Web design: a key factor for the website success

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1328-7265.htm JSIT 11,2 Web design: a key factor for the website success Carlos Flavian, Raquel Gurrea and Carlos Orús 168 Faculty of Economics and Business Studies, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain Abstract Purpose – Web design has been identified as a key factor for the acceptance and success of the websites and electronic commerce. The purpose of this paper is to analyse, from a marketing point of view the main aspects that could influence online users’ perceptions and behaviours, in order to achieve a successful e-commerce website. Design/methodology/approach – An extensive literature review was developed emphasising the special role that web design could play in the interaction user-interface. Besides, the methodology related to benchmarking allows firms to know the best practices and to learn some key lessons for developing their businesses online. Findings – The literature review affirms that web design is a key factor for getting positive outcomes as it influences on users and online consumers’ perceptions and behaviours. A website design addressed to simplicity and freedom of navigation provides clear, timely and accurate information in all its contents and an appearance that calls for the users’ attention. Research limitations/implications – The paper offers a Decalogue of guidelines that could improve the design of the e-commerce websites regarding the aesthetic appearance of the website, the navigation through the site, the information and contents and the characteristics of the shopping process. It could be interesting to analyse empirically the impact of all key attributes on the users’ perceptions and behaviours. Originality/value – This is one of the first studies which explains how a website must be designed from the demand’s perspective. The analysis of the users’ perceptions and the marketing view of design could help designers to find the website that best matches their users’ needs and so, to improve the relationships between users and companies through their interfaces. Keywords User studies, Internet, Electronic commerce, Worldwide web, Design Paper type General review Journal of Systems and Information Technology Vol. 11 No. 2, 2009 pp. 168-184 # Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1328-7265 DOI 10.1108/13287260910955129 1. Introduction In the last years, the internet is being developed with a great growth as a new commercial channel. In a market with a target of more than 1,400 million people (Internet World Stats, 2008) and more than 70 thousand million dot-com websites in the world (Domain tools, 2008), the opportunities of trading are almost infinite. Thus, a great increase of competence is occurring, and firms are questioning what they must do in order to get the best results. The starting point of the answer could be by understanding what users want. For this reason, there has been arising a great body of research focused on the factors that affect the success of an e-commerce website from the users’ perspective (e.g. Jarvenpaa and Todd, 1997; Torkzadeh and Dhillon, 2002). In this line, many studies have identified the web design as a key factor for the development of a good interface to satisfy consumer needs. A good design is relevant for companies to survive in the extremely competitive World Wide Web (e.g. Ranganathan and Ganapathy, 2002; Liang and Lai, 2002; Tan and Wei, 2006). This research is focused on the main analysis of the perspectives within the marketing discipline. These research lines are motivated by the consecution of successful interfaces which generate positive responses on users (Van der Heijden and Verhagen, 2003; Zviran et al., 2006). Thus, the web design is important in order to obtain high levels of satisfaction with the website (Kim and Eom, 2002) or to increase the online purchase intention of the consumer (Swaminathan et al., 1999). In spite of the importance that web design has for the development of successful virtual stores, it seems remarkable the relative lack of consensus in the literature about how the factors that compose the design of the website have to be managed. In this way, we aim at finding answer to the following research questions: RQ1: What are the main factors that affect the success of the e-commerce websites from a consumers’ point of view? What is the role played by web design? RQ2: Which are the main features of good web design practices carried out by successful virtual stores? More concretely, the goal of this research is to argue the relevance of the website design for the success of the electronic commerce and to propose the main managerial guidelines with the aim of suggesting adequate structures and designs for the websites. Taking these objectives as a reference, in the two following sections we point out a literature review regarding the key factors of a successful website, analysing especially the relevance of the website design. The next epigraph develops the key guidelines for the success of the online businesses and finally, this study presents the discussion and conclusions related to this interesting topic. 