Website Design

Quality is related to customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty in both product and services settings. Thus, quality is expected to be a determinant of online retailer success as well. Based on online and offline focus groups, a sorting task, and an online survey of a customer panel, the authors establish the dimensions of the etail experience, and develop a reliable and valid scale for the measurement of etail quality. The analysis suggests that four factors-website design, fulfillment/reliability, privacy/security and customer service-are strongly predictive of customer judgments of quality and satisfaction, customer loyalty and attitudes toward the website.

The use of virtual-reality technology in the areas of rehabilitation and therapy continues to grow, with encouraging results being reported for applications that address human physical, cognitive, and psychological functioning. This article presents a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis for the field of VR rehabilitation and therapy. The SWOT analysis is a commonly employed framework in the business world for analyzing the factors that influence a company's competitive position in the marketplace with an eye to the future. However, the SWOT framework can also be usefully applied outside of the pure business domain. A quick check on the Internet will turn up SWOT analyses for urban-renewal projects, career planning, website design, youth sports programs, and evaluation of academic research centers, and it becomes obvious that it can be usefully applied to assess and guide any organized human endeavor designed to accomplish a mission. It is hoped that this structured examination of the factors relevant to the current and future status of VR rehabilitation will provide a good overview of the key issues and concerns that are relevant for understanding and advancing this vital application area.

Colour has the potential to elicit emotions or behaviors, yet there is little research in which colour treatments in website design are systematically tested. Little is known about how colour affects trust or satisfaction on the part of the viewer. Although the Internet is increasingly global, few systematic studies have been undertaken in which the impact of colour on culturally diverse viewers is investigated in website design. In this research three website colour treatments are tested across three culturally distinct viewer groups for their impact on user trust, satisfaction, and e-loyalty. To gather data, a rich multi-method approach is used including eye-tracking, a survey, and interviews. Results reveal that website colour appeal is a significant determinant for website trust and satisfaction with differences noted across cultures. The findings have practical value for web marketers and interface designers concerning effective colour use in website development.

Web content has been identified as one of the main factors contributing to repeat visits. As content on the web includes text, pictures, graphics, layout, sound, motion and, someday, even smell, making the right web content decisions are critical to effective web design. While an understanding of marketing strategies that attract visitors to websites is beginning to emerge, how to convert web surfers to repeat visitors is a less well-understood phenomenon. Through an empirical study, the authors develop the Website Preference Scale (WSPS) based upon the work in environmental psychology of Rachel Kaplan and Stephen Kaplan. The results identify underlying dimensions of effective website design and provide insight into site design characteristics, which may lead to a higher likelihood of revisit. D

Online trust is growing in importance as a topic of study and its influence on Internet marketing strategies is increasing. "Online trust includes consumer perceptions of how the site would deliver on expectations, how believable the site's information is, and how much confidence the site commands." , "Are the Drivers and Role of Online Trust the Same for All Web Sites and Consumers? A Large-Scale Exploratory Empirical Study," Journal of Marketing, 69(4), 133-152). In this article, we review advances in online trust research based on an overarching framework, outlining the key insights learned so far. These insights include: online trust extends beyond privacy and security, is closely connected to website design, its formation is an ongoing process, and is heterogeneous across individuals and products. We propose several ideas for future research relating to multiple aspects of online research, such as the longitudinal component, multichannel element, global aspect, personalization and cross-disciplinary nature.

The growth of Internet shopping motivates a better understanding of how e-loyalty is built online between businesses and consumers. In this study website design and culture are advanced as important to website trust, website satisfaction, and e-loyalty in online business relationships. Based on data collected in Canada, the U.S., Germany and Japan, the research considers (1) examining within culture preferences for design elements of a local versus a foreign website and subsequent participant perceptions of trust, satisfaction and e-loyalty, and (2) comparisons between cultures for design preferences of local and foreign websites and subsequent participant perceptions of trust, satisfaction and e-loyalty. As predicted, similarities were greatest among Americans, Canadians, and Germans, with the Japanese representing a different and unique case. The results are discussed against hypothesized expectations. Implications for future research are outlined.

