Web Technology - Lab Manual Week 3

1. HTTP is a so-called stateless protocol. Explain what this means. Name at least one advantage and disadvantage of the fact that HTTP is stateless.
2. One of the first applications of HTTP cookies was to add "shopping basket" functionality to the web sites of online shops. Explain why such sites are hard to build without cookies, and how cookies are used to implement electronic "shopping baskets". (max 100 words)
3. Briefly discuss the key (non-technical) drawback of cookies.
4. What is the difference between a Java applet and a Java servlet? Give a typical applet and a typical servlet example.
5. What is an HTTP proxy? What is an caching proxy? How do such proxies influence web analytics (web log analysis)?
6. Acquaint yourself with principles of color contrast, e.g. through the Color Contrast Check. Test three color combinations and write a short report of the results and how these should be interpreted.
7. Read some information about color blindness, e.g.in Wikipedia. Try the ViSCheck simulator with two colorful Web pages to check how these would appear to color-blind people. Report on the results.
8. The Lynx browser is a text-only browser. This browser is a helpful tool to check certain accessibility issues. Use the Lynx simulator to display http://www.vu.nl and www.cs.vu.nl and report about the results. Note: if you prefer to check two other sites, that's fine.
9. Find out what steganography is and how it differs from cryptography
10. Find out what OpenID is about. Describe briefly its rationale.
11. Choose an existing website and imagine that you are designing an A/B test to evaluate changes to that website. Information on A/B tests can be found at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20050815.html. Discuss the two versions of the site you would want to test, which part of the site you would vary, and how you would measure performance of each version.
12. Choose an existing web site and build a mini-survey that could appear as a popup on that web site. Explain (briefly) the purpose of your survey, and why you choose to use open questions, yes/no questions and/or questions on a scale (e.g the Likert scale). The html of the survey should work, but obviously it does not need to work on the web site you chose. Include a link to that web site instead.
13. Jakob Nielsen publishes a bi-weekly column on usability. Choose one of his columns from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/, give a short summary of the column (in your own words), and give an example of a web site that clearly does or does not implement the guidelines in the column. Pick your own example, the site should not be mentioned in the column.
14. Read source "Funda gooit site helemaal open". Discuss the economic pros and cons of open access to product information. Give also your own opinion.
15. Read source "Re: wat heb jij op je brood?" Discuss the social effects of electronic communication on work relations. Give your own opinion on the email-free Friday.

Source: "Funda gooit site helemaal open"

Source: "Re: wat heb jij op je brood?"