2. Factors affecting the success of e-commerce website In the last years, a great amount of researchers have made efforts in order to establish which factors may lead to the success of a website. In this sense, the marketing literature has stressed the users’ point of view to define how an e-commerce website must be for being successful. In general terms, and in the context of electronic commerce, a successful website ‘‘is one that attracts customers, makes them feel the site is trustworthy, dependable, and reliable and generates customer satisfaction’’ (Liu and Arnett, 2000, p. 24). Following this concept, some authors have emphasised the consumers’ beliefs and perceptions of the value created by the characteristics of the websites (Keeney, 1999; Torkzadeh and Dhillon, 2002); some others have pointed out the main features of websites’ quality from a consumer’s view (Aladwani and Palvia, 2002; Van der Heijden and Verhagen, 2003). Besides, several research lines have been developed with the aim of remarking those determinant factors and emphasising the importance of achieving the online customer satisfaction (e.g. Zviran et al., 2006) and the impact on his purchase intention (Ranganathan and Ganapathy, 2002). In this way, we could point out the research developed by Jarvenpaa and Tood (1997), who examined online consumers’ perceptions to identify the aspects that could influence their attitudes and intentions to buy on the internet. These authors affirmed that the aspects related to the perceptions about the products, the shopping experience (e.g. required effort, convenience), the services (e.g. adequate information and attractive appearance) and the perceived risk (e.g. pay, possible dissatisfaction), affect significantly the consumers’ attitudes and intentions to buy. We could also mention the research carried out by Huizingh (2000), who focused on the content and design in order to develop an instrument to analyse the success of the websites. This study captured objective measures as well as consumer perceptions related to the commercial and non-commercial information, transaction information, navigation structure, search functions or perceptions about the quality of the structure, image and presentation style of the websites. The results revealed Web design 169 JSIT 11,2 170 the great importance of considering user perceptions for the analysis of the websites. Nevertheless, according to the author, the success also depends on external variables, such as the source, the type of industry and the size of the website. Moreover, Liu and Arnett (2000) based their studies on the key factors of the website success in order to enhance the levels of customer satisfaction. With this purpose, the authors identified the determinants of a successful e-commerce website related to the information provided by it, the familiarity with it, the emotions that it generates, and the quality of its service and system. Using a group of experts’ evaluation, they concluded that the success of an electronic commerce website depends mainly on the ease of use of the system, the quality of the information and the service, the quality of the design of the website and the feelings of hedonic pleasure provided. Besides, Ranganathan and Ganapathy (2002) analysed the key characteristics of the electronic commerce websites in order to enhance the purchase intentions of the online consumer. The results revealed that the aspects associated to the security are the most outstanding in getting positive online purchase intention, as well as the privacy of personal information, the quality of the visual design and the importance of offering a good information and navigation. Consequently, it is possible to note the relevance of presenting high quality information, good contents and an efficient and attractive navigation. These aspects have been identified by Alba et al. (1997) and Geyskens et al. (1999) as the most important advantages of the online activity. Moreover, it seems remarkable that the majority of the studies emphasise the importance of the website design in order to get optimal results in the virtual channel. 3. The relevance of web design for the e-commerce The design of websites has been widely studied from multiple points of view, most of them have identified the factors that could determine the degree of acceptation of the websites (e.g. Hoque and Lohse, 1999; Childers et al., 2001; Liang and Lai, 2002; Kim and Stoel, 2004; Wilde et al., 2004; Görn et al., 2004). According to Cato (2001, p. 3), designing is ‘‘the process of creating an artefact with structure of form which is planned, artistic, coherent, purposeful, and useful’’. From a consumer perspective, a website must be designed with all these features in order to arouse the affective states of the users and to enhance their online visits or purchase intentions. As the internet and the electronic commerce are evolving, different points of view are arising to determine which could be the key factors of website design. In this sense, usability studies what elements must have a website so that the consumer can manage it easily. Nielsen (1994) defines the usability of a website as the ease with which the user can learn to manage the system and memorise the basic functions, the efficiency of design of the site, the degree of error avoidance and the general satisfaction of the user. More specifically, the usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use, and we can identify five dimensions or quality attributes: learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors and satisfaction (Nielsen, 2003). Following this line, the usability can also be understood as a tool for measuring the quality of a website (Ranganathan and Ganapathy, 2002). Thus, the ease of use of a system could improve a more complex learning