Case Study (100 points)
The manager of Cougar Inn contacts your instructor to see if there are any students who can build a website for them as a course project. She does not have any budget for the project. But she is willing to answer any questions you have and will allow you to take any pictures on their property. She also plans to hire you as a part time webmaster if your site is accepted.
The manager does not know much about computer technology, but she is an experienced owner and manager. She did visit numerous hotel websites before talking to your instructor. As a result, she has a long list of requirements while still leave plenty of room for you to design and build the site.
The list of requirements:
Content
The manager wants the following content on their website, one for each page.
About Us (5 points)
The hotel is located two blocks across the street from Columbia College. It is near the downtown shopping area and close to many good restaurants. It has 120 units of different kinds of room. They are good for occasions of family reunions, weddings, and small conferences. Many of their visitors are alumni of Columbia College and Cougar fans who came to see the games.
Cougar Inn is very nice and affable. All rooms are elegantly arranged with Victorian antiques, custom crafted wall coverings, and beautiful paintings. Free local calls and free broadband wireless Internet in every room. Two swimming pools and three laundry rooms are in the facility. Parking is free for customers
.
A generous hot breakfast buffet is served from 7am to 9am weekday and 7am to 10am weekend. Cougar Inn has a special kid’s pool, a children’s playground, and many activities during the holidays. It also has a fully equipped gym with a capacity of holding 40 people.
Conferences for up to 300 participants can be held in the hotel. Larger conferences are possible with prior arrangement with Columbia College.
Columbia College (5 points)
The hotel has a long history of relationship with Columbia College. That’s how the hotel got its name. In fact, many of their customers are parents of Columbia College who visit their children on campus, or alumni of the college. They have been a strong sponsor of
Cougar Team since it was founded in 1996. They don’t just want a hyperlink to Columbia College’s website. They want a page on their own site that actually says something about the College and Cougar athletics. Write about 200 words on the college and a table page shows the coming Cougar games.
Around Columbia (5 points)
The manager also wants a page about the city of Columbia on their site. Please do a search and write about 200 words about the city. Allow users to click on nearby attractions to visit those websites.
Reservation (30 points)
They want a page that allows customers to reserve rooms and receive an automatically generated confirmation number. The reservation system should allow the customer to delete a reservation if he or she has the confirmation number. The system should also allow the customer to modify an existing reservation with confirmation number.
Customers cannot change their names when they change a reservation.
Managers should be able to see all the reservations with a click of a button. They would like to include the following information in the reservation: Customer Name, Contact
Info, Check In date, Check Out date, Room Type (Standard Non-smoking, Double Nonsmoking, Standard Smoking, Double Smoking), and Confirmation Number.
Special Rates (5 points)
The manager would like to announce special rate from time to time. Please design a sample page that shows the price, validation dates, and other fine print. The page should be easy to modify with a manager who don’t know anything about HTML.
Feedback (15 points)
The manager believes that customers are always right. They welcome any kind of feedback. Please design a page that accommodates this with php and a plain text file. The form should allow customer to submit a feedback or see other customers’ feedback. The manager wants to have an administrator’s account for the forum so that she can modify or even delete a customer’s feedback. She says this is necessary as you don’t know who actually writes the feedback.
Directions (5 points)
The manager heard that the Internet provides free direction maps they can use. Please pick a good one for them.
Contact Us (5 points)
Cougar Inn provides the following contacts information
Cougar Inn
1001 Rogers Street
Columbia, MO 65216
Manager
Phone: (573) 111-1111
Toll Free: (888) 111-1111
Email:
Reservation:
Toll Free:
(888) 111-1112
Local (573) 111-1112
Email:
Fax: (888) 111-1113
Webmaster:
Add student cougar email address here.
Accessibility (5 points)
All pages should work at least on a current version of Internet Explorer and Firefox. Make language clear and simple. All images should be accompanied by words and “alt” parameter. Choose color carefully for text and background. You should not require users for special plug in to see certain pages.
Page Layout (5 points)
No horizontal scrolling bar
Use left alignment for ordinary text.
No wasted space on any page (except the left/right margin of all pages).
Easy to read (ask a friend if he or she can read your web page quickly)
Easy to navigate
Images are required on almost all pages.
Use HTML5 properly (5 points)
All tags should be closed.
Use HTML5 form validation whenever possible.
Use CSS properly (5 points)
An external css file is required for all pages to have a consistent look.
Use JavaScript properly (5 points)
The following two are suggested but not required, you can use JavaScript for something else:
Use JavaScript for rollover buttons in the navigation menu
Use JavaScript for input validation of the forms.
Use PHP properly (included with Reservation and Feedback)
At least the reservation page should be processed by a PHP file
Use mysql properly
Use mysql for reservation database.