The success of e-commerce for any company, especially if it is not a well-known name, is greatly dependent on the appropriate design of its Website. This study investigates the determinants of an effective Website. A literature survey indicated that the major categories of determinants are: page loading speed, business content, navigation efficiency, security, and marketing/customer focus. The relative importance of each category was determined by counting the number of citations in the literature, and by soliciting the opinions of end users. The paper concentrates on experts' recommendations of how to create an effective Website from an e-commerce point of view.

In this paper we describe an evaluation of two websites with the same content but different interface styles (traditional menu-based and interactive metaphors). A formative usability evaluation was carried out with heuristic assessment of aesthetics, and questionnaire assessment of aesthetics, content, information quality, usability and post-test memory. The study revealed that perception of information quality is affected by the interaction

Although online shopping has increased exponentially in recent years, very little is known about the difference in male and female perceptions of this experience. This investigation is focused on examining how perceptions between the genders differ concerning transaction security, website design elements, and how the experience of online shopping results in perceptions of website trust, website satisfaction, and e-loyalty. Results of the research indicate that transaction security was not as large a concern as expected, and perceptions about it did not differ between men and women. Alternately, in support of the research hypotheses, there are significant differences in perceptions of website design and website satisfaction between the genders, but not for e-loyalty.

Lack of trust in online transactions has been cited as the main reason for the abhorrence of online shopping. We have tested the mediating role of trust in online transactions to provide empirical evidence that trust in the online store represents the generic mechanism through which the focal independent variables of website design are able to positively influence purchase intention and reduce the perceived risk. We have further demonstrated the moderating effect of the individual's culture in e-commerce and thereby offered insights into the relative importance of website design factors contributing to trust for customers of different cultural values. e-commerce. Cyr, D. and Head, M. (2010) 'The effects of website design on purchase intention in online shopping: the mediating role of trust and the moderating role of culture', Int.

One of the challenges today in human-computer interaction is to design systems that are not only usable but also appealing to users. In order to contribute to meet this challenge, our general objective in the present study was to enhance current understanding of the perceptual features that favour users' interactions with Websites. This is a particularly important issue, as users' first impressions when they land on a site determine whether or not they stay on it. We conducted two experimental studies, focusing on one specific perceptual feature: Website colour. The first study investigated designers' and users' preferred colours for a Web homepage. Although researchers generally flag up differences between designers and users, we found that the latter also had several favourite colours in common. On the basis of these initial results, three colours were selected for a second study exploring colour in relation to an entire Website. The main originality of this second study lays in the fact that we used both subjective and objective measurements to gauge the impact of colour, analyzing not only users' judgments but also their Website navigation and the items of information they memorized. Results of this second study showed that colours were a determining factor in the way that users interacted with the Website. Their influence was also observed afterwards, when users were asked to exploit the information they had gleaned from the Website. As such, these findings will have a practical value for Website designers.

In recent years the number of health related websites has increased dramatically and so have concerns regarding the quality of online information. The sheer volume of sites and the variety of information available have left health consumers potentially with greater choice but it is not clear whether these online changes are reflected in user behaviour. This study addresses whether users are becoming more proficient in searching for credible, high quality information and whether they are more demanding of the type of information being sought and less ready to trust online health advice. This paper describes changes in the use of the Internet for health advice over a five-year period. It compares findings from two large-scale online questionnaire studies undertaken in 2000 and 2005. Key changes and similarities in usage and trust practices are noted. The rise in unregulated sites is discussed in terms of patients ''acting as scientists'' using websites to test out theories regarding their health. The increasing importance of design issues is also highlighted and implications for website designers and content providers are presented.

