Web Design, Development And Testing

Many organizations are interested in building web applications for their business but are unaware of the various steps that are needed to build a compelling web application. In this article I will attempt to put together the various pieces of the puzzle. Application development involves several distinct efforts that need to come together to build a compelling end product. A compelling end product is the combination of design, development architecture, development implementation, automated regression and functional testing and performance and load testing.

Design: People often confuse design with development. Moreover even within design, user interface design is often confused with graphics design. Web user interface design involves the design of the flow of the website and the layout of the specific web pages within the website. The web user interface designer concentrates on the usability of the application. The user interface designer will typically develop “wireframes” using tools like Adobe Photoshop to convey the design. These are often initially developed as prototypes and usability testing is carried with user groups out to ensure that the web application will be intuitive and easy to use. Graphics design on the other hand relates to the aesthetics of the page. The graphics designer is responsible for the aesthetic layout of the pages and the creation of the various graphical objects inside the pages such as images and flash objects. The graphics Designer will typically use a combination of tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Captivate to create the actual graphics objects. A designer will need to work closely with other groups to make sure the design process does not compromise the performance of the application by making sure that the graphics objects are small thus ensuring that the various web performance metrics are unaffected.

Development: This involves converting the design into an actual application. The development typically involves an architectural phase where the underlying modules that make up the application are scoped out. If persistent data storage is needed, a database schema should be designed to accommodate the data storage needs. The choice of the operating system (e.g. Windows, Linux or Solaris) where the web application will run, the web server (e.g. Microsoft IIS, Apache or Tomcat) which will run the web application and the back end database (e.g. Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL or Postgres) which stores the data will need to be made. Various development frameworks are available to build web applications. The most common ones are ASP and ASP.NET from Microsoft, Java Servlets and JSP from Sun, PHP and Perl that are open source. The choice of the application framework is typically dictated by the strengths of the members of the development team. The architectural phase is followed by the implementation phase. This is typically the longest part of the project and during this phase the actual code is written using the design specifications and graphics objects developed by the design team. The programming will typically be done using a combination of the application frameworks mentioned earlier together with HTML, JavaScript and CSS style sheets.

Quality Assurance and Testing: A surprising number of people are of the view that quality assurance and testing is desirable but is not actually needed. Unfortunately this view has its roots in total ignorance of the process that is needed to build a good end product. Regardless of how pretty or slick we make the application, if it does not work as expected, users will reject it. Quality assurance and testing involve two different kinds of tasks. Functional and regression testing is used to verify that the developed application is doing what it is supposed to do. This is achieved by test automation using a functional testing tool. Load and Performance testing is used to ensure that the application performs as intended when it is subjected to the typical load of a production environment. Load testing is practically speaking impossible to perform without using an automated load testing tool since it involves the simulation of a large number of concurrent virtual users. This effect cannot really be achieved manually and needs the assistance of an application that is designed to subject the application to a specified load and then measure its performance when it is subjected to that load. Quality Assurance teams will need to track the bugs or defects in the application using bug tracking tools. Such tools will allow defects to be tracked by all members of the team.

The three groups mentioned above tend to be specialized for their skill set. As an example, people often make the mistake of using developers as quality assurance testers. This is not a wise strategy because most developers who are good at writing software are quite poor at finding bugs or defects in their own software.

Writing good and compelling web applications requires an understanding of all phases of the process, design, development and quality assurance. Skipping phases or taking shortcuts will result in low quality software that will generally cost more in the long run.

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November 29, 2009 · Filed Under Website Design

Website Building Tools

If you interested in website building for your home business, here are some great tools you might find useful to learn how to earn online, step by step. These are the tools that I use after checking out a lot of tools in the market. Hope it helps you in some ways:

1. Site Sell University

If you aren’t familiar…CHECK IT OUT! If you are… Congratulations!

Site Sell University will offer you a goldmine of information about “pre-selling” your customers and, in my opinion ( and I don’t endorse too many businesses this strongly), they have the best web hosting service on the planet for new startups, complete with mailing list features, newsletter integration, promotional tools… and much more.

I have to be honest with you. When I first came across Site Sell University, I was very excited to try it. A lot of ordinary people were raving about it. I thought if they can do it, I can do it, too.

My excitement fizzled out after a while. The reason being, I wasn’t very focused with my goal. However, after thinking about it and resolving to Take Action, I saw great results. That’s why I’m very very thankful I found Site Sell University and I’m not ashamed to tell the whole world about it. Check out this video to learn about Site Sell University in just 3 minutes.

