Report #2 - Justification and Feasibility1
Habana Co.
Justification and Feasibility
Robert Waters
Dr. Sidbury
09/07/2007
Submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements of
CMPS 490 – Computer Projects
Justification
The Habana Joe Trading Company (public incorporated name) had approached me with the need of redesigning their Habana Co. (public clothing brand label name) website ( and storefront ( in May 2007. The goal was to completely redesign the website from top to bottom, emphasizing the product collection, craftsmanship, lifestyle of the brand, ensuring all clothing was viewable online, among many other tasks.
The problem with the previous Habana Co. website was clear: it lacked polish, function, and most importantly, was outdated. A flash intro movie was present when you first would enter the site address, however, this was widely found inconvenient to the user and detrimental to search engine indexing. Although the owners of the business felt that the flash intro movie was appealing, in reality, it had the complete opposite effect. With the last major update done to their website in 2005, the website had showed its age and had no current material regarding products, press releases, or catalogs. This left a stale impression on visitors’ minds. Finally, the overall design of the website was poor and amateur in nature, resembling something seen in the late 1990’s.
With this in mind, I was tasked with the responsibility of updating the website entirely and bringing the fresh design and a more interactive website to reality. Key elements of the new design would be easy navigation, appealing graphics, emphasis on lifestyle, complete clothing collection online and viewable, and an easy news publishing system to handle media and press releases. At the request of the owners, as much Flash elements as possible would also be integrated into the design process (such as slideshows, product pages, etc.).
Feasibility
The Habana Co. website has essentially been devised into two development phases. Phase I is already complete, and was the base design and functionality that is in place today. However, Phase II is an expansion of functionality and design elements above what is already in place. The major goals of the second design phase is to bring a much more interactive and dynamic experience to the user through the use of Flash and other current “Web 2.0” technologies such as AJAX and JavaScript. Additionally, a custom contact form and authenticated download manager coded through PHP will also be created.
As I am still a relative novice to Flash, the functionality and features that will be implemented throughout this time period (September – December 2007) I see as more than ample for the difficulty level. I will have to spend a good amount of time researching the Flash techniques and methods used to create exactly what the owners and I have envisioned. However, it remains within my capabilities to deliver the functionality as outlined. I do not believe it will be a level of difficulty beyond my means, however it will be challenging.
Additionally, I am new to the web technology AJAX, and so I will also need to spend time researching techniques and coding syntax to properly integrate this technology into the Habana Co. website. Coding PHP (as opposed to working with/installing PHP web software) is also new to me, however I do not forsee it as being beyond my means to accomplish what I have outlined. I do have a basic understanding of the PHP coding principles and have already spent a good amount of time researching and testing basic PHP functions.
Revision Date: 09/07/2007