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1 – 10 of over 24000Fan-Chen Tseng, Tzu-Ling Huang, T. C. E. Cheng and Ching-I Teng
The five-factor model (FFM), a popular personality typology that identifies five key personality traits, has been used to predict use intention in various e-commerce applications…
Abstract
Purpose
The five-factor model (FFM), a popular personality typology that identifies five key personality traits, has been used to predict use intention in various e-commerce applications, but the role of FFM in triggering certain evaluations of the various quality dimensions of e-commerce websites has not been examined, revealing a gap, i.e. the authors do not know how the five personality traits impact evaluations of the quality dimensions of e-commerce websites. The 3Q model—which comprises system quality (SysQ), information quality (IQ), and service quality (SQ), spanning 13 quality dimensions—is helpful for evaluating website quality, but the model neglects user characteristics and their impacts on quality evaluation, posing another gap, i.e. the authors do not know how user characteristics impact the user's evaluation of quality dimensions. Thus, the authors used the FFM to extend the 3Q model to explain how user personality predicts the evaluation of websites in the 13 quality dimensions.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used an online survey to collect responses from 392 online shoppers. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The authors found that openness in a shopper predicts their favorable evaluation of a website in the quality dimensions of format and flexibility; conscientiousness predicts favorable evaluation in terms of completeness, accuracy, currency, timeliness, and service reliability; neuroticism predicts unfavorable evaluation in terms of reliability, accessibility, and assurance; and extraversion predicts favorable evaluation in terms of responsiveness; while agreeableness did not predict empathy.
Originality/value
In sum, the authors successfully used the FFM to theoretically extend the 3Q model, which clarifies the usefulness and pathways of personality in formulating strategies for e-commerce success.
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Bonnie Farber Canziani and Dianne H.B. Welsh
The study aims to offer a general review of website evaluation, with particular application to the winery tourism field. Automated website evaluation is explored as a…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to offer a general review of website evaluation, with particular application to the winery tourism field. Automated website evaluation is explored as a complementary tool in the evaluation of small and medium enterprise (SME) winery websites.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopted a mixed-method investigation including a critical review of winery website evaluation literature and analysis of winery website scores generated through a free service of a commercial automated evaluation scoring system.
Findings
No standards currently exist for winery website evaluation metrics and current evaluation processes suffer from human rater bias. An automated evaluation scoring system used in the study was able to discriminate between a sample of known best practice websites and other independently formed samples representing average wineries in the USA and in North Carolina.
Research limitations/implications
Wineries and other small business tourism firms can benefit by incorporating automated website evaluation and benchmarking into their internet strategies. Reported human rater limitations noted in manual evaluation may be minimized using automated rating technology. Automated evaluation system metrics tend to be updated more frequently and offer better alignment with trending consumer expectations for website design.
Originality/value
The current study used an automated website quality evaluation tool that serves to move winery website design efforts forward and supports the goals of reputation management for tourism businesses relying on internet marketing.
To introduce a cognitive approach – cognitive task analysis (CTA) – for the usability evaluation of evidence‐based nursing (EBN) websites.
Abstract
Purpose
To introduce a cognitive approach – cognitive task analysis (CTA) – for the usability evaluation of evidence‐based nursing (EBN) websites.
Design/methodology/approach
With the justification of the need for new evaluation methodologies for the usability of EBN websites and the provision of the theoretical framework and implications of CTA, the author proposes detailed steps for the usability evaluation of EBN websites.
Findings
CTA is a new approach that can be used for the evaluation of the usability of EBN websites. It has the advantages that conventional evaluation methods lack in characterizing the aspects of websites useful to nurses in carrying out evidence‐based practices.
Originality/value
This paper, with the introduction of a new cognitive approach, helps ensure the effective evaluation of the EBN websites, which can then be improved to adequately meet the requirements and information processing needs of the nurses practising evidence‐based nursing.
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Monireh Gharibe Niazi, Masumeh Karbala Aghaei Kamran and Amir Ghaebi
This study aims to design a proposed framework for evaluating university websites.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to design a proposed framework for evaluating university websites.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is an exploratory mixed research. It was an applied research in terms of objective and used the Delphi technique and systematic review and meta-analysis approaches. Data collection tools were done through library studies, Delphi checklist and observation. The statistical population of the research comprised 17 experts who are designers of university websites and 20 Iranian university websites selected from the Webometrics website. The statistical data were analyzed using fuzzy methods, descriptive and inferential statistical methods and the SWARA weighting method. Also, the statistical analysis software SPSS 20 and Excel 2016, TOPSIS engineering software and MAXQDA were used.
