Assignment brief

Case study

You work as a full-stack web developer for a leading creative web solutions and marketing company.

Task 1    P1   P2   M1  M2  Part D1

As part of your role, you have been asked to create a variety of engaging training materials to help train junior staff members on the tools and techniques associated with front- and back-end development together with the technologies and services required to set up, host and manage a typical commercial website.

P1 Identify the purpose and types of DNS, including explanations on how domain names are organised and managed.

1. Create a presentation that clearly explains the structure of domain names, how they are organised and managed.
2. In the same presentation, discuss different types of DNS, how they work and why they are needed.

P2 Explain the purpose and relationships between communication protocols, server hardware, operating systems and web server software with regards to designing, publishing and accessing a website.

1. Produce a training guidebook with a section that explains the function and relationships between the following components of the World Wide Web and how they work together in regard to the design, publishing and access of a website.
   • Communication protocols
   • Server hardware
   • Operating systems
   • Web server software

M1 Evaluate the impact of common web development technologies and frameworks with regards to website design, functionality and management.

The World Wide Web is always evolving as technology improves. There are a number of different web technologies and frameworks in use today and these are constantly changing with newer and improved versions being introduced. Some are better than others and they are not always suitable for every type of task.

Add a section to your training guidebook describing and evaluating how different web development technologies and frameworks impact website design, functionality and management. You should give a detailed evaluation since developers need this information in order to choose the most appropriate technological tool for any development work. (M1)

D1 Justify the tools and techniques chosen to realise a custom built website.

1. Using two websites of your choice, give an overview of the tools and techniques used on those sites and justify why they were the most appropriate tools and techniques. (D1)

M2 Review the influence of search engines on website performance and provide evidence-based support for improving a site’s index value and rank through search engine optimisation.

It takes some effort for any website to get noticed amidst many others on the Internet. Knowledge of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is important for any web developer.

1. Review how search engines influence website performance. You should include in your discussion different search engines and also include those that offer specialist services. How can you increase a site’s rank by using SEO? Provide the research evidence to support your claims. (M2)

Task 2            P3   P4   Part D1

P3 Discuss the capabilities and relationships between front-end and back-end website technologies and explain how these relate to presentation and application layers.

Websites can be divided into two distinct parts – the front-end and the back-end. A professional web developer needs to be able to develop for both.

1. In the training guidebook, explain what front-end and back-end means in website development. What are the front-end and back-end technologies currently being used and what are their capabilities? Furthermore, explain how they relate to presentation and application layers. (P3)

   D1 Justify the tools and techniques chosen to realise a custom built website.

2. Different websites have different requirements. Use two examples of real websites to explain in the training guidebook, the most appropriate front-end and back-end tools for each website with justification for the chosen tools and techniques. (D1)

P4 Discuss the differences between online website creation tools and custom built sites with regards to design flexibility, performance, functionality, User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI).

1. Choose two online website creation tools and discuss the differences between them with regard to the flexibility they offer in designing websites and how easy they are to use.
2. Using two sufficiently different websites of your choice, discuss their differences with respect to performance and the User Experience (UX) they offer. Also write about the differences between the ways their User Interfaces work.

Interim submission of Tasks 1 & 2  – WC 9^th April 2018

Task 3    P5   P6   M4  D2

P5 Create a design document for a branded, multipage website supported with medium fidelity wireframes and a full set of client and user requirements.

You have been given a job to create a website for a high-end furniture company called Casa Mia. The website will promote their top range furniture using high quality images of the available furniture items. The images will be provided for you to use. Each web page should have a similar layout but different colour scheme. There should be a page for a user to request a brochure for furniture ranges. There are six different furniture ranges.  This page should take the visitors contact details and offer options to be contacted with promotional offers. There should be a gallery page with slide shows of different furniture. The same page will have thumbnails that will show the larger picture when a mouse hovers over it. Another page will have a map showing the location of the company.  The website domain name will be www.CasaMia .com.

1. Produce the user requirements
2. Produce the client requirements
3. Produce medium fidelity wireframes for the web pages
4. Produce a navigation map
5. Folder structure design
6. The scheme for implementing the formatting
7. The scheme for use of scripting
8. You may want to create a quality assurance plan that you will carry out during the design and development phases

P6 Use your design document with appropriate principles, standards and guidelines to produce a branded, multipage website supported with realistic content

1. Build the website based on your design using current standards, incorporating features to enable accessibility. Provide clear, annotated screenshots of your completed website as well as code. (P6)
2. You may want to use the quality assurance plan you previously created. In which case document the process.

M4 Compare and contrast the multipage website created to the design document

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1. Write a comparison and contrast of your completed website against your design. Does the completed website match the design? (M4)

D2 Critically evaluate the design and development process against your design document and analyse any technical challenges.

1. Critically evaluate your design and the development process you carried out against your original design. Also analyse the technical challenges you faced throughout the design and development phases of this project. (D2)

Task 4    P7   M5  D3

P7 Create a suitable Test Plan identifying key performance areas and use it to review the functionality and performance of your website.

1. Create a detailed Test Plan to test the completed website. The Test Plan will cover key performance areas of your website. Write a review of the functionality and performance of your website. (P7)

M5 Evaluate the Quality Assurance (QA) process and review how it was implemented during your design and development stages.

1. Evaluate the quality assurance process you carried out during the design and development phases. (M5)

D3 Critically evaluate the results of your Test Plan and include a review of the overall success of your multipage website; use this evaluation to explain any areas of success and provide justified recommendations for areas that require improvement

1. Having completed a thorough test of the finished website, you must now critically evaluate the results of the testing. Review the overall success of the website against the original requirements and recommend areas for improvement with justification. (D3)