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This paper takes a social shaping of technology approach to identify and explain sources of conflict in the design or enhancement of corporate Web sites. Data from a multi‐case field study show how Web site classification schemes embedded in Web site design elements created intra‐organizational conflicts because the schemes could not equally accommodate different sub‐units' customer requirements. Interview data demonstrate Web managers' perceptions that Web classification schemes privileged certain sets of customer needs, and Web managers' actions to shape the design of classification schemes to satisfy their perceived customer needs. Data analysis identified three design elements of Web sites associated with sub‐unit conflict: classification categories, templates and tool bars, and database entities and attributes.

This study proposes a new approach to an adaptive web site design using the cognitive map (CM).

The responses from 134 questionnaires were used in order to compute the causality coefficients of the CM objectively. In addition, using the evaluations of 64 college students with regard to three typical web sites, reference criteria were built that could be used by web site designers to determine the best web site design, given constraints and requirements. On the basis of the CM and two scenarios, a web site design simulation was performed.

The results showed that the proposed approach could be used effectively to analyze web site design in an adaptive and practical manner when the market situation is constantly changing.

The implications of this article will help decision makers predict the chain of effects that could result from changes in part of the web site design factors, before actually making those changes to a web site. Also, since the CM permits all related web site design factors to be viewed in a single interrelated diagram and organized into an adjacency matrix, decision makers can perform a number of what‐if simulations in accordance with changes in the intended design factors to see whether such changes would lead to maximal objectives (or target nodes).

The purpose of this paper is to report on the web_access project, funded through the EC Lifelong Learning Programme. The paper aims to provide a context for the proposed study programme and describe current work in the development of the curriculum and content.

Analysis has been undertaken of the state of the art in education and training for accessible web design in the English language, starting with the national situation in the UK and then further‐a‐field by highlighting international resources. The main outcome of the two‐year multilateral, multi‐partner project is to develop a joint study programme in accessible web design.

While there is evidence of the inclusion of design for all in ICT teaching, as well as the provision of free and commercial tutorials and workshops, analysis has found provision to be fragmented and none to date has been identified as leading to a professional qualification or certificate in accessible web design that is recognised by industry or employers. The proposed curriculum for the study programme described in this paper aims to address this issue.

While there is evidence of the inclusion of design for all in ICT teaching, as well as the provision of free and commercial tutorials and workshops, analysis has found provision to be fragmented and none to date has been identified as leading to a professional qualification or certificate in accessible web design that is recognised by industry or employers.

To identify the relative effects of three features of response toward web interface (RWI) on their advertising promotion effectiveness as measured by the number of accesses to various web pages.

A factorial design experiment was conducted on the internet to empirically test the hedonic stimulation web interface model developed by the authors.

The results reveal that there are three main effects and two two‐variable interactions which are found to be significant. In respect to our hedonic stimulation web interface design model (HSWIDM). No three variables of the hedonic salience interact simultaneously.

Among the potential limitations of this research is the main effect of colour in the design of the experiment. The other potential limitation is related to the broad assumption of subjects selected.

In operational terms, the major finding regarding the key aim of this research is that all three hedonic salience variables have a main effect and lead to a hedonic valance.

The research adds to the body of literature and knowledge focusing on quantitative internet research and analysis of data using a practical factorial design and analysis method as exemplified in the use of Yates' forward analysis of factorial experiment.

Today, eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is fast emerging as the dominant standard for storing, describing, representing and interchanging data among various enterprises systems and databases in the context of complex web enterprises information systems (EIS). Conversely, for web EIS (such as ecommerce and portals) to be successful, it is important to apply a high level, model driven solutions and meta‐data vocabularies to design and implementation techniques that are capable of handling heterogonous schemas and documents. For this, we need a methodology that provides a higher level of abstraction of the domain in question with rigorously defined standards that are to be more widely understood by all stakeholders of the system. To‐date, UML has proven itself as the language of choice for modeling EIS using OO techniques. With the introduction of XML Schema, which provides rich facilities for constraining and defining enterprise XML content, the combination of UML and XML technologies provide a good platform (and the flexibility) for modeling, designing and representing complex enterprise contents for building successful EIS. In this paper, we show how a layered view model coupled with a proven user interface analysis framework (WUiAM) is utilized in providing architectural construct and abstract website model (called eXtensible Web, xWeb), to model, design and implement simple, usercentred, collaborative websites at varying levels of abstraction. The uniqueness xWeb is that the model data (web user interface definitions, website data descriptions and constraints) and the web content are captured and represented at the conceptual level using views (one model) and can be deployed (multiple platform specific models) using one or more implementation models.

The purpose of the research was to compare web site designs used by the fastest growing companies in the USA to the largest companies in the USA and to benchmark those designs against best practices as defined by a leading consultant in the industry.

This approach surveyed the web site designs by each group of companies against a set of best practices and developed summary data about the observations.

The largest companies in the USA used designs that are more consistent with the best practices as defined by a leading consultant in the industry.