The World Wide Web doubles in size roughly every 2-3 months and dramatic claims are made about the effectiveness of Web-based commercial efforts. The centrality of non-price mechanisms of differentiation to the perception, enjoyment and ease of use felt using websites is acknowledged but the only statistically rigorous studies of factors such as form and content have been conducted within a universalist paradigm of aesthetics. This paper reports on an interactionist approach to web aesthetics involving an analysis of 60 maleand female-produced websites. The analysis reveals statistically significant differences between the male-and female-produced websites on 13 out of the 23 factors analysed. These differences span issues of navigation as well as linguistic and visual content. The paper argues that the appeal of websites can be maximised if they mirror the needs and interests of their target populations and that websites targeted at male or female dominated markets need to reflect the aesthetic diversity found in the male-and femaleproduced websites analysed here. It also presents information on the demographics of the IT profession, showing that there is a potential imbalance between the percentage of women involved online and those involved in the IT profession. This suggests that the male domination of the IT profession could be a barrier to the effective mirroring of female Website preferences.

The purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of the design elements that influence the ability of persons with severe mental illness (SMI) and cognitive deficits to use a website, and to use this knowledge to design a web-based telehealth application to deliver a psychoeducation program to persons with schizophrenia and their families. Usability testing was conducted with 98 persons with SMI. First, individual website design elements were tested. Based on these results, theoretical website design models were used to create several alternative websites. These designs were tested for their ability to facilitate use by persons with SMI. The final website design is presented. The results indicate that commonly prescribed design models and guidelines produce websites that are poorly suited and confusing to persons with SMI. Our findings suggest an alternative model that should be considered when designing websites and other telehealth interventions for this population. Implications for future studies addressing the characteristics of accessible designs for persons with SMI and cognitive deficits are discussed.

Web technology is changing rapidly every day and the internet has become a lifestyle for people all over the world. The power of the web has changed the way people communicate and do business. With the advance of the internet era, a successful website becomes a critical factor for the success of most businesses. Website design is not only about the look of the website. There are many other factors to consider. A well-designed site can induce users to engage in the website, help them find what they are looking for, and understand where exactly they are on the website. This study investigates the user's perception disorientation, engagement, and intent to use a website in the future by manipulating these three basic factors into eight different experimental conditions. With 2 Â 2 Â 2 experimental design with content familiarity, site breadth, and media richness in website systems, this study suggests that both the main effects and the interaction effects of the experiment factors are significant. This implies that one or more factors can compensate for the weakness of other factors. Furthermore different people have preferences for different factors; therefore website design should not solely focus on a single factor, but should address all of these factors in accordance with the objective of the business.

Purpose -The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has witnessed a resurgence in the management literature in recent years. This might be due to a renewed focus on corporate governance and ethical practices of companies the world over. This current study seeks to focus on how banks operating in Ghana communicate their CSR programmes and intentions via their corporate websites. Design/methodology/approach -A conceptual framework was adapted from the extant literature and was used as the basis of a content analysis of 16 banks in Ghana. This paper adopts a qualitative research approach drawing upon available information from the websites of these 16 banks. Findings -One of the banks that had won the most CSR awards at the Ghana banking awards had the poorest CSR communication content on its corporate website. It was also noted that banks that had never won a CSR award previously seemed to have a better organised structure in respect of their CSR activities on their websites. These findings clearly demonstrate the challenges that sometimes exist in transferring bricks-and-mortar organisational capabilities to online environments. Originality/value -Studies focussing on online CSR communications in emerging market contexts are almost non-existent and this study makes an important contribution in not only addressing this imbalance, but more importantly in improving bank marketing practices in Ghana.

Over the past decade, governments have embarked on major Information and Communication Technology (ICT) investments in an attempt to take advantage of the benefits of the internet in extending the channels by which services are provided to their respective citizenries. With the increasing reliance on ICTs, one of the challenges facing public sector managers is how to evaluate the success or effectiveness of their ICT investments. Given the citizen-focused objectives of governments, service quality approaches offer a suitable frame for evaluating ICT effectiveness. This paper therefore extends current e-Service quality research into the e-Government domain. The paper reports on the development of a multi-item instrument for evaluating the e-Service quality constructs of an e-Government website in South Africa. The development of this instrument also takes into account the service delivery principles which have been adopted by the South African government viz. the Batho Pele program. The study shows that there are six service quality dimensions applicable in e-Government evaluation, viz. website design, navigation, communication, site aesthetics, information quality, and security. The generic instrument allows practitioners to modify and utilise it according to their needs.

