DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING MKT 675: MARKETING APPLICATIONS IN eBUSINESS                           Syllabus    Schedule   Library

Personal Web Site Assignment

RATIONALE

The Internet, and more specifically the World Wide Web, have become routine media for firms wishing to establish interactive communication channels, develop deeper relationships with various constituencies and conduct business with partners and customers.  As a result, marketing professionals must develop skills in designing Web sites for both personal and organizational purposes.  In this assignment, you will use MS Front Page 2000 and a variety of readily available tools to develop a personal Web site. You will publish your site to your Web2 student server account, where it will demonstrate your Web authoring skills to visitors.

As you develop and publish pages to your Web site, you should consult the broad range of authoring support sites available to you.  You should also review the list of stylistic standards for sites developed in this course.  Eventually, you may also incorporate several  utilities and/or Java applets into your site as well.  Consult the course Web Authoring Resource Page for information on these resources. You should also visit the Web Authoring Forum in the Course Discussion Boards on a regular basis to learn about the tips/resources discovered by your colleagues and to post information about similar resources which you have found.  In addition to the Morley text, you may access the InfoSource Front Page 2000 Tutorials supplied by Murray State.  Use the USERID  student\learn and the PASSWORD learn  to access these materials.

PERSONAL WEB SITE (Due 1 March, 50 points) 

Part I: Overview of Web Basics
Reading Assignment:  Morley, Chapter 1

Before beginning your Web site design, you should have a basic understanding of the Internet, the World Wide Web and the tools most commonly used to access and post materials to them.  Morley provides a good introduction to these topics in her first chapter, Introduction to the Internet and World Wide Web.  Read or review this material to ensure that you have the background necessary to proceed with Web site development.

Part II: Web Site Design
Reading Assignment:  Morley, Chapter 2

The most important part of the Web site design process is the initial planning phase, in which you determine the target audience for your site, its communication objectives, basic structure and elements.  This planning process is described well in Morley's second chapter, Designing a Web Site. Read this chapter and familiarize yourself with the tools of site design planning.  Review the requirements for your personal Web site in the assignments below and the statement of stylistic standards in the Web Authoring Resource Page.  Following the example and sample forms in the text, produce the following planning documents for your personal Web site;

• Statement of Intended Audience and Objectives
• Tentative Flowchart
• Tentative Page Layouts and
• Design Checklist

Note that this is a written assignment.  These are not Front Page design elements, but rather a set of documents which will guide your site design activities.  You will submit these documents with your site.

Part III: Creating a Basic Web Site
Reading Assignment:  Morley, Chapters 3

You are ready to begin creating your personal Web site with Front Page 2000.  Read Morley's Chapter 3, Creating a Basic Web Site, and use this material to begin the design of your personal Web site.  Using the methods described in this chapter, create a basic Web site which includes the following features.

1. At least four pages (Home, Links, Resume, and Feedback Form) with;

• a common background color
• shared top and bottom borders with a title in the top border and update, copyright and email contact information in the bottom border, and
• on each page, a unique title and formatted text identifying it purpose.

2. On the Home page, 

• a text description of the purpose of the site, 
• at least three links to external sites, 
• an image acquired from a legal source (i.e WebShots), and
• horizontal lines separating the areas of the page.

Review the stylistic standards for portfolio assignments and insure that your page meets the appropriate standards.  Save these pages locally and transfer them to your Web2 student server account. You should do so by creating a Web Folder on your system which will allow you to save directly to your Web2 account.  Follow these procedures to create a Web Folder for your Web2 account.

Part IV: Incorporating Graphic Elements
Reading Assignment:  Morley, Chapter 4

Web graphics and images are valuable tools for establishing a site's identity, stimulating interest in the site and drawing users' attention to important areas of the site.  Morley covers the fundamental concepts of Web graphics in her Chapter 4, Web Page Graphics, in which she identifies the major graphic file formats and their applications in Web design.  She also provides instructions for using Microsoft PhotoDraw to create logos, banners, buttons and other graphic Web elements.  Using these materials and any other sources of graphic Web elements you wish, create the following elements and add them to your site.

