Evaluation Of Quality Dimensions Of Web Sites

In this paper, the factors that affect the quality of web sites have been evaluated. The facts that how an internet user evaluate the quality of a web site that he visited and which factors affect the internet user to visit the same web site again in the future are discussed. In this context, the literature has been reviewed and the quality dimensions of web sites and electronic commerce have been evaluated. In the direction of the main question, can SERVQUALmodel which is used for evaluating the quality of service operations be used in the evaluation of web sites’quality?, standards, models and the researches in the literature about the evaluation of web sites’ quality have been examined. SERVQUAL model which is used for evaluating the quality of service operations can be used in the evaluation of web sites’quality. However, there will be differentiation in the dimensions of SERVQUALmodel when used for the evaluation of web sites’quality.The Quality of Web Sites, Web Site Design, Electronic Commerce, SERVQUALModel.

Designing and Maintaining Law Library Web Sites: Some Practical Considerations

In recent years law library Web sites have become an increasing presence on the Internet. In a recent Law Library Journal article, Marie Stefanini Newman discussed criteria to use in evaluating law-oriented Internet sites. This article will expand upon some of the principles she addressed by exploring the design and maintenance of law library Web sites. Given that most law libraries now have at least a basic Web site, this article will not discuss HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and methods of using such Web-design tools as Microsoft FrontPage; such information changes over time. Instead the primary focus will be on specific, practical suggestions for designing and maintaining an effective law library Web site. To this end, the author will consider various general library Web site design principles and place them in the context of law library Web sites. The author also reviews a number of elements that typically are incorporated in such sites. Appendixes A and B list resources and include tables that further explain the principles discussed in the article

SMILE: the creation of space for interaction through blended digital technology

Interactive Learning Environments at Sussex University is a course in which students are given mobile devices (XDAs) with PDA functionality and full Internet access for the duration of the term. They are challenged to design and evaluate learning experiences, both running and evaluating learning sessions that involve a blend of technologies. Data on technology usage was collected via backups, email and web-site logging as well as video and still photography of student-led sessions. Initial analysis indicates that large amounts of technical support, solid pedagogical underpinning and a flexible approach to both delivery context and medium are essential. The project operated under the acronym SMILE – Sussex Mobile Interactive Learning Environment

REVIEW PAPER ON WEB PAGE PREDICTION USING DATA MINING

The continuous growth of the World Wide Web imposes the need of new methods of design and determines how to access a web page in the web usage mining by performing preprocessing of the data in a web page and development of on-line information services. The need for predicting the user’s needs in order to improve the usability and user retention of a web site is more than evident now a day. Without proper guidance, a visitor often wanders aimlessly without visiting important pages, loses interest, and leaves the site sooner than expected. In proposed system focus on investigating efficient and effective sequential access pattern mining techniques for web usage data. The mined patterns are then used for matching and generating web links for online recommendations. A web page of interest application will be developed for evaluating the quality and effectiveness of the discovered knowledge.   Keyword: Webpage Prediction, Web Mining, MRF, ANN, KNN, GA

Usability Analysis in Practice: Assessment for Redesign of the School of Information & Library Science Web Site

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Information and Library Science (SILS) web site has existed in its current form for almost three years while web design has evolved from more simple design practices of the late 1990's, leaving the current web site dated in terms of usability and visual design. The current SILS web site draws verbal complaints from many users although little qualitative data and no concrete quantitative data has been collected regarding problems with the current site, or any previous iteration of the SILS web site. This usability study was designed to analyze the current site and identify major issues so that a more user-centric site may be developed to replace the current one. As well, it will for the first time record quantitative data on the SILS web site and establish benchmark measures that future iterative designs can be compared against. This study was designed along the guidelines of two major usability experts - Jeffrey Rubin and Jakob Nielsen - to be a quick, inexpensive and effective method of evaluating a web site design