Increasing internet use to access information and book trips significantly impacts the tourism industry and calls attention to learn more about website performance and evaluation. Specifically, how do tourists interact with websites? Which websites transform travelers into repeat visitors? Most research in this field employs multi-item measures conceptualized as reflective models. This paper suggests a theory-based alternative, formative measurement approach for website performance. The construct comprises eight dimensions: system availability, ease of use, usefulness, navigational challenge, website design, content quality, trust, and enjoyment. Website users identify dimensional indicators using evaluation surveys. Structural equation modeling examines linkages between the website performance index and outcome measures (satisfaction, value, and loyalty). Data provided by 455 travelers show the formative index works well. A second sample of 316 respondents cross-validates the findings. The study develops a sound and parsimonious measure allowing the monitoring and benchmarking of traveler perceptions over time.

Effective website design is critical to the success of electronic commerce and digital government. We consider website designs as structural problems and propose a conceptual framework for classifying different design scenarios into generic categories. We describe each generic design category using objective and constraints, and map it to a specific graph model analyzable or solvable analytically. By modeling website designs using well-defined structures and established analytical methods, our framework allows systematic and quantitative design evaluations and improvements. The proposed framework can complement existing practices by enhancing the design process and quality with increasing ease of analysis, implementation and continuous improvement.

Despite numerous sex differences found in spatial navigation, perception, and verbal abilities, the manner in which these differences manifest themselves in terms of online navigation has yet to be explored. We propose a unified framework based on evolutionary psychology and supported by recent findings in cognitive neuroscience for understanding sex differences in cognition and how they relate to online navigation and website preferences. The literature on sex differences in navigation, object location, spatial rotation, the perception of color, form, and movement, and verbal fluency is reviewed within the context of their evolutionary underpinnings. Based on these findings, specific website design recommendations are proposed. Results of a pilot study examining sex differences in web navigation provide evidence that utilizing an evolutionary approach can engender findings with significant implications for e-communication researchers and practitioners alike.

In the UK millions are now online and many are prepared to use the Internet to make and influence purchasing decisions. Businesses should, therefore, consider whether the Internet could provide them with a new marketing opportunity. Although increasing numbers of businesses now have a web site, there seems to be a quality problem that is leading to missed opportunities, particularly for smaller enterprises. This belief is backed up by an automated survey of 3802 predominantly small UK business sites, believed to be by far the largest of its kind to date. Analysis of the results reveals widespread problems in relation to search engines. Most Internet users find new sites through search engines, yet over half of sites checked were not registered in the largest one, Yahoo!, and could therefore be missing a sizeable percentage of potential customers. The underlying problem with business sites is the lack of maturity of the medium as evidenced by the focus on technological issues amongst designers and the inevitable lack of web-business experience of managers. Designers need to take seriously the usability of the site, its design and its ability to meet the business goals of the client. These issues are perhaps being taken up less than in the related discipline of software engineering, probably due to the relative ease of web site creation. Managers need to dictate the objectives of their site, but also, in the current climate, cannot rely even on professional web site design companies and must be capable of evaluating the quality of their site themselves. Finally, educators need to ensure that these issues are emphasised to the next generation of designers and managers in order that the full potential of the Internet for business can be realised.

As people have unique tastes, the way to satisfy a small group of targeted customers or to be generic to meet most people's preference has been a traditional question to many fashion designers and website developers. This study examined the relationship between individuals' personality differences and their web design preferences. Each individual's personality is represented by a combination of five traits, and 15 website design-related features are considered to test the users' preference. We introduced a data mining technique called targeted positive and negative association rule mining to analyze a dataset containing the survey results collected from undergraduate students. The results of this study not only suggest the importance of providing specific designs to attract individual customers, but also provide valuable input on the Big Five personality traits in their entirety.

