Web Site Development Methodologies - High Level Models and Methodologies for Information Systems - page 63

4.3 The Web Site Design Method

The WSDM was first proposed by De Troyer and Leune in 1998. Originally, the

acronym WSDM stood for Web Site Design Method, and only concerned Web sites
providing information. With the evolution of the World Wide Web, WSDM has
developed to encompass not only traditional Web applications but also semantic
Web applications, which lead to it being renamed as Web Semantics Design
Method (Troyer et al. 2008 ).
The Web Site Design Method is primarily a user-centered methodology, placing
the user at the center of the development of the Web site. It focuses on an audience-
driven design philosophy, where the product is design with the audience in mind.
Thus, the developer must take into consideration the different potential target
audiences (visitors and users). Their necessities and preferences must be the starting
point for the design process. This means that the key structure of the Web site is
derived from the preferences of the target audience, resulting in different navigation
paths (named audience tracks) offered from the home page, one for each different
kinds of user/visitor (Troyer et al. 2008 ).
Its ultimate purpose is to break down multiple design problems by offering a
systematic, multiphase approach to Web design. Therefore, each design phase
focuses on one speci

c feature of the Web design cycle, such as requirements and
task analysis, data and functionality modeling, navigation modeling, presentation
modeling and implementation (Plessers et al. 2005 ).
WSDM is a methodology which not only offers modeling primitives, allowing
Web developers to design and develop models that portray the Web site/application
from different perspectives and at different levels of abstraction, but, in addition, it
also proposes a systematic way to develop the Web application (Troyer et al. 2008 ).
Since this methodology is not merely attached to a technology, it does not entail the
design and structure of the data. Its main concern is to identify potential users and
their information necessities (Burner 2002 ). Thus, it can be asserted that the

management of information is at the center of this methodology.
The WSDM comprises

five fundamental stages (Troyer and Leune 1998 ), which
are summarized in Fig. 4.1 . There is a preliminary stage, the mission statement
specification, during which the purpose and goals of the Web site are outlined, as
well as its subject and target users (Plessers et al. 2005 ). The second stage is user
modeling. Here, it is crucial to focus on the potential users of the Web site. This
stage is divided into two phases: user classi cation and user class description,

where the users are identi ed. A user class is a division of the

potential users who are equal in terms of their information requirements. The
second stage is conceptual design, and it is also divided into two steps: object
modeling, where the information requirements of each distinct user classes and their
perspectives are properly described by developing a conceptual object model for
each of the different user classes, and navigational design, where a navigation
model is developed. The navigation model presents a navigation track that com-
municates how users can navigate through the existing information. The third stage

ed and classi