp Requirements Design Specification 1 Drop down selection box populated with the available locations in the database 2 Submit reset buttons Modification to design None Web page filename location_edit asp Requirements Design Specification Text input field for location name url safe value from database Text area input field for location short description value from database Text area input field for location long description value from database Te
63. ocation The virtual tourist help centre would be accessed via a hyper link on each property location page Information in the database would be updated via web forms and active server pages Dangers It should be made clear to the user that the company Vancouver Island Holidays is in no way responsible for the actions of companies listed or that the website availability is guaranteed 24 5 2 Content Enrichment Evaluation Increased use of graphics Benefits A picture is worth a thousand words This is true for a good quality image however poor quality images as currently used on many pages of the current website could be said to be worth a thousand negative words As all of the properties of Vancouver Island Holidays are of extremely high quality more images of accommodation could only entice and encourage browsers to become customers of Vancouver Island Holidays Implementation At present images for the website are prepared in house this procedure should be examined and where possible improved A standard procedure for creating good quality web images should be created As Vancouver Island Holidays already owns an extensive library of good quality photographic images it would be sensible to abuse this resource for the website Dangers Users could attempt to create images of extremely high quality that would be unsuitable for the web due to their size and resolution Upgrade of maps Click able image map Benefits At pr
64. ocation Info button If error please follow the on screen instructions 5 3 Deleting Property Locations e Select Edit Property Location from the Admin Console home page e Select the Location Name you wish to edit e Click Submit button The page will load as shown in Fig with the already uploaded property location information e Select Delete Property Location e Enter username and password e Select Delete Location Button If error please follow the on screen instructions Vancouver Island com Web Site Admin V 1 0 6 0 Edit NavBar Select edit NavBar from the Admin Console homepage The page below will load Select location name from each required menu item drop down Menu items should be used in chronological order if a menu item is not required then select BLANK from the drop down On completion of username and password click Submit If error please follow on screen instructions Vancouver Island Holidays Admin Microsoft Internet Explorer LIESE 2 DN FA JEY la x Fie Edt ven Favorites Tools Help Zei 72 d bai search Aramte Zeie A 5 36 Address s a em Tonn vancouver island com Menu_Edit asp EI GC Lie lTotaise VIHAdmin VIH Old Website IV New WebSite Nav Bar Edit Select a menuitem from the drop down Menu items should be filled in sequentially with no BLANKs BLANE values will not be displayed on the site Menu Item 1 WestCoast Menu Item 2 V
65. on description value from database Drop down selection box populated with location names form the prop_locations table of the database to assign primary location of a property value from database Drop down selection box populated with location names form the prop_locations table of the database to assign secondary location of a property input optional value from database Drop down selection box populated with map location names form the map_locations table of the database to assign the map location of a property value from database Input text field for username input required Input password field for password input required Delete property link Update and reset buttons 53 Modification to design 1 The short description text input field should have the default value Enter Short Description Web page file name prop_update asp Requirements Design Specification 1 Submit form data to database 2 Write successful message Modification to design None Web page filename prop_deletel asp Requirements Design Specification Verify the user wishes to delete Input text field for username input required Input password field for password input required Pre I Delete and reset buttons Modification to design None 54 Web page filename prop delete asp Requirements Design Specification 1 Delete property from database 2 Write successful message Modification t
66. pulated with location names from the prop_locations table Value from database 4 Drop down selection box for menu position 3 populated with location names from the prop_locations table Value from database 5 Drop down selection box for menu position 4 populated with location names from the prop_locations table Value from database 6 Drop down selection box for menu position 5 populated with location names from the prop_locations table Value from database 7 Drop down selection box for menu position 6 populated with location names from the prop_locations table Value from database 8 Drop down selection box for menu position 7 populated with location names from the prop_locations table Value from database 9 Drop down selection box for menu position 8 populated with location names from the 58 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 prop_locations table Value from database Drop down selection box for menu position 9 populated with location names from the prop_locations table Value from database Drop down selection box for menu position 10 populated with location names from the prop_locations table Value from database Drop down selection box for menu position 11 populated with location names from the prop_locations table Value from database Drop down selection box for menu position 12 populated with location names from the prop_locations table Value from database D