and a higher ability to anticipate how that system will perform. Specifically, usability improves the best understanding of the contents and tasks that the consumer has to know for the achievement of a goal (e.g. to place an order). This reduces the probability of error and improves the levels of trust (Muir and Moray, 1996). Besides, usability is related to the consumer ability to identify where he or she is and what he or she can do in every moment of the navigation. With reference to the design factors of a website, a good design must provide not only beauty and appeal, but also high levels of usability, since it influences the affective states of the user (Desmet and Hekkert, 2007). Thus, a well-designed website should ensure a high level of usability (Cristóbal, 2006). An attractive design can evoke feelings of pleasure in the use of a website (Flavián and Gurrea, 2008). As a consequence, an adequate degree of usability, related to a comfortable atmosphere, could create a positive bias in the consumer. In fact, a good level of perceived usability could lead to higher levels of satisfaction, trust and loyalty towards a specific website (Flavián et al., 2006; Kim and Eom, 2002; Chen et al., 1999). Regarding commercial transactions, users may infer a higher quality of a product from its beauty which in turn implies higher levels of usability (Desmet and Hekkert, 2007). So, we could note herein that usability and web design are highly correlated. Table I shows some of the main studies that point out the existence of a clear relationship between the concepts of usability and web design. With this regard, we could stress the study carried out by Keeker (1997) who proposed several guidelines in order to improve the ease of use of the website and to encourage people to enjoy and become engaged in an experience. The author based his assumptions on a well-known group of online firms to identify the key aspects and to offer some recommendations related to the content of the websites (such as the information, the use of media – animation, sound, graphics), the ease of use (provide goals to users, navigation, feedback), the promotion of the content (i.e. location, frequency of updates), the specific content related for the media (i.e. community, customization) and the affective response of the consumer. In a similar way, Palmer (2002) proposed and validated measures of websites’ usability and design, identifying aspects related to the response time (download delay), the organization of the contents (navigation), and the information and contents of the website (content). The research also established that the characteristics of the media richness, such as the capability of the website for customizing the appearance and the contents (interactivity), and the presence of feedback between the vendor and the consumer, were determinants of the success of a website. In this line, the marketing literature has studied how the factors that define the store environment influence the consumer’s mood and purchase behaviour (Baker, 1986; Donovan et al., 1994; Spies et al., 1997; Turley and Milliman, 2000). Design factors related to visual cues (e.g. layout, colour) are important to get a positive response from the consumer and to facilitate consumer goals (Eroglu et al., 2001). This issue has been taken to the web environment and has been adapted to e-commerce. Dailey (2004) defines web atmospherics as the intended design of web environments to generate positive effects (cognitive and affective) on the consumer in order to increase positively the consumer responses. Among these responses, it is possible to note the higher level of visits or the longer time browsing in the website, in order to turn the user of a website into a client. In this sense, Van der Heijden and Verhagen (2003) examined the image elements in a virtual store that could increase the purchase intentions in the user, identifying the factors of design as the most important. We can also take into account the study carried out by Kim and Stoel (2004), who demonstrated that the factors of web appearance can lead to higher consumer satisfaction (see Table II). The development of a good website design turns into a key question, since it will determine the entry of the consumer to the store (Melián and Padrón, 2006). Web design 171 JSIT 11,2 172 Table I. Web design and usability Author(s) Factors Aims Methodology Results Keeker (1997) Content quality Ease of use Promoting content Made for the medium content Emotional response Content Navigation Interactivity Analyse of usability and marketing research on the Microsoft Network (MSN) Cases study Guidelines for the designers in order to improve: usability and appeal Evaluate the e-commerce website usability Protocol analysis (experiential evaluation) Content Ease of use Promotion Specific content Emotion Download delay Navigation Content Interactivity Responsiveness Title format Title position Menu size Clipart size Background colour brightness Colour harmonization Usability User-based design: content navigation search and performance Develop an instrument for measuring the usability of a website (design as a key tool, based on Keeker, 1997) Heuristic evaluation: group of experts and questionnaires to users Problems related to website content, navigation and interactivity Importance of offering an efficient navigation in order to achieve the user pleasure Better usability does not imply preference for a website, but it results in a more successful interaction