1 Analysis. Understanding the requirements of the audience of the site and the require-
ments of the business, defined by business and marketing strategy (and comments
input from previous prototypes).
2 Design. Specifying different features of the site that will fulfil the requirements of the
users and the business as identified during analysis.
3 Develop. The creation of the web pages and the dynamic content of the web site.
4 Test and review. Structured checks are conducted to ensure that different aspects of the
site meet the original requirements and work correctly.When using the prototyping approach for a web site, a company has to decide whether
to implement the complete version of the web site before making it available to its target
audience (hard launch) or to make available a more limited version of the site (soft
launch). If it is necessary to establish a presence rapidly, the second approach could be
used. This also has the benefit that feedback can be solicited from users and incorpo-
rated into later versions.
Before the analysis, design and creation of the web site, all major projects will have an
initial phase in which the aims and objectives of the web site are reviewed, to assess
whether it is worthwhile investing in the web site, and to decide on the amount toinvest. This is part of the strategic planning process described in Chapters 4 and 5. This
provides a framework for the project that ensures:
(a) there is management and staff commitment to the project;
(b) objectives are clearly defined;
(c) the costs and benefits are reviewed in order that the appropriate amount of invest-
ment in the site occurs;
(d) the project will follow a structured path, with clearly identified responsibilities for
different aspects such as project management, analysis, promotion and maintenance;
(e) the implementation phase will ensure that important aspects of the project such as
testing and promotion are not skimped.Domain name registration
If the project involves a new site rather than an upgrade, it will be necessary to register a
new domain name, more usually referred to as a ‘web address’ or ‘uniform (or universal)
resource locator (URL)’.
Domain names are registered using an ISP or direct with one of the domain name
services, such as:1 InterNIC(www.internic.net). Registration for the .com, .org and .net domains.
2 Nominet(www.nominet.org.uk). Registration for the .co.uk domain. All country-
specific domains such as .fr (France) or .de (Germany) have their own domain regis-
tration authority.
3 Nomination(www.nomination.uk.com). An alternative registration service for the UK,
allowing registration in the (uk.com) pseudo-domain.
The following guidelines should be borne in mind when registering domain names:Initiation of the web site project
Hard launch
A site is launched once
fully complete with full
promotional effort.
Soft launch
A trial version of a site
is launched with limited
publicity.Initiation of the web site project
Initiation of the web
site project
This phase of the
project should involve a
structured review of the
costs and benefits of
developing a web site
(or making a major
revision to an existing
web site). A successful
outcome to initiation
will be a decision to
proceed with the site
development phase,
with an agreed
budget and target
completion date.Domain name
registration
The process of
reserving a unique web
address that can be
used to refer to the
company web site, in
the form of
http://www.<companyname
>.comor
http://www.<companyname
>.co.uk.INMA_C07.QXD 17/5/06 4:23 pm Page 309