67. pulated with text and image links from the database 25 prop_search asp New property search page 26 searchres asp New property search results page 27 imagemap asp New map page 28 map_location asp New map location page populated by text and images from the database giving a brief overview of the location and properties available 29 thankyou asp Sends email to Vancouver Island Holidays from availability request page 7 4 New Graphic Requirements All public access buttons on the website have the same design a new search button was required to link to the search page from the navigation bar 7 5 Graphical User Interface Design and Prototyping All of the public access web pages will be used by members of the public and so need to be easy to navigate clearly legible and have a clean and professional consistent layout Any instructions were written in language is easily understood Instructions do not contain words from the travel or IT business languages As the existing page layout constantly received praises for its ease of use the new page layouts have conformed where possible to the existing site design in regards to the location of navigation bars and with respect to the colours font face and font size used Pages in the administration console might contain words from the travel business language but because the administrators have a very limited IT knowledge these pages were also made extremely 38
68. riched to include updating the website increasing job satisfaction in the company and reducing staff turnover Implementation An ASP driven online administration tool would give business administrators the functionality to edit add delete website content 20 Dangers Users given the administrator writes to the company website should be properly trained Passwords to the system should be regularly changed for security reasons Users should only be given the necessary writes required for their job On line real time availability Benefits Visitors could receive instant availability feedback encouraging them to make an on the spot decision regarding a booking Implementation At present there is no electronic availability system used by the company availability is stored in paper files and all bookings are confirmed individually with property owners An office database would first have to be designed and implemented and regularly synchronised with a similar web based system An alternative would be to install an always on web connection e g ADSL and integrate as required the two systems This functionality would not only require a new database system but also new contractual agreements with private property owners which could cause many owners to terminate dealings with the company Dangers The web database may contain incorrect data consequently overbooking or leaving properties empty Competition would have direct access to t
69. rm whose results are posted in the form of an email to info Vancouver Island com Users are forced to fill the following mandatory fields Full name via a textbox field Email address via a text box field First choice property reference number via a text box field 10 Date from via drop down menus field Date to via drop down menus field Number of people in party via a text box filed The form also consists of the following optional fields Address via a text area field Telephone number via a text box field Second choice property reference number via a text box field Apart from checking that mandatory fields are not empty there is no field validation present On successful submission of the form the user receives a thank you response in the form of a web page Strengths Users are forced to fill in required form fields Weaknesses First Choice property references are not automatically filled in The response time to an availability request is not immediate during busy periods responses can take over twenty four hours The availability of only two properties can be checked on one form Only one date range can be checked per form submission Opportunities The property reference number from where the check availability form is accessed could be by default entered into the property first choice field on the check availability form The form could be expanded to allow users to select more house preferences a
70. rop down selection box for menu position 13 populated with location names from the prop_locations table Value from database Drop down selection box for menu position 14 populated with location names from the prop_locations table Value from database Drop down selection box for menu position 15 populated with location names from the prop_locations table Value from database Drop down selection box for menu position 16 populated with location names from the prop_locations table Value from database Drop down selection box for menu position 17 populated with location names from the prop_locations table Value from database Drop down selection box for menu position 18 populated with location names from the prop_locations table Value from database Drop down selection box for menu position 19 populated with location names from the prop_locations table Value from database Drop down selection box for menu position 20 populated with location names from the prop_locations table Value from database Text input field for username input required Password input field for password input required Modification to design None 59 Web page filename menu update asp Requirements Design Specification 1 Submit menu updates to database 2 Display update successful message when complete Modification to design None 1 2 2 Public Access Pages Web page filename default asp Requirements Design Specification 1 Mod