Understanding website preferences across cultures is imperative to the development of customer loyalty in online environments. Based on an exploratory four nation study, this paper addresses differences in preference and perception of website design across cultures. Consideration is given to levels of trust and satisfaction that result from web design elements. In many instances the results are counterintuitive. The findings are evaluated concerning design and culture, as well the evolving role of "culture" in Web based environments.

The quality of governmental websites is often measured with questionnaires that ask users for their opinions on various aspects of the website. This article presents the Website Evaluation Questionnaire (WEQ), which was specifically designed for the evaluation of governmental websites. The multidimensional structure of the WEQ was tested in a controlled laboratory setting and in an online real-life setting. In two studies we analyzed the underlying factor structure, the stability and reliability of this structure, and the sensitivity of the WEQ to quality differences between websites. The WEQ proved to be a valid and reliable instrument with seven clearly distinct dimensions. In the online setting higher correlations were found between the seven dimensions than in the laboratory setting, and the WEQ was less sensitive to differences between websites. Two possible explanations for this result are the divergent activities of online users on the website and the less attentive way in which these users filled out the questionnaire. We advise to relate online survey evaluations more strongly to the actual behavior of website users, for example, by including server log data in the analysis.

An effective website is vital for a hotel to strengthen its customer relationships and harvest online sales. Yet despite the proliferation of hotel website studies, research seems to have under-emphasised a fundamental first step, the development of valid and reliable constructs and features for evaluating websites. Based on a literature review, expert judgement and in-depth interviews, this study proposes a framework for evaluating hotel websites. The results are five dimensions of website quality — information and process, value added, relationships, trust, and design and usability — reflected by 74 websites features. The paper closes with a proposed process for developing a website evaluation framework and future research opportunities.

The proposition that the technology of the Internet and Web offers a basis for culturally-neutral, computer-mediated communication was tested through a content analysis of 100 Mainland Chinese and American websites. It was found that the tools of the Internet and Web were neither fully neutral nor fully specific to the websites' 'home' cultures. Cultural hybridisation and diffusion of innovation are suggested as alternative explanations.

In the emerging global electronic market, the creation of customer centered websites will become increasingly important. This paper uses Kano's Model of Quality to develop a conceptual framework for investigating features in the web environment that satisfy basic, performance, and excitement needs of potential customers. The researchers classify features commonly used in the web environment according to Kano's three quality dimensions for products and services.

Delivering the right Internet service to the right person has been a major challenge to E-commerce strategies. Developers of E-commerce and online services have constantly faced the issue of scarce design guidelines to model their customers' online behavioral patterns. This has called for new research on the characteristics of Internet users so that appropriate E-commerce website design strategies can be developed. This study attempts to investigate the possibility of the non-detrimental effects of Internet dependency and proposes an instrument to measure both positive and negative Internet dependency. The authors further assess the effects of these two types of dependency on several online activities to delineate the characteristics of Internet users. This article is concluded with the managerial implications of the findings and the suggested E-commerce website design guidelines.

This study evaluated 967 U.S. CVB websites using a modified Balanced Scorecard (mBSC) approach which assesses website performance with respect to overall technical functionality, customer friendliness and usability, effectiveness of marketing the destination, and information content. Spatial maps were constructed for these four dimensions and overall CVB website performance using ArcMap v.9.2 GIS software. A structural pattern of CVB website performance was obtained using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). It was concluded that CVB websites primarily need improvement in marketing the destination product. The analysis revealed significant differences in website performance between members and non-members of Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) as well as regional differences. Study implications for destination marketing organizations and CVB website designers are discussed.

