Sample exam questions (activity 10)

Written by: Jonathan Briggs

December 18, 2008 [6502 views]

As promised, although a few days later than expected, here are some sample exam questions which should help you prepare for the real thing. Each question is worth 25 marks and you should take about 1 hour to answer 3 of them.

I will not be giving you “the answers” but I will be giving feedback on the responses you give in the survey http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB228NAJ4C585. Before you ask again, there are no additional questions that I can give you; these will prepare you well.

Question 1

To answer this question you should study the home page for http://www.dixons.co.uk. You do not need to look at other pages.

Looking at the design, content and functionality of the home page discuss how well or how badly you believe this retailer addresses each of the following:

a. Helping the customer find what they are looking for (5 marks)
b. Reassuring the customer that this is a good place to shop (5 marks)
c. Building a long term relationship with the customer (5 marks)
d. Standing out as an important brand in the marketplace (5 marks)

e. Describe 5 changes you would make to the navigation for the site if you were asked to redesign it. (5 marks)

Notes on answering this question

1. Notice that this question is asking for your opinion but back things up with what you can see on the page
2. Look at the number of marks and use these as a guide to how many ideas to write down
3. Try to explain the reason for every answer you give
4. Try to avoid repeating yourself with the same point for multiple questions
5. Use bullet points to lay out your answers clearly
6. Try to answer like a professional consultant

Question 2

Market Quarter provides French food products to customers throughout the UK. You should know the store quite well by now but in January it will be redesigned to improve the customer journeys.

a. Explain why visitor or customer journeys are often used as a way of designing web sites (5 marks)
b. Describe 5 different types of visitor to the Market Quarter site (5 marks)
c. Briefly develop customer personae for the 3 types of visitor most likely to buy from the site (6 marks)
d. Draw a simple diagram for each persona developed to illustrate their journey through the site (9 marks)

Notes on answering this question

1. Notice that this question asks you to remember the basic features of a site you have studied. You do not need to remember every detail.
2. Look at the number of marks and use these as a guide to how many ideas to write down
3. Use bullet points to lay out your answers clearly
4. You should be able to describe different visitors to the site with different needs; only some of these will be customers
5. Make sure that your diagrams are clear and fairly large. Remember that journeys often start before the site itself.

Question 3

You have been asked to plan a pay-per-click advertising campaign for a bridalwear company that specialises in the British Asian market. The company already has a site with separate landing pages for womenswear and menswear as well as the home page. The purpose of the campaign is to get prospective customers to visit the store in Southall rather than buying online.

a. Describe the factors you will take into account in designing your campaign to run on Google’s search result pages (5 marks)
b. List 10 key phrases that you would choose for your campaign (5 marks)
c. Discuss techniques you could use to measure the effectiveness of your campaign (10 marks)
d. Discuss strategies you would use once the campaign is running to improve the click through and conversion rates (5 marks)

Notes on answering this question

1. Read this type of question carefully to be sure you understand what is being asked; notice that this client has special needs because they do not have an online shop
2. Use bullet points with explanations as before
3. Parts c. and d. look very similar; make sure that you recognise that they are asking different questions

Question 4

Your uncle restores and sells antique china dolls (collected by your aunt) and now wants to start selling online. He has set aside a budget of £500 for building the site and has asked for your help.

a. Outline the pros and cons of a hosted ecommerce service such as Shopify for this project versus building it from scratch in PHP/MySQL (10 marks)
b. Set out a simple budget for your uncle showing how his £500 could achieve a basic online store (5 marks)
c. What advice would you give him regarding the running costs for such a store over the first 12 months (5 marks)
d. Discuss whether you think this would make a suitable ecommerce business (5 marks)

Notes on answering this question

1. Tables are a good way of setting out both budgets and pros and cons
2. For this type of question a simple headline budget indicating costs for design, implementation (customisation of templates), setting up of site, stock & payment, testing would be sufficient
3. Parts c. and d. require your opinions backed up by explanation.

PLEASE NOTE

Here is the link to the survey http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB228NAJ4C585 You are NOT be expected to type your answers into the survey.

The deadline for this activity is Tuesday 13th January.

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