The fastest growing companies did not use best practices in their web site design and still maintained very rapid growth as evidenced by their national rankings. A poorly executed design was less of a detractor to the company's success than anticipated. Web site design may have a role (positive or negative) in the company's growth rate but further research is required to understand the scope and nature of the role.

The reason why a company maintains a rapid growth rate may be dependent on numerous factors and as such, a comprehensive evaluation of why a company sustains a rapid growth rate should be undertaken. The role of the web site in the company's success should be evaluated in more depth.

This paper has value for web site designers, entrepreneurs, IT management, IT consultants, and large company personnel involved with web site design.

The purpose of this empirical study was to address two important concerns of Web usability: how user-intuitive interface signs affect Web usability and how applying semiotics (i.e. the doctrine of signs) in user interface (UI) design and evaluation helps to improve usability.

An empirical research approach is followed here to conduct three user tests. These tests were conducted on a Web application with 17 test participants. Data were gathered through laboratory-based think-aloud usability test, questionnaires and interviews. Following an empirical research approach, statistics and user behavior analysis were used to analyze the data.

This study explores two important concerns of UI design and evaluation. First, users’ interpretation accuracy of interface signs impact on Web usability. The study found that users’ interpretation of signs might be accurate, moderate, conflicting, erroneous or incapable; user-intuitive interface signs led participants to interpret signs’ meaning accurately; and users’ inaccurate interpretation of one or a few task-related interface sign(s) led users to usability problems, resulting in participants performing tasks with lower task-completion performance. Second, considering semiotics perception in UI design and evaluation is important to improve Web usability. This study showed that interface signs, when re-designed considering the semiotics guidelines, have increased the end-users’ interpretation accuracy and the interface signs’ intuitiveness. This study also provides a small set of semiotics guidelines for sign design and evaluation.

This study empirically demonstrated that signs’ intuitiveness impact on Web usability and that considering the semiotics perception in sign design and evaluation is important to improve Web usability. These outcomes are valuable in a number of ways to HCI researchers and practitioners: the results provide awareness of the importance of user-intuitive interface signs in UI design; practitioners can easily adopt the concept of interpretation accuracy classification to conduct a sign test to obtain an “overall impression of interface signs’ intuitiveness”; practitioners can easily adopt the methodological approach followed in this study to conduct usability test without additional resources; and the results raised important fundamental questions for future research such as “what does a practitioner need to be aware of when designing or evaluating interface signs?”

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates that library programs and services must be accessible to people with disabilities. In an era in which much information resides in digitalized form on the WWW, the ADA’s mandate must be interpreted as applying not only to physical space but also to cyberspace. Just as in the physical world, proper design is a crucial issue. Only accessibly designed Web pages ensure that all people, including those with print disabilities, have access to Web‐based information. Previous studies indicate that a large proportion of campus and university library Web pages are not accessible. This study looks at the universities that, according to US News & World Report, have the nation’s 24 most highly ranked schools of library and information science (SLIS). The findings give cause for concern. It is reasonable to assume that low Web page accessibility at the nation’s leading library schools reflects a lack of awareness about this issue among the leaders and trainers in the library profession.

A fundamental internet marketing challenge is that consumers can quickly move from seeks to one web site to another if they cannot easily find what they want on a given web site. This paper address the web site navigational design issues associated with internet marketing.

A two‐year participant observation study in a UK tourism marketing organisation is provided in order to demonstrate a web site design approach in action.

Existing web site design approaches such as hierarchy charts and storyboards can assist in structuring web site content but do not necessarily cater well for making web sites straightforward to use by consumers. Human computer interface web site design approaches typically relate more to style, appearance and functionality than to structuring web site content. Web site content ranking and grouping can allow straightforward access to web site content, by making frequently required content the most accessible and by grouping related content for ease of identification. From a web site marketing perspective, the more accessible web site content relating to products and services offered, the more likely that such products and services will be purchased by the consumer.

If consumers are to use a web site and use it again in the future they need to be able to find what they require in a straightforward manner. Ranking web site content to present frequently required content earlier in the web site, and grouping web site content so that similar content appears on the same web page or on closely linked web pages can make a web site more straightforward to navigate. In a marketing context, the more accessible a web site, the more likelihood there is of repeat business from the consumer.

The originality of the research reported in this paper concerns the use of web site content ranking and grouping to design web sites that can enable straightforward access to information and transactions by consumers, and thus potentially increase both current sales and future repeat business.

The purpose of this paper is to find a better B2C environment through collecting what information and supporting interfaces are provided on current B2C web sites. We build a checklist based on the framework of B2C consumer behavior model and used it to evaluate current B2C web sites among three categories: purchasing process, types of products, and the source of web sites. The results indicated that poor information or supporting interface design was provided on web sites during the “evaluating and comparing” process. More information or supporting interface design was provided on the internet bookstore, less information or supporting interface design was provided on web sites that sell tickets and flowers. The local web sites provided more information or supporting interface design than international web sites. The results also showed that the difference is highly significant.