71. s Select Add New Property Location from the Admin Console homepage The page below will load Complete all mandatory fields and click the Add Location button All fields are mandatory except those labelled in italics On error please follow on screen instructions B add Location Microsoft Internet explorer CN ORI ee RATE File Edit View Favorites Tools Help Back gt D A Reach SjFavortes Meda 4 B S 8 A 0 Address a http wwms vancouver island com New_Location 35p Pao links Totaise G VIHAdmin lit Old Website G VIH New website Add New Property Location Location Names should not contain E Enter Unique Location Name El Location Name Location Short Description Enter Location Short Description Location Long Description Description d a Enter Image 1 Link Enter Location Long Image1 Image i age Enter Image 2 Link Image3 User N i User Name Enter Image 3 Link Password Add Location Reset Enter Username and Password E Done Internet Vancouver Island com Web Site Admin V 1 0 5 2 Editing Property Locations e Select Edit Property Location from the Admin Console home page e Select the Location Name you wish to edit e Click Submit button The page will load as shown in Fig with the already uploaded property location information e Make all neccesary alterations e Enter username and password e Click Update L
72. s Provides visitors with all possible methods of contact information Weaknesses The layout of the page is unstructured and does not reflect the colour scheme or layout used throughout the rest of the site Opportunities A telephone call back service could be offered The page should adopt the standard colour scheme and character set used throughout the site Threats On a large demand for the call back service the company s telephone call charges may rise significantly Visitors may well choose to make use of the call back service rather than writing an email as it requires less user effort 12 2 3 8 Travel Links Page The page contains three hyperlinks to e BC Ferries e Kenmore Air Seaplanes e VIA Rail Canada e Strengths Small download time e Weaknesses The list of links and information is too limited e Opportunities The list of links should be extended to include international airline carriers flight websites and car hire specialists e Threats The page could be overloaded with links and reduce its readability Links may lead via third party websites to direct competition 2 4 Search Engine Presence and Meta Data The website is registered with all major search engines The home page contains both good detailed keyword and description meta data however no abstract meta data is present 2 5 Website Usage Visits Over the past twelve months the site received an average of 6 500 visits per month 2 6 Host
73. s often different people are involved at each stage 1 2 Vancouver Island Holidays Research into the way in which Vancouver Island operates was required to give me a better understanding of how the company internally functions enabling me to analyse which solutions 3 would best serve their needs both now and in the future I started research into Vancouver Island Holidays by first examining their existing website www vancouver island com Information on the company itself was found to be severely lacking and so I continued my research by consulting their 2001 full colour brochure In the brochure a very brief overview of the company s operations can be found however still lacking detail I arranged an interview with the director who gave me a full company overview A brief summary can be found below 1 21 Company Overview Vancouver Island Holidays is a small limited company that is registered both in Birmingham UK and in Nanaimo Vancouver Island Canada The limited company was started six years ago to fill a niche in the vacation accommodation market on Vancouver Island The company specialises in the renting of privately owned superior accommodation on Vancouver Island to tourists primarily from the UK and Europe Vancouver Island lies approximately ten miles off the West Coast of British Columbia Canada and is easily accessible by car ferry or light aircraft from Vancouver or Seattle Over the past eight years Vancouver Is
74. s still do not trust the security of ecommerce and so would 21 still prefer to use the old proven system of posted cheques Commission transaction charges may force excess payments to be levied on top of credit card transactions in order to maintain profit margins reducing the attractiveness of the new system even further to the consumer e Property search facility Benefits Visitors to the site would have the facility to compare not only properties on location but also on search criteria e g Weekly rental price and accommodation type etc Implementation Property features would be stored in an online Microsoft Access Database which would be queried via a simple web form connected to an active server page Search results would be displayed via another active server page The property search facility database could utilise if designed correctly the individual property pages and property location information database Dangers The database will only support a limited number of connections website use should be monitored and if near full capacity is reached the database should be moved onto an SQL server this would unfortunately increase the cost of website hosting from the currently used Internet service provider e Click able image maps for property searching Functionality described in section 5 2 of this report e Interactive online property guest books Benefits Visitors to the site could share experiences of previous property tenan
