Categorizing web features and functions to evaluate commercial web sites. An assessment framework and an empirical investigation of Australian companies
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570610661606 |
| Published date | 01 April 2006 |
| Date | 01 April 2006 |
| Pages | 523-539 |
| Author | Wayne Huang,Taowen Le,X. Li,S. Gandha |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
Categorizing web features and
functions to evaluate commercial
web sites
An assessment framework and an empirical
investigation of Australian companies
Wayne Huang
Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, USA
Taowen Le
Webster State University, Ogden, Utah, USA
X. Li
University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, and
S. Gandha
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Abstract
Purpose – To propose an assessment framework that can be used to categorise and assess commercial
web sites from the perspective of web-technological features and functions and to demonstrate i ts usefulness.
Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on prior relevant research and successful web site
design experiences of industrial experts in the field, an assessment framework that can be used to
categorise and assess web features and functions is proposed, and 252 commercial web sites of listed
Australian companies were randomly sampled and assessed to demonstrate the usefulness of the
proposed assessment framework.
Findings – The proposed assessment framework pro vides valuable insights. While different companies
normally use different web-technological features and functions on their web sites, certain features and
functions have been more commonly used in designing commercial web sites than others, and certain
differences in the use of web features and functions on commercial web sites exist across different industries.
Research limitations/implications – This research studied commercial web sites of Australian
companies. Possible differences in the use of web features and functions on commercial web sites
across different countries remain to be explored.
Originality/value – Although various approaches have been proposed in previous studies to
evaluate commercial web sites, no prior research could be found to assess commercial web sites from
the perspective of web-technological features and functions. This research proposed an assessment
framework that can be used to categorise and assess commercial web sites from the perspective of
web-technological features and functions and demonstrated its usefulness. It also provided valuable
insights to commercial web site owners and designers.
Keywords Worldwide web, Commercial services, Australia
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Forrester Research Institute (2000) reported that business-to-consumer (B2C) business
over the internet reached US$518 million in USA in 1996, and in 1997, the
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Categorizing web
features and
functions
523
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 106 No. 4, 2006
pp. 523-539
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/02635570610661606
business-to-business (B2B) transactions reached US$10 billion. Since, then, B2B
transactions have grown hundreds of times intotal volume. While most companies,
including many small and medium-sized companies, have invested heavily in
establishing commercial web sites on the internet, their purposes for doing so differ,
ranging from general publicity to customer support, online information exchange, and
internet sales (Cheung and Huang, 2002). They also put different types of content on
their web sites (Liu et al., 1997; McKeever, 2003; Okazaki, 2004).
However, in a study completed by Forrester Research Institute (2000), 30 B2B web
sites were assessed and all sites failed in the assessment criteria of value, ease of use,
and reliability. Each web site had problems such as missing content, weak
functionality, and frequent errors. Business organizations are, therefore, interested in
finding out how effectively their heavily-invested web sites are designed in terms of
meeting strategic needs of, and helping to increase profits for, the organization.
Various assessment methods and measuring instruments for evaluating the
effectiveness of commercial web sites have been proposed from different perspectives
(Barnes and Vidgen, 2001; Cheung and Huang, 2005; Hsu et al., 2004; Huang et al., 2004,
2005; Klopping and McKinney, 2004; Liu and Arnett, 2000; Merwe and Bekker, 2003;
Raol et al., 2003; Scharlr et al., 2003; Teo and Huang, 2004). Proposed assessment
perspectives include web site quality (Barnes and Vidgen, 2001; Loiacono, 2000;
Mich et al., 2003), end-user satisfaction (Hung and McQueen, 2004; Muylle et al., 2004),
content types used in commercial web sites (Cheung and Huang, 2002; Liu et al., 1997;
Robbins and Stylianou, 2003), usability of web site (Nielsen, 1999; Konradt et al., 2003),
service quality (Cao et al., 2005; Xie and Wang, 1998), or a combination of several
factors (Iyer et al., 2005; Kim et al., 2003). However, to date and to our knowledge, no
specific assessment framework exists to evaluate commercial web sites from the
perspective of web features and functions. Hence, some important questions remain
largely unanswered, such as what web features and functions have been most
commonly used in designing commercial web sites, and what have been least used,
whether differences in the use of web features and functions on commercial web sites
exist across different industries, and what are these differences if they exist? This
research intends to bridge this gap and provide a web site assessment framework from
the perspective of web features and functions.
The next section of this paper proposes a web site assessment framework from the
perspective of web features and functions. The following section then shows how
the proposed framework is used to empirically assess 252 business organisations’
web sites sampled from companies listed in Australia Stock Exchange. The resul ts of
the investigation are presented and discussed in the final section of the paper.
2. A web site assessment framework from the perspective of web features
and functions
Our web site assessment framework is drawn upon prior relevant research and
successful web site design experiences of industrial experts in the field. Nielsen,
“the world’s leading expert on web usability” as claimed by US News & World Report
(2000), lists these top issues that should be considered by web site designers: frames,
scrolling text, complex URL’s, orphan pages, long scrolling, lack of navigation,
non-standard link colours (e.g. blue ¼not visited, red/purple ¼visited), outdated
information, and overly-long download times (Nielsen, 1999).
IMDS
106,4
524
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