The WebApp Design - Attributes, Goals and Web Design Pyramid

Design is an engineering activity that leads to a high quality product. The major attributes of quality for web applications are:
- Security : The main emphasis of security is the ability of the web application and its environment to avoid unauthorized access or attack.
- Availability : Web application will not meet users needs if its unavailable. Availability is the measure of the percentage of time that a web application is available for use.
- Scalability : Is the variation in volume handled significantly by the web applications and the system. It is important to build a web application that can accommodate the burden of success.
- Time to market : It is a measure of quality from business point of view.

What should be considered when assessing content quality?
- Scope and depth of content be easily determined so that it meets user's needs?
- Background and authority of content's author be easily identified?
- Possibility of determining the currency of content, last update?
- Stability of content and location?
- Credibility of content?
- Uniqueness of content?
- Is content well organized?
- Is content valuable?

Design Goals

The design goals for every web application are:
- Simplicity
- Consistency
- Identity
- Robustness
- Navigability
- Visual appeal
- Compatibility

Web Design Pyramid

Each level of the pyramid represents the design activities:
- Interface Design : It describes structure and organization of the user interface. It includes screen layout, interaction modes, navigation mechanisms.
- Aesthetic Design : It describes the look and feel of the application.
- Content Design : It defines layout, structure and outline of all content.
- Navigation Design : It describes the navigational flow for web application.
- Architectural Design : It represents the overall hypermedia structure.
- Component Design : It develops detailed processing logic.