75. scription if available Display all available map location images Display all properties that are situated in the selected map location ues Gee ES E Property display should contain property id property name the number of people the property can accommodate and the property s first image 6 The property title should link to individual property page Modification to design None 65 Web page filename thankyou asp Requirements Design Specification 1 Adopt the standard page layout 2 Provide a thank you message to the user 3 Submit the check availability information from check asp or availability asp to a pearl script in the cgi bin to generate an email to Vancouver Island Holidays Modification to design None 66 Appendix C 1 0 Testing Plan 1 1 Individual Page Tests Page filename default asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename contact asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments Page filename travel asp Test Description Pass Fail All page requirements met All page links correct Layout correct Content Correct Additional Comments 67 Page Dlename check asp
76. sers should have the facility to select one or more property locations Number of people Users should have the facility to select the number of people requiring accommodation Properties that are too small to accommodate the group should not be returned in the results The results page should list only properties that match the search criteria the property name unique reference id number number of people it sleeps short description and first image of the property should be displayed 7 1 3 Click able Image Map The image should be of high quality so that place names are legible Where possible all current property locations should be identifiable The map would consist of four sections called map locations e North Vancouver Island e Central Vancouver Island e South Vancouver Island e West Coast All new properties will be assigned one of the above four map locations On the user selecting a map location a list of properties should be returned The unique property reference id property name number of people it sleeps short description and first image should be displayed The map should be accessible from the NavBar situated on the left of each accessible page 7 2 Database Design All of the three functionality modules require use of a common database Currently the website does not receive a great number of concurrent users from analysis of website usage statistics the maximum number of concurrent users is approximately
77. st Description Pass Fail It should be impossible to create two properties under the same property id It should be impossible to create two locations with the exact same location name On no properties being found in a search the system should not error On a location not having any assigned properties the location pages should not error On creating a new location the new location should become an option in the NavBar dropdown automatically The search location checkboxes should directly reflect the selected NavBar options All database amendments should require a valid username and password to be submitted with sufficient user write The user name and password used by public access pages should only have read access to the required database tables Forms should not be allowed to be submitted if required fields as specified in the page requirements are empty On all pages where recordsets are created recordsets and database connections should remain open for the minimum amount of time Record locking record sets should only be used where essential their should be no requirement for their use in public access pages Additional Comments 78 Appendix D Marketing Report This document is aimed to give Vancouver Island Holidays a number of ideas of how to promote their site rather than to act as a marketing strategy for the company Current Situation Vancouver Island co
78. t amended deleted via web forms and active server pages The website visitor would initially be able to browse the FAQ list If the number of FAQs increased dramatically an FAQ search tool could be created the initial database design should allow for this to take place Dangers The company should have an approval process of FAQs to ensure the information posted remained of high quality and correctness The database will have a limited number of connections so website traffic should be monitored and if it were to reach near full capacity the database should be moved onto a larger dedicated database server The passwords for the system should be changed regularly in order to ensure that the system remains secure Regular backups of the database should be taken to safe guard against data corruption and virus attacks Virtual tourist help centre Providing tourists with essential local information Benefits This section of the site would be a one stop shop for all essential travel information on Vancouver Island Including such items as where the nearest doctors dentists shops chemists wildlife dangers are to property locations etc The information deemed important by each customer could be printed from the web before departure and carried alongside their travel documents Implementation An active sever page template which would be created and populated with information from a database A database entry would be present for each property l