Findings
Findings indicated that the dimensions of the designed proposed framework in order of their weights are credibility (0.130), reliability (0.125), usability (0.120), website design (0.110), functionality (0.104), content (0.100), page design (0.0922), efficiency (0.082), Webometrics (0.070) and systematic evaluation (0.067). Mebrate’s (2010) framework had the highest overlap (mean = 74.65), and Webometrics (mean = 18.5) had the least overlap and dependency (mean = 19) with the proposed framework. In the evaluation of the 20 university websites of Iran selected from the Webometrics site, the University of Tehran was ranked first with a score of 82.7 and Shiraz University was ranked last with a score of 75.
Originality/value
This study provides a comprehensive proposed framework for evaluating university websites that eliminates the shortcomings of all models, frameworks and methods of university website evaluation that focused only on one or more dimensions of university websites.
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Maria del Carmen Suarez-Torrente, Patricia Conde-Clemente, Ana Belén Martínez and Aquilino A. Juan
The purpose of this paper is to improve and facilitate the work of developers and usability evaluators by providing an adaptable and effective support. A well-defined set of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to improve and facilitate the work of developers and usability evaluators by providing an adaptable and effective support. A well-defined set of criteria and a range of evaluation values for each criterion as well as a complete websites classification, will guide evaluators. A usability percentage and a list of prioritized criteria, adapted to the type of website by a new usability metric, will help developers to improve the website. This improvement will increase the degree of web user satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
Having established and validated a new usability evaluation framework, several usability tools have been analyzed. None of them totally fulfills the requirements of the evaluation framework. As a result of being unable to customize any of them, a new one has been developed. A study of 42 enterprise websites in an economically depressed region of Europe was performed using the new tool. This study involved 42 evaluators and 118 web users. Users have evaluated the websites before and after the redesign. A end-user computing satisfaction model-based questionary was used to collect data about end-user satisfaction. The results validate the proposal.
Findings
The study confirms that the proposed tool provides valuable information during the process of web development, evaluation and redesign. In adittion, it reveals that improving websites usability by ensuring criteria compliance has a positive effect on web users satisfaction.
Originality/value
Unlike previous purposes, the proposed tool allows to evaluate any type of website with a well-defined set of evaluation criteria and specific criteria values. As outcomes, the tool provides the website usability degree and a list of criteria ordered by priority repair. These results are adapted to the specific type of website. This makes easier and more effective the redesign of the evaluated website.
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Isabel Mariann Silvis, Theo J.D. Bothma and Koos J.W. de Beer
The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrated list of heuristics and an information architecture (IA) framework for the heuristic evaluation of the IA of academic library…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrated list of heuristics and an information architecture (IA) framework for the heuristic evaluation of the IA of academic library websites as well as an evaluation framework with practical steps on how to conduct the evaluation.
Design/methodology/approach
A set of 14 heuristics resulted from an integration of existing usability principles from authorities in the field of usability. A review of IA literature resulted in a framework for dividing academic library websites into six dialogue elements. The resulting heuristics were made applicable to academic library websites through the addition of recommendations based on a review of 20 related studies.
Findings
This study provides heuristics, a framework and workflow guidelines that can be used by the various evaluators of academic library websites, i.e. library staff, web developers and usability experts, to provide recommendations for improving its usability.
Research limitations/implications
The focus of the usability principles is the evaluation of the IA aspects of websites and therefore does not provide insights into accessibility or visual design aspects.
Originality/value
The main problem that is addressed by this study is that there are no clear guidelines on how to apply existing usability principles for the evaluation of the IA of academic library websites.
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Sunny Sun, Davis Ka Chio Fong, Rob Law and Shan He
This study aims to review published articles on website evaluation in hospitality and tourism for the period of 2000-2015 to provide a comprehensive updated review, as well as to…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to review published articles on website evaluation in hospitality and tourism for the period of 2000-2015 to provide a comprehensive updated review, as well as to offer implications for academic researchers and industry practitioners.
Design/methodology/approach
Content analysis was adopted by this study to review retrieved articles on website evaluation in hospitality and tourism. Articles were then analyzed from consumers’ perspective, suppliers’ perspective, and both consumers and suppliers’ perspectives using a systematic approach.
Findings
Major findings of this study showed that a majority of articles focused on either hospitality or tourism. Moreover, most of the articles generally discussed user interface, marketing effectiveness and website quality. However, these articles did not discuss in detail the implications of website evaluation and ignore the connections between suppliers and consumers to some extent.
Research limitations/implications
This study can be used as a reference for academic researchers to extend previous frameworks and for industry practitioners to reconstruct the traditional organizational chart and implementing e-strategic management strategies, including m-marketing.
Originality/value
This study updates website evaluation development in hospitality and tourism in the new millennium. The findings of this study provide significant implications for hospitality and tourism researchers and practitioners to encourage supplier-consumer engagement.