and may help the user to make a purchase The salience of usability characteristics depends on the user task and industry In general terms, the content characteristics are the most important Develop and validate website usability, design and performance metrics Longitudinal study of corporate websites: jury (users role), third-party ratings and software experts Cross-cultural (Japan, China, UK) Self-reported questionnaires Benbunan (2001) Agarwal and Venkatesh (2002) Palmer (2002) Hu et al. (2004) Zviran et al. (2006) Source: Own research (2008) Examine the relationship between the audience impressions and the visual style of a website Identify cultural differences on website perceptions Investigate the effects of usability and user-based design on the user satisfaction Online survey Perceptual maps High correlation between web design, usability and media richness for the success of a website Website success measures: usability: download delay, content, navigation Media richness: interactivity and responsiveness Causal relationship between website usability and visual design perceptions Significant differences in subjects’ perceptions depending on the country and the characteristics of the user Trade-off between different design combinations to create an optimal visual design Differences in the effectiveness of the variables depending on the task and the type of purchase Highest satisfaction for online Shopping and customer self-service websites Author(s) Factors Aims Eroglu et al. (2001) Atmospheric elements of the online store Analyse the influence of the atmospheric cues on the cognitive and affective status of the user Liang and Lai (2002) Motivation factors Hygiene factors Media richness factors Van der Heijden and Verhagen (2003) Usefulness Enjoyment Ease of use Store style Familiarity Trustworthiness Settlement performance Web appearance Entertainment Information fit-to-task Transaction capability Response time Trust Kim and Stoel (2004) Methodology Results The online retail store’s environment is divided Development of a theoretical model based on into two categories: high task-relevant information and low task-relevant information the S-O-R paradigm (stimulus) (stimulus, organism, Theoretical and practical review from the response) perspective of atmospherics Best considered elements for purchasing Examine the effect of the Experiment through the internet: security, search engines, ANOVA quality design of the easy to sign up, home delivery and product Experts and consumers online store on the organization purchase decision Consumers are more likely to visit and purchase at well-designed stores Method of development of The attitude towards purchasing online can be Develop a scale for explained by four dimensions: trustworthiness, measuring the quality of scales proposed by settlement performance, usefulness and Churchill (1979) the online store image Experiment with students enjoyment Ease of use, store style and familiarity had no significant effects Determine the dimensionality of the website quality (1) Identifying which dimensions were significant predictors of the consumer satisfaction (2) Questionnaire to female online shoppers Principal component analysis (1) Structural equation model (2) Multidimensionality of the website quality Information fit-to-task, transaction capability and response time are significant predictors of the consumer satisfaction (continued) Web design 173 Table II. Web design and elements of establishment atmosphere Factors Aims Richard (2005) Navigational characteristics structure effectiveness of information content informativeness organization Entertainment Presentation technique Supplementary presentation Aesthetics of presentation Display structure and the layout ‘‘Classical’’ aspects ‘‘expressive’’ aspects Structural equation model Explore the surfer behaviour and the user purchase intention (based on Eroglu et al., 2001) Khakimdjanova and Park (2005) Tractinsky and Lowengart (2007) Source: Own research (2008) Methodology JSIT 11,2 174 Table II. Author(s) Results Navigational characteristics affect positively on purchase intention Direct relationship between website involvement and purchase intention Significant relationship between website attitudes and the degree of involvement Explore the practices of visual merchandising among the online stores, differentiating on the type of business Exploratory survey of 32 websites (top 100 of the magazine stores) The authors identify strengths and limitations of the websites There are no differences between ‘‘click’’ and ‘‘click-and-mortar’’ stores There are differences between specialty and department stores Examine the role of aesthetics in the online businesses Theoretical model based on the elaboration likelihood model (Petty and Cacioppo, 1981) The user and design characteristics influence the perceptions of the aesthetics Different aesthetic design implications, depending on type of user, purchase and product Differences effects derived from type of product, industry and consumer Into the website design, the literature has also revealed that visual aspects play an important role for the website success (see Table II). Specifically, Dailey (1999) and Eroglu et al., (2001) analysed the influence of web atmosphere on consumers and verified that the insights of this atmosphere influence the cognitive and affective states of the consumer, and as a consequence the purchase behaviour towards the website. Tan and Wei (2006) proposed that the appearance of the