79. t distort the image by using too much compression 25 Distance Charts Benefits Distance charts would help clients to plan journeys day trips and would give them a good idea of the size of the island Implementation A distance time chart could simply be copied from a tourism brochure and inserted onto the website as Vancouver Island Holidays is allowed to use any material from tourism brochures An alternative would be to introduce a scale on the map so that users could calculate their own approximate journey distances This approach has the added advantage of users being able to calculate the distance of any journey on the island and not just those listed in the distance chart Dangers As with all website content care must be taken to ensure that map scales and or data contained in distance charts is as accurate as possible Additional property location information Benefits Full house inventories could be made available to visitors including floor plans and room sizes Implementation Detailed survey of all properties would be required floor plans would either have to be obtained form property owners or drawn by the company Dangers The amount of time required for such a detailed property survey would be very time consuming and so therefore costly House inventories would need to be updated annually to reflect any required amendments 360 degree images Benefits A much better interior display of properties can be achieved by the
80. ted Due to its inflexibility I chose not to use this methodology The Structured Systems Analysis and Design Methodology commonly known as SSADM is a softer methodology directly based on the SDLC It was developed in the UK by consultants Learmonth and Burchett in conjunction with the Central Computing Telecommunications Agency and became in 1983 mandatory in civil service applications The methodology is primarily concerned with good system design and not with later project stages including that of implementation A project is split into the following seven key stages Feasibility Investigation of current environment Business system options Definition of requirements Technical system options Logical design ch en PE Be ee Physical design Good aspects of the methodology include a high emphasis on documentation data modelling and the increasing encouragement of user involvement It is said to be a data driven methodology because of its history and emphasis on data modelling and the database but in its later versions has become more balanced with for example importance attached to the role of users Avison and Fitzgerald 1995 As the methodology is not really concerned with the stages of implementation or testing ofa project I chose not to use it Another system development methodology that concentrates even more on user involvement at all key stages of the project is called Effective Technical and Hum
81. their personal feelings but also by that of what customers had expressed to them via recent telephone conversations and emails after using the existing website Members of staff would also be aware of the most commonly asked questions which could in themselves become a new frequently asked questions section of the site By consulting the members of staff it gave them a feeling of involvement and interest in the project which would aid in the marketing of the site to telephone customers on go live 4 1 Website Content Enrichment Ideas e Increased use of good quality images As identified by the full analysis of Vancouver Island com the quality and frequency of image use on the existing site is poor e Increased use of Maps Many clients did not even know where Vancouver Island was never mind what the names of the major towns of the property locations were e More property location information Many clients who had not been to Vancouver Island before always requested more information in the form of both text and graphics on property locations e Distance Charts Members of staff are constantly contacted to provide approx distances between property locations e 360 degree interior images e Video Clips of Properties e Information on National Parks on Vancouver Island e More external links to information e A German language edition of the website 18 4 2 Website Functionality Enrichment Ideas Enable easy creation amendment de
82. tish Columbia Parks website the B C Parks website would be opened in a new browser window to aid the visitors easy return to Vancouver Island com Dangers A navigation route back to Vancouver island com should be maintained where possible as not to loose website traffic External websites should be searched for possible links to direct competitor websites It should be made clear to the visitors that Vancouver Island Holidays is in way responsible for content or reliability of external websites A German Language edition of the Website Benefits The company could penetrate further in to the German market German visitors would be given the facility to communicate in their native tongue language Implementation The website content would be set to a translation consultancy 27 Dangers The company would have to send all website amendments translated for the German edition of the site producing a time delay for updating the website and high translation costs 28 6 0 Selection of New Website Functionality A meeting was held with Vancouver Island Holidays and all of the ideas where discussed As the list contains a lot of good and beneficial items functionality for the website it was a very hard process in deciding which to implement in the time scale available For each idea the following topics were evaluated e Benefits to the business e Benefits to the website users e Risks Dangers e Time Cost of implementation e On