1. An identifying logo or banner to replace the title in the top border of your Web site, (If your name will not appear on each page of your site, your logo or banner should include your full name.)
2. A background image to replace the background color of your site,
3. Custom buttons for use in bulleted lists, 
4. An animated gif image, and
5. A horizontal bar which is visually consistent with the other graphic elements of the page.

Save the updated pages and transfer them to your Web2 student server account.

Part V: Advanced Design Elements
Reading Assignment:  Morley, Chapter 5

In Chapter 5, Web Page Enhancements, Morley describes several tools for enhancing the attractiveness and dynamism of Web sites.  She also explains how these elements may be added to Web sites using MS Front Page 2000 procedures.  In this exercise, you will use these tools to refocus your site on a content topic of your choice.  Specifically, you will use these materials to make the following revisions to your site.

• Revise the Home page to identify the content topic you have chosen, why you think it is of importance, how your site organizes information on this topic and the content users will find at each of your major internal links
• Convert the Links page to a small jump station site on your content topic. Use a table to format an annotated list of at least 20 active links to external Web sites, grouped by subtopic identified with headers.  (Use the resources from course Internet exercises to identify links related to your chosen content topic.) The annotation for each link must describe the contents of the linked site and a statement of your assessment of its value.  Add a title and short text paragraph to the page to identify the topics and subtopics of the sites you have selected and to explain their value to users.
• On the Resume page, use a table to format the various categories of information supplied in the resume.  Add a title and short text paragraph to the page to introduce the page and its purpose to users. Make an MS Word version of your resume available for download and printing.
• Add a navigation bar to the top border of each page in the site using the Shared Borders, Navigation Bar and Navigation view of Front Page.

There are several other elements described in this chapter which are NOT required in the assignment.  You may experiment with these tools as you choose, but be careful as some of them produce irreversible changes in your site.  The best approach is to create an new page unrelated to your site and try out some of the design elements there before incorporating them into your site.  The only restriction is that you may NOT use frames in the final version of your site.

Save the updated pages and transfer them to your Web2 server account.

Part VI: Using Forms to Achieve Interactivity
Reading Assignment:  Morley, Chapter 6

One of the keys to stimulating loyalty among Web site visitors is understanding the value your site holds for them.  The best way to gather this information is to include a feedback form within your site.  Morley describes the procedures for creating a Web form in her Chapter 6, Finishing Touches and Publishing a Web Site.  Using this material, add the following to your Web site

• On the Feedback Form page, create a questionnaire form which includes at least 15 questions to be completed by your users.  You should use at least one text box question, one drop down menu question, one check box question, and one radio button question in the form. The questions should relate to the content topic you have selected.  You should include optional name and email fields, 4 demographic questions, 6 perception measurement questions (ratings, Likert scale, semantic differential),  a multi-response question (check box) and an open ended comment box.  NO QUESTION SHOULD INCLUDE A DEFAULT RESPONSE!

• The form should be formatted in a table to minimize the number of screens a user must visit to complete the survey.

• The form's properties should be set to store information in an MS Access database in a format appropriate for statistical analysis using MS Excel or SPSS.  That is, demogrpahic responses should be organized in distinct classifications and perception responses should be in numerical format to facilitate statistical calculations. 

• The page should contain an appropriate title and a short paragraph explaining the purpose of the survey, the use of the resulting data and the privacy policy you will follow relative to the information users provide.

Save the updated pages and transfer them to your Web2 server account.

Your Personal Web Site is now complete.  Be sure to review each portion of the assignment to insure that you have included all the required elements and meet the stylistic standards for all course Web sites.  

Last updated 07 March, 2001 . İFred Miller, 2001
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