Design' is a term that is familiar to many language teachers and CALL practitioners. It is used regularly in relation to curriculum, syllabus, course and task in the general literature and it occurs in all these areas and more in the CALL sphere where instructional design, website design, interface design and screen design are just some of the additional points of focus. This paper aims to look at CALL design in more detail. It places a particular emphasis on describing the discourse, products and processes of design in CALL. It looks at what we have learnt about design and points to areas that remain problematical. It also makes connections with cognate fields whenever these links prove helpful. This study is the second in a series of three complementary papers which look at research, design and evaluation in CALL (see . All use the same corpus of CALL work as a database and the research design and methodology in each is the same. In this paper the description and discussion is based on 93 articles involving design published in books and journals published in 1999. The descriptive section is followed by analysis and interpretation with special attention given to the relationship between theory and design, and the centrality of the task and the learner in the design process.

This article proposes a quantitative evaluation framework of all the dimensions provided by hotel websites. The proposed framework evaluates the richness of specific and comprehensive information. A proposed conceptual model that describes the hotel websites' features is used in order to summarize the data and consider how sound websites are in terms of technology and management. The model combines various dimensions (i.e., information attributes, website design attributes, reservation engine facilities, payment, provided services attributes, provided information attributes, quality of content, language support, website operating attributes, website structure, navigation, and search facilities). The proposed evaluation method is based on the websites evaluation by users/guests, hotel managers, and IT professionals, while it uses principal components analysis (PCA) to estimate the performance score from users/guests, hotel managers, and IT professionals as well the overall score of a website. Using this framework, we determine how each data dimension impacts on each performance indicator as well as on the overall performance. We applied our method and evaluated 30 chain hotel websites operating in Greece, and found interesting insights for the hotel chain industry in Greece.

Permission marketing is becoming an important tool in maintaining relationships with travelers via the Internet. Its growing importance can be seen in tourism marketing, specifically in the lodging industry. With an increase in industry use, the effectiveness of this technique needs assessment. This paper initiates this process by examining current methods used to collect contact information for the purpose of permission marketing. Three segments of the market are identified and compared based upon their willingness to supply contact information. Significant differences were found in socio-demographics, online habits, trip characteristics, and website design preferences. Implications for lodging marketers are presented and future research topics are discussed. r

Informational websites that contain pages of related hyperlinked information are often organized in a hierarchical tree, such that child-node pages contain the primary content and higher level parent-node pages link to sets of related childnode pages. In such designs, the parent-node page content can act as topic previews for the content contained in their child pages. This paper describes a 3 x 2 factorial experiment that examined the effect of preview styles (preview paragraphs with embedded child-node links, preview paragraphs with a list of child-node links below them, a list of childnode links only) and hierarchical navigation menus (present or absent) on website users' reading comprehension, perceptions of user experience, and site exploration behaviour. Significant differences were found for inferential reading comprehension, with higher comprehension occurring when readers were exposed to previews with embedded links even though previews with embedded links negatively affected user perceptions. Presence or absence of hierarchical menus did not affect comprehension but lack of menus significantly degraded usability perceptions and site exploration. Recommendations for informational website designs are discussed based on these findings.

We present a set of programs and a website designed to facilitate protein structure comparison and protein structure modeling efforts. Our protein structure analysis and comparison services use the LGA (localglobal alignment) program to search for regions of local similarity and to evaluate the level of structural similarity between compared protein structures. To facilitate the homology-based protein structure modeling process, our AL2TS service translates given sequence-structure alignment data into the standard Protein Data Bank (PDB) atom records (coordinates). For a given sequence of amino acids, the AS2TS (amino acid sequence to tertiary structure) system calculates (e.g. using PSI-BLAST PDB analysis) a list of the closest proteins from the PDB, and then a set of draft 3D models is automatically created. Web services are available at https://as2ts.llnl.gov/.

Background: This paper draws on a recent study that evaluated the process of commissioning NHS funded research using virtual committees. Building on an earlier paper that reported our evaluation, here we focus on the effects of asynchronous computer mediated communication (CMC) when used to support group work.