83. toDraw press the F1 key at any time Saving the image for the website Save the image by selecting save for use in on the file menu Click the following options in the pop up boxes onthe web asa picture fill with background colour white JPG best quality image and save as JPG using a filename of property reference no Id suffixed by a respective letter a b c or d save on a known location on the C drive 2 2 Uploading the image onto the website Now open the folder VIH Web Images which is a link to a folder on the web server The link can be found on the desktop This will require an Internet connection Simply drag the saved image files on the C drive into this folder The images will be automatically uploaded onto the web The images can now be used on the web site editing the required image links with the exact filenames of the desired saved image Vancouver Island com Web Site Admin V 1 0 3 0 The Administration Console http www vancouver island com admin_console htm From the home page of the web site Admin Console web site administrators have the facility to Add New Properties Edit Delete Existing Properties Add New Locations Edit Delete Existing Locations Edit NavBar PB vancouver and Holidoys A D MTN Microsoft nternet explorer EISE EIERE SE 8 eis File Edt View Favorites Tools Help Peak gt Q 2 A Ah Favorites Pda J A7 28 AH Address La http vavw vancourver isl
84. ts giving the visitor an unbiased third party opinion of properties and the level of service offered by the company As the company only lists properties of high standards and offers an excellent service to tenants these comments would aid in encouraging visitors in becoming customers Implementation Comments would be submitted into a small database On the submission of a new guest book entry an email would be generated and sent to the website admin group of the company The email would contain a link to an active server page displaying the submitted information from here the content can either be approved or deleted only approved comments would appear on the website Dangers Care must be taken not to allow damaging comments to appear on the website The approval page should be secure and its password changed regularly e Interactive online what s on calendar for Vancouver Island Benefits This functionality would not only benefit perspective tenenats of Vancouver Island Holidays but also the local communities enabling them to advertise their events for free 22 online This free additional information service would also encourage more visitors to the site on a regular basis to check for new events and to refresh themselves with existing event details Implementation Web forms would be used to submit and amend event information to a Microsoft Access Database via ASP on selecting a property location events page local events would
85. vel links page Figure 2 Vancouver Island com Navigation bar Strengths The navigation bar is very easy to use and always receives good feedback from site visitors giving users direct access to all areas of the site Weaknesses The bar is separately coded in each page of the website creating an enormous amount of work for a simple link update or addition of a new property location Opportunities Updates required to the navigation bar could be greatly reduced by identifying the location of properties using North Island South Island etc allowing properties in locations of close proximity to be grouped together A frame set or active server page with a small database would allow all web pages in the site to use the same instance of the navigation bar resulting in updates to the bar only having to be completed once Threats Visitors to the site are familiar and happy with the navigation bar so large changes to the user interface should be avoided 2 3 Individual Web Page Analysis 2 3 1 Home Page The home page of the site can be accessed from any of the URLs listed below e http www vancouverislandholidays com e http www vancouver island com most commonly used e http www vibh uk com e http www vihski com On this page the user is given brief general information on Vancouver Island and the service the company Vancouver Island Holidays offers its clients The accommodation available is introduced with the websit
86. velopment Methodology Vancouver Island Holidays Company Overview CASE Tools Analysis of Vancouver Island com Overview The Navigation Bar Individual Web Page Analysis Home Page Property Location Summary Page Property Location Pages Individual Property Pages Check Availability Page Map Page Contact Details Page Travel Links Page Search Engine Presence and Meta Data Web Site Usage Visits Hosting Conclusion Competition Analysis Overview Great Spots Ideal Vacation Rentals Tofino Beach Homes Competition Analysis Conclusion eeccccccccccccccece Page Number N nA A WO eR GO N N A A 10 12 12 13 13 13 13 13 EEN 15 15 15 16 16 17 ii 4 0 4 1 4 2 5 0 5 1 5 2 6 0 7 0 7 1 7 1 1 7 1 2 7 1 3 7 2 7 2 1 7 2 2 7 2 3 7 2 4 7 2 5 7 2 6 7 3 7 3 1 7 3 2 74 7 5 8 0 8 1 8 2 8 3 9 0 10 0 Generation of Ideas NN Website Content Enrichment Ideas Website Functionality Enrichment Ideas Evaluation of Ideas NN Functionality Evaluation Content Enrichment Evaluation Selection of New Website Functionality Design and Implementation Requirements Lists E WEB Property Locator Click able Image Map Database Design Data fields for Property Pages Data Fields for Location Pages Data Fields for Click able Image Map Data Fields for Menus Database Tabl
