Web Design - Developing and Designing the Website - Case Study Example

Table of Contents Site Brief 2 Target Audience 3 Objective 3 Competitive Analysis 3 Site Map 4 Moodboard / StyleTiles 5 Conclusion 7 References 8 Introduction The architecture for the website to be developed is called as Borobudur Temple based in Java, Indonesia. It’s a Buddhist Temple. It has no record of when it was exactly built but an estimate puts it between the dates of 750 to 850. Indonesia today is a Islam majority nation, however in the past it has had a range of shifts of devotions from Animism to Hinduism to Buddhism to Christianity. This relic is one such example of the remnants of the religions that have come and gone. Of the myriad of architectural wonders in Indonesia today, Borobudur is the most widely visited today. The temple itself is built upon 60,000 square metres of stones and it consists of 6 square platform layers that are then topped by three circular platform layer. In total, there are 504 Buddha statues and 2,670 different beautifully carved relief panels with a total of 72 stupas. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site. Site Brief Upon research, I have learnt that Borobudur does not have an official website of its own despite its popularity among the tourists visiting in Indonesia. This gives me a perfect opportunity to develop a site for such a marvellous piece of Architecture that is a remnant of the one of the largest religions of the world. The website would be an exclusive website for this Temple. The website would help visitors in several ways. To begin with, it would provide information about the visitors about the Temple’s timings and exact address. It would also provide an authority’s details to get in touch with learn anything critical about the Temple such as opening hours, exact address, rules or something else. The website would provide the do’s and don’ts for the Temple and would warn visitors what is permitted inside the Temple and what is not. The website would also provide an exact location of the Temple on the Map and would also provide navigation options via several different routes. Lastly, the visitors would also be able to see about the Photos and Videos of the Temple and also view the Temple in full 360-degree view. Apart from this the website would also provide Ticket booking services to both Domestic and International tourists in popular currencies utilizing international payment gateways that virtually covers all currencies. Also, visitors would be able to book Bus and Private cars officially within the website from a pickup point within the city. In this case, the tickets purchased would be delivered electronically both for the transportation or the tickets to the Temple. An official guide can also be booked along with the Ticket at an extra charge. The website would also sponsor partner Hotels, Resorts, BnBs and Villas nearby wherein if the visitors make a booking within the website to these partner hotels they’ll be entitled to a discount and at the same time the Local authority earns a part of the commission from the transaction. Target Audience The main target audience for the website is Tourists who will be visiting the Temple. These tourists can be the ones who are going to be visiting the Temple soon or may have booked in advance and these tourists who are researching and finalizing their itinerary. As such the the Target Audience are the ones who would be visiting the Temple or planning to visit the Temple soon. The temple attracts visits from all parts of the Country and especially from Asia where Buddhism prevails in large numbers. This makes it attractive for people from China. The gender profile is not skewed in one way or other. The Audience belongs to middle to upper middle to high-net worth class. Their occupation is diverse and they belong to all different occupation and working fields. Objective The objective of the visitors are as follows: Learn about the Temple hours and days of operation. Learn about the Temple ticket pricing and availability Booking of Tickets for themselves or someone else. Learn about the rules and regulations by the Temple. Learning about the official contact person. Learning about the exact location and to learn how to reach the Temple from several different ways. Learn more about the Temple, read about its History, Background, Timeline and see its recent Photos and updates about the Temple. Learn more about Temple, read about its History, Background, Timeline and see it’s recent Photos and updates about the Temple for pure research related purposes. Competitive Analysis For competitive analysis, I have included two other famous Buddhist Temples within Asia that share similarity to the one in this case. These two temples are Shwedagon Pagoda in Myanmar and Chion-in in Japan. These are popular and attract millions of visitors over a year. Their website is located at http://www.theshwedagonpagoda.com/ and http://www.chion-in.or.jp/e/ respectively. Analysing the website, one thing that is apparent is that the website was developed in the Pre-Web 2.0 era. This is because it lacks certain web 2.0 features such as two-way interactions, dynamicity and social plugins. Both of these sites are non-responsive meaning they don’t adapt to the user’s device. This is particularly a huge problem because visitors in today’s time tend to check website whatever device they might have in hand. These includes smartphones, tablets, workstations or wide-screen Television interfaces. The interface is not designed according to the Aesthetics that is commonly visible in modern websites such as Flat designs, subtle colours, rich typography and animated buttons and rich shadows. At the same time both of these designs violate several design principles outlined as in Shneiderman’s Golden Rules for Eight Golden Rules of Interface design and Theo Mondel’s Essential of User Interface Design. Site Map Moodboard / StyleTiles Conclusion As presented in the case, the website would be developed for Borobudur Temple in Java, Indonesia. The design would be developed based on the Shneiderman’s Golden Rules for Interface Design and Theo Mondel’s Design Principles. The website developed would provide a plethora of options for the visitors visiting the Temple and helped with their itinerary. References Levi, M., & Conrad, F. (2011). Usability Testing of World Wide Web Sites. BLS.gov. Retrieved 22 December 2014, from http://www.bls.gov/ore/pdf/st960150.pdf Nielsen, J. (1992). FINDING USABILITY PROBLEMS THROUGH HEURISTIC EVALUATION. UTPA.edu. Retrieved 22 December 2014, from http://faculty.utpa.edu/fowler/csci6316/papers/Nielsen_1992_Finding-Usability-Problems-through-Heuristic-Evaluation_CHI.pdf Read More