Designing Principles for Developing an E-commerce Website: A Case Study of Colossus

This report discusses the evaluation of designing principles for developing an e-commerce website for Colossus, an ecommerce business located in London, UK. It covers the company profile, identification of user requirements, visual design, navigation, and individual responsibility in website development.

UNIT 6 WEBSITE
DEVELOPMENT
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the company’s business..........................................................................................3
Evaluation of the designing principles.........................................................................................5
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Website a collection of the interlinked web pages and consists of the content that are
determined by the common domain which is published on web server. It can be easily managed
by the individual, businesses to use it for various purposes (Krath and von Korflesch, 2021).
Efficiency in this can be measured through its functioning as how well it is performing, website
design must complete its intended functionalities by conveying the specific information while
simultaneously engage the website visitor. Following report will cover the company profile
which is about colossus an ecommerce business, it will highlight the justification for the design
decision and also covers the individual responsibility and self-management in the design an d
development of the website. It also covers the evaluation of designing principles for developing
website with aim to meet the client requirement.
MAIN BODY
Overview of the company’s business
Colossus is the ecommerce Business located in London, UK where the company operates
in a retail market which sells the various different products. They have their own website from
which they sell the product and services and have better interactive layout which is efficient in
providing the better user experience (Qian and et.al 2018). It is important for them to have the
better website that assists in developing the brand awareness and showcasing it to the potential
customer, it also helps in setting business apart from rivalries. Company have 150+ employees
who are working for them. Intended target consumers of the company are under 25-50 age where
65 percent are women and 45 percent men who have interest in buying essential or premium
things for them, company also have medium to premium range products which is suitable for all
standard people.
Link for the colossus website
https://gat20002690.wixsite.com/website-2
Identification of user requirement
For any user they always look for the business solution which gives them prompt
solutions to their problems. They always visit the site where it looks interactive and having a
better website designing feature most importantly they spend their time on website which have
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better navigation and simple user interface so that they can easily traverse the website. For any
website it is essential to have the interactive user interface which helps the audience to engage
with and it should be compatible to all the users whether they are normal or disable people
(Morley and et.al 2021). Other thing which the user look for is to visit the website from using
any web browser and website must need to be supported on any screen resolution and perform
efficiently. There should be better server management who quickly sends response to the user’s
request therefore it is important that website is made concerning with all designing principles
which are consistency, alignment, usability, navigation, clarity etc. Thus Colossus website is
made by concerning all design principles where it has interactive user interface so that anyone
can easily interact with. It has the better use of colours and fonts; background information is also
written in well form that is able to attract the attention of any consumer.
Visual design concentrates on the aesthetic part of the website where it also concerns
with the strategically execution of the images, colours and other elements. For the colossus E
commerce website, the visual design is used is visual hierarchy which stated as to assists the
people on web page so that they easily view the different designing element on the basis of their
importance (Sunyaev, 2020). Reason for selecting this design is that it easily manages the
delivery about experience and also supports in explaining the benefits and sequencing of the web
element along with its composition. Thus with the use of this Colossus website is able to provide
the better customer experience which is essential for their business to enable their visitor to stay

longer on website and proceed to avail the services. Other designing principles which is also
undertaken that are usability, consistency, navigation, alignment as colossus website is made by
concerning all the designing principles which is able to increasing the spending time of user over
the website.
Alternative design options that are scale, balance visual design all have the specific
elements that leads in making the website useful and easy to interact with. As for the scale visual
design which is commonly used for involving the relative size and rank in composition. When
this principle is used then it highlights the essential element in design and to make it in bigger
size so that it can be easily noticed. While in colossus website this designing principle have been
used where the colossus is written in big fonts which is shown in above image so that it can be
easily noticed.
Evaluation of the designing principles
There are different designing principles which is important for the web developer to
concern with. Some web designing principles are as follows:
Website purpose: It is prominent principles which is required for accommodating the
requirement of the client. Concerning with the clear intention over all pages helps the client in
navigating all pages so that they will traverse the whole website and spent their maximum time
over it. for that there should be proper purpose will be included in home page (Albino and et.al
201). Colossus website also have the clear purpose to provide the better and qualitative products
to the consumers.
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Simplicity: Simplicity is the best way to concern with to provide better customer experience also
helps in increasing the usability of the website. It is important that website should be simpler to
use and have the clear information written on it. above image is of Colossus website where the
information is written in simpler manner and have use of white space which is important for any
website.
Colour: Colour in the website have the power for communicating and conveying the messages
directly and also envokes the emotional responses (Shrestha, Krishna and von Krogh, 2021).
Thus for the Colossus website there has been use of different background colours which looks
interactive so that user can easily engage with the website.
Imagery: It covers the images, videos which is provided in the website thus it helps in
describing the brand personality which helps in connecting the users. Colossus website also have
images and videos section about their business which is able to give the better look to website.

