"Poor usability definitely drives people..."

	Poor usability definitely drives people away.  Life is too short for difficult web sites. Users have been burned enough in the past by bad sites, so most of them have concluded that if a site is too difficult on the first few pages, then it will probably not be worth an extended stay.  So they leave.  Leaving is the one thing that’s  easy on the Web.
	- Jakob Nielson, interview, Database Management, Riccardi, p. 31.

Integrated Web Applications

	The technologies discussed so far are used to develop websites, e.g., the Acme website.
	Issues:
		Design
		Sessions
		Security
		Transactions
		Backups and Recovery

Website Design

	You must determine:
		the information requirements
		the user requirements
	General Guidelines:
		Focus on the content, not the form.
		Design for usability.
		Keep it simple.

Slide 4

Website Navigation

	Websites contain multiple pages.
	ASP.Net provides two mechanisms that transfer control from one form to another:
		Response.Redirect(“aNewURL”)
		Server.Transfer(“aNewForm”)

Website Design

	You must determine:
		the information requirements
		the user requirements
	General Guidelines:
		Focus on the content, not the form.
		Design for usability.
		Keep it simple.

Jakob Nielsen
Designing Web Usability

	Developed discount usability engineering
	Focused much recent effort on website usability
	http://www.useit.com/

User Sessions

	HTTP is a stateless protocol.
		Multiple HTTP requests are treated independently.
		User Sessions must be implemented on                 top of HTTP.
	ASP.Net provides 3 ways to deal with this:
		Cookies
		Session Variables
		Application Variables

Lou Montulli
Cookies

	Introduced in Netscape 1.1 in 1995
	Named after UNIX magic cookies
	Common uses:
		Sharing information among different web pages
		Data collection
	Here’s the preliminary spec:
		http://home.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html

Cookies

	Are small files associated with a specific domain
		< 4K
		Can be temporary                                                               or persistent
		Can be stored on the                                                           client or the server
	Can greatly improve                                        website operation
	Have raised serious                                                privacy concerns

3^rd Party Cookies

Website Security

	Key elements:
		Authentication
		Authorization
		Impersonation
	Some parts of the website allow anonymous access and others require secured access.

Authentication

	Generally involves the use of login IDs and passwords.
	ASP.Net supports three types:
		Windows Authentication
		Forms Authentication
		Passport Authentication

ASP.Net Forms Authentication

	Create a login form that queries a database.
	Tell IIS to use forms authentication using the web.config file.

ASP.Net Forms Authentication (2)

	When the user requests a secure page, ASP.Net redirects control to the login page.
	The login page redirects control to the originally requested page.