website is an instrumental factor that improves the perception of information in order for subjects to perform better cognitive mapping and better assessments of the decisions for execution. More specifically, these authors suggest that the graphical representations such as icons, colours, images and animations, give website a higher vividness. This fact could improve the degree of individuals’ satisfaction with the web page and the navigation sensations (Zhang et al., 2000). So, a great part of the literature remarks the relevance of aspects such as an appropriate appearance, the easiness for navigation, the ease of use, the security and privacy or the content and information. These factors are determinants of consumers’ behaviour and consequently, of the website success in the e-commerce context. However, it seems remarkable the relative lack of consensus in the literature about how those factors have to be managed. Consequently, it seems necessary to develop a series of guidelines in order to design interfaces that satisfy the users and organizations’ needs. 4. Guidelines for the success of online businesses Taking into account the high competition in the new electronic environment and the growing interest of e-businesses in developing websites which satisfy the users as much as possible, this research proposes a series of guidelines in order to suggest adequate structures and design of the websites. In this line, the literature review allows us to state the importance of web design in order to get positive outcomes in the electronic commerce context. However, achieving an efficient design is not an easy task. There are a lot of factors to take into account, not only in terms of design itself, but also in terms of possible costs derived from the implementation and maintenance of the website, and the possible losses in the download speed because of the use of design tools. It emerges a challenge for e-businesses, since the limited dimensions of the computer screen imply that designers have to carefully manage the design alternatives, displaying the options that reflect the essence of the website in the best way and satisfying the users and consumers’ needs. Bearing in mind all above, this research could offer some recommendations which may lead in a right way the effectiveness of a website. Firstly, given the fact that the shopping window is the same as the computer screen in an e-store (Eroglu et al., 2001), it seems reasonable to tackle the websites’ navigation and appearance cues. The managers of the website design should make an effort to offer a navigation characterized by simplicity (Gehrke and Turban, 1999), and in addition that it allows to users a certain degree of freedom (Lorenzo and Mollá, 2007). In this way, the possibility of enjoying a free navigation leads to consumer’s positive outcomes, such as higher satisfaction with the website and a higher purchase intentions (Richard, 2005; Zviran et al., 2006). The addition of sophisticated search engines in the websites is a key aspect highlighted by the specialized literature for improving the users’ valuations of a website (Liang and Lai, 2002). The managers of websites should take care on the effectiveness of their search engines, offering timely and accurate answers to the consumers’ requests. Thus, the online store Amazon.com (www.amazon.com) represents a good example of Web design 175 JSIT 11,2 176 Figure 1. Amazon search functions efficient search engines, allowing users to search for products in every page of the site and offering advanced search functions for products’ categories and subcategories (see Figure 1). Furthermore, the websites should provide a good level of download speed (Lohse and Spiller, 1999) of the page. In this sense, a more downloading time, derived from overloads in the contents or even in the use of images, could lead users to avoid the website and leave it. Thus, it is necessary to get a well-balanced equilibrium between the appearance of the website and its downloading speed. In this way, the possibility of controlling in which place and moment the user is during the navigation has turned into a key factor for improving the use of a website. A simple aspect such as incorporating a backward button is highly valuated by the users. Similarly, the presence of a map of the site is specially considered by the more experienced users. Besides, the capability of the website to offer an efficient shopping process, displaying a process step-by-step in a clear and easy way (Gehrke and Turban, 1999) has been revealed in the literature as another key aspect for determining consumer behaviour (Eroglu et al., 2001). In this line, we could mention the case of Dell’s online shop (www.dell.com), where the user knows where he is at every moment of the navigation. Moreover, the shopping process is displayed in four simple visually stages. All these features allow a high control by the user during the navigation and the purchase process (see Figure 2). The appearance of a website, in terms of store aesthetics, has also to be considered for achieving a successfully website design. In this way, the first impression of a website determines the user evaluation of that website (Tractinsky and Lowengart, 2007), so that influences on his perceptions and behaviours (Hu et al., 2004). Specifically, the aesthetic aspects could affect the consumer in a great extent, such as on the satisfaction with the website as well as the shopping motivations (Zhang and Von Dran, 2000). According to