Navigation:
Navigation on the website plays an significant role if there is no such navigation then it is
not prefer by the user. Therefore, for the colossus it has used the best navigation features so that
user can engage with it and to easily click on to the next page.
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Above image is about the FAQ which consists of the frequently asked question, thus this
section is present in this website.
It is the chat box which is available for the customer service here user can easily interact with the
company as to asked for some details and to take help for the problem which they are facing.
Thus instant solution will be provided to the customer in order to enhance their user experience.

Above image is about the news where the details of the upcoming events are present so that user
can easily view the upcoming event details.
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This is all about the business forum which is available on the website.

It is the subscription form where the user can easily subscribe to the colossus business and will
get the new product launch, events and other information as a notification so that they will easily
get the services.
Following image is about the team where it shows the name and other details of the colossus
team who are dedicated and professional in their field to provide better opportunities for
colossus.
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This is the job post section where the company updates the job requirement details so that
anyone who are compatible for the job role can applied for the same.
There is a section for the gift card which is available on the website.

Here are the product details where it clearly shows the prices of the product and also shows the
product which is in stock or out of stock, It also include the details like material, cost and the
product which is on sale or not.
As for the responsibility of individual for making the website, it is must that each and
every one within the have the great knowledge about the website development as how it is
developed and to make the decisions for involving the designs (Iqbal, 2019). It is important for
the one to self-manage themselves as to not feel pressure and tension which impacts the overall
project. Thus it is important to have better interpersonal skills, decision making and time
management skills which enables the one to complete the project and make the better and
efficient decision for developing the website. For this particular colossus website developer have
taken the various useful decision to develop the website where the use of visual hierarchy design
is seen as well as it uses the better navigation and other designing principles which explains the
efficiency of the website. Following website of the colossus is responsive and able to redirect
the user to next page promptly, thus it has the better server response and have usability features
which is able to increase the spending time of customer over it.
With the efficient time management skills helps in completing the project on time, as
developer team has decided to divide the work in modules and each have taken the module to
work on based on their knowledge and skills (Arch and Gilman, 2019). Throughout the project
team leader has ensured to flow of better communication so that it increase the efficiency in
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project delivery, where the communication is being done from verbal, nonverbal, written and
visual communication. Thus effective communication helps in delivering each module at its
respective time.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that designing principles about the website plays a
significant role to enhances the usability of the website. Above report have illustrated the
description about the website which is developed for the client whose main stream is e
commerce business. Above have discussed the evaluation of design which is used for developing
the particular website where it highlighted the use of navigation, consistency and visual
hierarchy designing principles. Above have also include the snapshots of the website which is
developed which consists of all the details which is essential for any website.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Albino, A. and et.al 2019. First-principles investigation of spin–phonon coupling in vanadium-
based molecular spin quantum bits. Inorganic chemistry. 58(15). pp.10260-10268.
Arch, X. and Gilman, I., 2019. First principles: Designing services for first-generation students.
Iqbal, S., 2019. Employing action design research for designing course and laboratory to teach
web management in mixed classroom. In Norsk Konferanse om Organisasjoners Bruk av
IT (NOKOBIT), Narvik 26-27 November 2019 (Vol. 27).
Krath, J. and von Korflesch, H., 2021. Designing gamification and persuasive systems: A
systematic literature review. GamiFIN, pp.100-109.
Morley, J. and et.al 2021. From what to how: an initial review of publicly available AI ethics
tools, methods and research to translate principles into practices. In Ethics, Governance,
and Policies in Artificial Intelligence (pp. 153-183). Springer, Cham.
Qian, Y. and et.al 2018. Who needs what: Recommendations for designing effective online
professional development for computer science teachers. Journal of Research on
Technology in Education. 50(2). pp.164-181.
Shrestha, Y.R., Krishna, V. and von Krogh, G., 2021. Augmenting organizational decision-
making with deep learning algorithms: Principles, promises, and challenges. Journal of
Business Research. 123. pp.588-603.
Sunyaev, A., 2020. Internet computing: Principles of Distributed systems and emerging internet-
based technologies. Springer Nature.
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