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Alejandro Morales-Vargas, Rafael Pedraza-Jimenez and Lluís Codina
The field of website quality evaluation attracts the interest of a range of disciplines, each bringing its own particular perspective to bear. This study aims to identify the main…
Abstract
Purpose
The field of website quality evaluation attracts the interest of a range of disciplines, each bringing its own particular perspective to bear. This study aims to identify the main characteristics – methods, techniques and tools – of the instruments of evaluation described in this literature, with a specific concern for the factors analysed, and based on these, a multipurpose model is proposed for the development of new comprehensive instruments.
Design/methodology/approach
Following a systematic bibliographic review, 305 publications on website quality are examined, the field's leading authors, their disciplines of origin and the sectors to which the websites being assessed belong are identified, and the methods they employ characterised.
Findings
Evaluations of website quality tend to be conducted with one of three primary focuses: strategic, functional or experiential. The technique of expert analysis predominates over user studies and most of the instruments examined classify the characteristics to be evaluated – for example, usability and content – into factors that operate at different levels, albeit that there is little agreement on the names used in referring to them.
Originality/value
Based on the factors detected in the 50 most cited works, a model is developed that classifies these factors into 13 dimensions and more than 120 general parameters. The resulting model provides a comprehensive evaluation framework and constitutes an initial step towards a shared conceptualization of the discipline of website quality.
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The paper aims to evaluate the usability of the website of Central Science Library (CSL), University of Delhi. Multi-method approach of evaluation is used with the use of standard…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to evaluate the usability of the website of Central Science Library (CSL), University of Delhi. Multi-method approach of evaluation is used with the use of standard checklist and questionnaire survey of representative users. Besides, the information architecture of the website under study is analysed in this paper.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the literature review and the author’s experience, a usability assessment tool for library websites was developed by Pant (2013). It comprises standard checklist and questionnaire for users’ survey. In the present study, this framework was used to assess the usability of CSL website. The questionnaire survey of 35 representative users was conducted through random sampling. The results of both methods (standard checklist and questionnaire survey) were analysed for evaluating the website usability.
Findings
Need for improvement of the website was realised in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and learnability for better usability. Notice board, site search facility, list of services, FAQs and user guides were the most sought after features among others as per the analysis of the questionnaire survey. Besides, the need to enhance the visual appeal of the website was felt. However, information resources provided through the CSL website were found useful for users.
Originality/value
The paper presents an innovative multi-method approach of website usability assessment while considering six usability attributes: Usefulness, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Learnability, Satisfaction and Accessibility. The approach adopted in this paper is cost effective in comparison to formal usability tests and heuristic evaluation. Therefore, this framework is suitable for libraries having limited budget to ensure the user-centred library website with maximum usability. This paper encourages other libraries to conduct similar website usability evaluation to identify the usability problem areas and users’ perception for their respective website.
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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the usability of the National Library of Turkey website developed for all citizens in the country to retrieve information available in a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the usability of the National Library of Turkey website developed for all citizens in the country to retrieve information available in a wide range of areas.
Design/methodology/approach
The evaluation performed by 57 undergraduate university students involved the identification and analysis of usability problems in the selected website. The assessment process was mainly based on Nielsen’s Heuristics. The data obtained in the evaluation process were enriched using the System Usability Scale (SUS) and the Net Promoter Score (NPS) to conduct a more detailed analysis.
Findings
The participants identified many usability problems concerning the evaluated website and considered it as having low usability characteristics. The most violated heuristic item was found to be “consistency and standards” whereas the least violated heuristic item was “match between system and the real world.” The total number of the usability problems in heuristic evaluation correlated significantly and negatively with the SUS and the NPS results indicating that the more participants identified usability problems, the less they considered the website as usable and recommendable.
Research limitations/implications
The participants were not usability experts, however they were selected from among the students who received the Human Computer Interaction course to ensure that they had sufficient information and experience concerning the evaluation of a website with heuristics. Besides, the study was limited to a small number of university students. The implication is that results of this study have potential to guide libraries, which plan to adapt themselves to the digital world by delivering web services, by addressing critical points influencing users’ points of views toward library websites and their usability evaluation result.
Practical implications
Depending on the changes in user habits regarding the retrieval of information, libraries have made considerable investments in web technologies to meet their users’ demands, and recently, digital libraries have begun to take over physical libraries. Users always need to perform tasks efficiently, effectively and satisfactorily when using websites. As one of the most crucial sources of digital materials, library websites are expected to have usable characteristics that satisfactorily meet user requirements. Therefore, the practical implication is that the findings of the study will guide designers, developers and practitioners in the development of library websites.
Originality/value
In the context of usability evaluation of digital libraries, this is the first study to analyze effects of usability problems identified by users during the heuristic inspection on their overall evaluation score and willingness to recommend the website to their friends or colleagues.
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