Liang and Lai (2002), consumers tend to purchase more in well-designed websites. Besides, the aesthetic appearance of a website becomes an assessing method of the website credibility (Fogg et al., 2002). In this line, a baddesigned website may represent a good reason not to shop on that website (Jarvenpaa and Todd, 1997). Thus, the management of visual features is revealed as the main tool in order to improve the attractiveness of a website. As a consequence, the development of a website with a good use of images, graphics, icons, animations or colours, may Web design 177 Figure 2. Dell shopping process represent a potential source to offer a more vivid website and to get a positive response of the consumer (Zhang et al., 2000; Lee and Benbasat, 2003; Görn et al., 2004). As important as an adequate structure of the website, is also a good content that could be able to satisfy the needs of the online consumer. Thus, it seems interesting to analyse the cues related to the content provided by the website. Organizing and managing the information displayed in a website in an efficient way could become another key issue in order to achieve the success of an online business. The design managers should take into account the content of the information that they provide in the website. In this sense, we could consider the need to offer quality information as an important factor to get high levels of users’ satisfaction (Agarwal and Venkatesh, 2002; Kim and Stoel, 2004). Specifically, the effectiveness of the information content affects the user’s degree of involvement and improves his purchase intention (Richard, 2005). Consequently, it seems recommendable to display the contents with timely, updated, understandable and relevant information. The information related to the shopping processes has been emphasised as another critical aspect in order to achieve an effective e-commerce website, as Schubert and Selz (1999) indicated. More specifically, the designers should take care of the information quality related to the products and services supplied in the e-store (Huizingh, 2000) and to offer any additional information that could be useful for the consumer (Lohse and Spiller, 1999). Besides, the e-businesses should stress the importance of the security and privacy concerns along the commercial transactions (e.g. Torkzadeh and Dhillon, 2002; Ranganathan and Ganapathy, 2002). In this way, the low cost airlines’ websites, such as Clickair (www.clickair.com), could be considered a case of good practices. This website offers information not only related to the conditions of the flights, but also with accommodation at the destination, transport to the airports or even the possibility of renting a car once the traveller has arrived to the destination (see Figure 3). Searching for commercial information about products and services is one of the most performed activities that users carry out through the internet (European Interactive Advertising Association, 2007). Thus, offering accurate information could be a source for obtaining potential users and consumers. Specifically, the last goal of a website should be to show quality information about the products and services characteristics (Liang and Lai, 2002). In this way, the visual aspects play an important role. On one hand, the use of product images with a proper size and quality becomes a key question so that the user JSIT 11,2 178 Figure 3. Clickair front page could acquire a better knowledge about the product (Lee and Benbasat, 2003) and could make a more efficient shopping decision. Besides, the interactive visualization tools (e.g. motion and animations) may create a better match between the task and the decision environment, which improves the quality of the information and reduces the effort required (Erick and Wills, 1995). Thus, we could mention the case of the Nokia’s website (www.nokia.co.uk), where the use of high-quality images and the availability of a 360 view stress the beauty and quality of its products. This fact allows users to see all the visual details that implies greater amount of information and therefore a better knowledge of the product (see Figure 4). 5. Conclusions In the last years, the growing development of the internet is related to an extremely competitive context. This research has focused on the specialized literature and Figure 4. Nokia product presentation empirical evidences about the main factors which affect the levels of success of the companies in the electronic commerce. More specifically, it is possible to emphasise the aspects related to websites design. The first research question presented in this study referred to the identification of the main factors that affect the success of the e-commerce websites from a consumer’s point of view. The literature review allows us to affirm that web design is a key factor for getting positive outcomes as it influences on users and online consumers’ perceptions and behaviours. In this way, the design of websites represents an excellent framework for online firms to generate users’ satisfaction, trust and positive intentions towards the website. In particular, we have pointed out the link between web design and usability in order to make it easier for users to navigate through the website, allowing them to control their own tasks and giving them freedom sensations during the navigation. Besides, the importance of web atmospherics has been revealed to attract users’ attention to the website, to improve users’ knowledge about the company’s