2. Maverick Money Makers

If you are a novice at making money online, Maverick Money Makers is one site that you might want to check out to learn step by step methods. I’m a member of this private money making society online and I have learned many things from it. It’s a wonderful tool to use whether you want to start a home business on a low budget, medium budget or a high budget.

What’s great about it is that it has tons of resources like videos, audios, ebooks and many other tools which makes learning so easy. It has quick money blueprints that you can implement and skillset videos that will help you develop your skills as you grow your business. Above all it has mindset coaching which is very vital for your success. Mindset represents 80% of our success and strategies only equal 20% so this is an amazing tool for your business growth and success.

It’s the best one you’ll ever need to create an income online. Yes, this online coaching club will charge you $97, but it has a 60 Day Money Back Guarantee with no questions asked so what have you got to lose? If you try it, you can create an income you have never imagined you can have. I’m an insider so I know. Of course you have to TAKE ACTION for it to work as this is not a get-rich-quick scheme type of club. TAKE ACTION and you’ll see RESULTS!

What you will discover inside the club (among many other things) is the ability to help other highly successful companies in promoting their products and get paid a handsome commission for every single bit of business you help them get.

It’s pretty cool that you don’t even need your own product isn’t it?

You see, companies are rapidly moving toward a new model of marketing, and that model is based on people like YOU to get the word out about their products.

You can do this anywhere in the World. You’re no longer an employee, you can be a partner! When you sign up now, you are becoming a partner of a company working for yourself! You can start building your financial future.

3. The Minisite Formula

Another great product for novices is The Minisite Formula. It is one product that teaches you step by step to build your online business. I’ve checked it out myself and I’ve learned many things from it. It’s a great tool to use whether you want to start a home business on a low budget or a high budget. What’s great about it is that it’s a video course which makes learning easy. This video course was launched in 2009 and has a lot of new information like Web 2.0 that are used these days.

The Minisite Formula is unlike any other course because Joel Peterson is not promising you a site that make thousand of dollars a day, or even $10 a day but only $3 a day.

The system is actually teaching to build a mini-site in half an hour that make you $3 a day consistently. You might think that $3 a day is not a lot but what if you have 100 sites or 1000 sites. It will be $9000 a month if you have 100 sites and $90000 a month if you have 1000 sites.

The main product contains over 5 hours of “Quality” step-by-step video training on EXACTLY how to build a mini site empire. Everything is organized to optimize the user learning experience and keep people excited. Extensive helps and resources are available in the download area. A Top-Notch product that is worth 10x the price.

4. Micro Niche Finder

If you have an online presence, one of the many ways that people will be able to find you is through the search engines. Search engines list you in their sites according to the keywords that you use in your website.

With Micro Niche Finder, you can get the jump on the competition and profit from a goldmine of under-the-radar niche markets.

Uncover Completely Overlooked Niche Markets that are so Profitable You’ll be Absolutely Shocked at How Easily You Found Them. (you’ll find so many profitable niche markets your biggest problem will be deciding which one you want to exploit first!)

Micro Niche Finder is guaranteed to “sniff-out” red hot, low competition, high demand keyword phrases that you can turn into quick profits. Here are just a few of the ways you can use Micro Niche Finder to create New Income Streams:

- Create articles to promote affiliate programs and collect regular commissions.

- Create Adsense content pages that pay you residual ad revenue.

- Create eBay feeder pages and make money when new users register for eBay.

- Create Squidoo Lenses and claim your share of the profits generated by the traffic.

- Create niche market private label rights packages and sell these rights for a quick profit.

- Find Unregistered Domain Names that have Built-In Profit Potential from Type In Traffic.

- Find New Markets that are just Begging for Hot New Info Products that You Can Create and Sell.

5. Fat Cat Blueprint

A great blueprint for anyone, whether novice or expert in making money online. If you want to start a high profit online business, Fat Cat Blueprint is a must read. It's simple, straightforward, and just about anyone can do it. I've personally checked out how his system works, so I know first hand that it can work for others. So check it out right now – grab this opportunity with both hands.

The above are the tools that have been profitable for me in my website building. You can copy this formula or you can make your own. However, remember that you need to FOCUS and be COMMITTED to your end goal. NEVER GIVE UP! Success won’t come overnight but I promise you, if you TAKE ACTION, you will see RESULTS!