87. w wishes to expand the services offered by its website and the company s exposure on the web 1 3 CASE Tools I would class this project in my experience as rather small scale and so I believe it to be important not to spend too much valuable time analysing CASE tools that could possibly be used during each stage of the project As the time taken installing evaluating and learning how to use the tool efficiently may well not be made up during the stage of the project where it is to be used As there will only be myself working on the project an overall project management tool will not be used apart from the chosen methodology and my own personal management skills as there is no facility for task allocation CASE tools will primarily be used to aid in the implementation stage I have began to evaluate a number of website authoring and web graphic creation tools including e Macromedia Dream Weaver 4 e Microsoft FrontPage 2000 e Macromedia Flash 5 e Macromedia Fire Works 4 e Microsoft PhotoDraw The use of Macromedia Flash would require browsers using older browser versions to download and install a plug in As many users are reluctant to do this I decided not to use any Flash on the website Fireworks and Dream Weaver are very powerful applications however I prefer to write my own ASP and HTML code on doing so I find bug fixing much easier so I have chosen to use the Microsoft FrontPage 2000 the majority of implementation will b
88. website needs to offer more than just vacation rental information A Communicative Website Create a site suggestions box for users to post what additional information they require and so that they may voice any positive or negative feedback about the site A Growing Website To remain at a competitive advantage the website must be constantly evolving A key growth area could be to promote companies that would like to advertise on the website provided they are in keeping with the company s image for example sporting activities such as fishing skiing whale watching sailing hiking mountain biking etc In turn the website would receive more hits from these sites of interest from users that may not just be focused on holiday rentals thus increasing the size of the user base and possible business 80 Appendix E User Manual 81 Vancouver Island com Web Site Administration Manual Version 1 0 Contents Section 1 0 Procedures 2 0 Image Preparation and Upload 2 1 Scanning and preparing a new image of a property or location for upload onto the website 2 2 Uploading the image onto the website 3 0 The Administration Console 4 0 Properties 4 1 Adding Properties 4 2 Editing Properties and Adding a Property Short Description 4 3 Deleting Properties 5 0 Property Locations 5 1 Adding New Property Locations 5 2 Editing Property Locations 5 3 Deleting Property Locations 6 0 Edit NavBar 7 0 What s What 7 1 A
89. x Valley AMEA OEG Enchanting Cortes Island lies off Vancouver Island at I the northern end of the Strait of Georgia at the gateway to Desolation Sound Lagoons with abundant shellfish deep forests and fascinating wildlife warm crystal clear lakes and white sandy beaches offer swimming fishing kayaking biking and hiking or total relaxation Nanaimo is the heartbeat of Vancouver Island serving ERT asthe centre of all attractions and activities on the Perez Island It s only logical to use the city of Nanaimo as a CR ES home base for your Islands explorations The wide variety of attractions beautiful parks make central Vancouver Island an outanding destmation amp Internet Vancouver Island com Web Site Admin V 1 0 7 2 Location Page A vancouver Island Holidays Microsoft internet Explorer MENS Fie Edt View Favorites Tools Help Back Q A A each ajravortes Meda lt 4 G4 JF28R Address a http feusew_vancouver island com Property_Location asp Location Cortes Island eGo Links Totaise G VIH Admin G VIH Old Website VIH New WebSite Unique Location Name Cortes Island Enchanting Cortes Island les off Vancouver Island at Location Long Descr iption the northern end of the Strait of Georgia at the pelz 191 18x LG z bi Lagoons with z and fascinating ing or total relaxation Getting there is part of the fun 10 mm ferry nde from Campbell River to Quadra Is
90. xt input field for image 1 link value from database Text input field for image 2 link value from database Text input field for image 3 link value from database Se eS a E Text input field for image 4 link value from database 56 8 Text input field for username input required 9 Text input field for password password required 10 Add location and reset buttons 11 Delete location link Modification to design None Web page filename location_edit_up asp Requirements Design Specification 1 Check for uniqueness of submitted location name if not unique then throw error 2 Submit new location to database Modification to design None Web page filename location_delete2 asp Requirements Design Specification Deletion verification message to users Input text field for username input required Input password field password required RE UAE Delete location and reset buttons Modification to design None 57 Web page filename location_delete asp Requirements Design Specification 1 Delete location from database 2 Display deletion successful message to user Modification to design None Web page filename menu_edit asp Requirements Design Specification 1 Brief user instructions 2 Drop down selection box for menu position 1 populated with location names from the prop_locations table Value from database 3 Drop down selection box for menu position 2 po

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