offering and to encourage users’ purchase intentions. Therefore, the role played by web design is crucial for getting website’s success. In addition, we have stressed several examples of good design practices in order to find out which are the main characteristics related to web design performed by successful virtual stores. Nevertheless, it seems reasonable to propose that there is not a unique optimal design, since it depends on the type of product commercialized, the type of user that is front of the screen, or even on the geographic location where the website is being visited. All these factors could determine the success of a given website. In general terms, users are more predisposed to visit and/or purchase in well-designed websites (Liang and Lai, 2002), but there are different combinations which could lead to the creation of an optimal design (Hu et al., 2004). Investment in designing is needed for establishing perceptions of trust in users’ minds so that it generates more online purchase intentions (Schlosser et al., 2006). Despite this fact, we could argue that a website design addressed to simplicity and freedom of navigation provides clear, timely and accurate information in all its contents and an appearance that calls for the users’ attention. This may lead to a virtual store with high probability of success. Besides, the aspects related to the privacy and security must be considered in every time and place of the website. In this context, this paper proposes a series of guidelines in order to establish the key aspects for the achievement of high levels of success of online business. Thus, we offer a Decalogue of actuations that could improve the design of the e-commerce websites (see Table III). This Decalogue could be particularly useful for designers in order to determine the basic elements that must be considered when designing a website. More concretely, we have noticed that online users’ point of view has to be emphasised in every aspect of the websites; thus, the dimensions identified in this series of recommendations establish the basis to influence online users’ perceptions and behaviours, and therefore to determine the website’ success. Firstly, it seems reasonable to take into account the aesthetic appearance of the website, since the first impression will determine the relationship between the consumer and the firm (Robins and Holmes, 2008), so a bad designed website may represent a good reason not to shop on it. Secondly, the navigation through the website has to be considered, specially attending to the simplicity and the possibility of controlling by the users, which improves the ease of use of the site and the feelings of freedom during the navigation. Thirdly, e-firms have to carefully manage the information and contents of the website, displaying good quality information in Web design 179 JSIT 11,2 Dimension Guidelines Tools Appearance (1) Launch a good appearance is important for getting high levels of credibility in the website, which leads users to trust (2) Offer vividness in the website to get a positive response by the consumer (3) Find a well-balanced equilibrium between the aesthetic appearance and the download speed (4) Offer a navigation characterized by simplicity (5) Allow users to control where he/ she is in every moment during the navigation and what he/she can do (6) Organize and manage the contents in a clear way making ease the search of information (7) Provide quality information/ contents Visualization tools Images Graphics Icons Animations Colours 180 Navigation Content Shopping process Table III. Decalogue for improving the websites’ design (8) Offer an efficient and easy shopping process (9) Provide quality information of the products and services offered (10) Emphasise privacy and security aspects Map of the site Backward button Search engine Information Updated Comprehensible Relevant Visualization tools Product images with proper size and quality Shopping process step-by-step (no more than five stages) Links with useful information for the purchase (related products, overviews, additional information) Privacy and security information in all the stages of the shopping process adequate forms. Lastly, the characteristics of the shopping process have been revealed as a critical aspect for the achievement of a successfully e-commerce website. It would be desirable that designers try to homogenize the stages of the shopping process in order for users to better know and learn the commercial process in the internet and may feel more self-confident to purchase a product. As we have mentioned, these guidelines could represent the basis for the development of successful e-commerce websites. Many web designers have been mistakenly guided by the challenges of technology rather than users’ needs (Helander and Khalid, 2000), developing more sophisticated designs regardless of what their visitors want. Although there is no doubt that these tools affect consumers in a great extent, it always be essential to follow the basic rules of design, that is, create a reliable appearance and experience, and make the web site easy to use and navigate (Zhang and Myers, 2005). Finally, regarding the growing interest in this analysis topic in the literature and in the management scope, it seems necessary to propose some further research lines. It could be interesting to analyse empirically the impact of all key attributes on the users’ perceptions and behaviours. 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