Evaluating online newspapers using established web design guidelines

This study describes the results from an evaluation of 10 online newspapers against Web design guidelines from Jared Spool's Web Site Usability, Jakob Nielsen's Designing Web Usability and CNET Networks' Tips From CNET Designers. Evaluating a Web site against design guidelines is valuable in determining a site's usability. Newspapers have turned to the World Wide Web as an additional medium for distributing information and are now depending on their Web sites to generate additional revenue. Usability is an essential factor in attracting and preserving a large Web site audience. Web sites that scored high in this evaluation generally relied on a clear, thorough hypertext navigation system and efficient use of images. The sites evaluated in this study were BayArea.com, CJOnline.com, islandpacket.com, latimes.com, NOLA.com, NYTimes.com, Projo.com, tampatrib.com, USAToday.com and washingtonpost.co

Recall of Landmarks in Information Space

Research on navigation and landmarks in physical space, information space and virtual reality environments indicates that landmarks play an important role in all types of navigation. This dissertation tackles the problem of defining and evaluating the characteristics of landmarks in information space. This work validates a recent theory that three types of characteristics, structural, visual and semantic, are important for effective landmarks.This dissertation applies concepts and techniques from the extensive body of research on physical space navigation to the investigation of landmarks on a web site in the World Wide Web. Data was collected in two experiments to examine characteristics of web pages on the University of Pittsburgh web site. In addition, objective measurements were made to examine the characteristics of web pages with relation to the experimental data. The two experiments examined subjects' knowledge, use and evaluation of web pages. This research is unique in research on web navigation in its use of experimental techniques that ask subjects to recall from memory possible navigation paths and URLs.Two measures of landmark quality were used to examine the characteristics of landmarks; one, an algorithm that incorporated objective measures of the structural, visual and semantic characteristics of each web page, and the second, a measure based on the experimental data regarding subjects' knowledge and evaluation of the page.Analysis of this data from a web space confirms the tri-partite theory of characteristics of landmarks. Significant positive correlations were found between the objective and subjective landmark measures, indicating that this work is an important step toward the ability to objectively evaluate web pages and web site design in terms of landmarks. This dissertation further suggests that researchers can utilize the characteristics to analyze and improve the design of information spaces, leading to more effective navigation

A Structural Model of Managing E-commerce Transaction Quality and Perceived Online Transaction Value

Conceptualizing e-service quality and understanding its performance implications have become an important research topic given the fast development of internet technologies and various business models of e-commerce by means of expanding online marketplaces. There are two common online platforms for e-commerce portals: Corporate companies’ own Web sites (e.g., Walmart.com and Dell.com) that offer the online purchase option as an alternative to the traditional retailing stores; and the third-party (T-P) Web sites (e.g., eBay.com and Amazon.com) that provide the online platforms to facilitate the transactions between buyers and sellers. This paper focuses on the e-commerce platforms that mainly function as third-party intermediaries to facilitate the business transactions on the online marketplaces. Previous research on the e-commerce platforms mainly touches on the design of the websites itself in terms of easy access, ease of using technology, payment security, etc.; yet when the e-commerce portals serve as an intermediary platform, both the online platform and the participating sellers independent of the web site will jointly influence the transaction process. Consequently, a comprehensive e-service quality evaluation of e-commerce platforms as intermediaries should include both the evaluation of functionality of the web site itself, and the performance assessment of independent sellers that are operating on the web site. As such, the current study tends to investigate the joint impacts of both e-commerce platform and the performance of independent sellers on users’ experience – perceived online transaction value and the ensuing satisfaction. Prior studies have recognized the importance of e-retailing and developed multiple scales of e-service quality (e.g., Collier and Bienstock, 2006; Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Malhotra, 2005). Those studies emphasize the multi-dimensional nature of evaluating e-commerce platforms and propose a variety of components of e-service quality such as Web site design, security, web site service, easy to use, etc. Those quality dimensions developed in the traditional literatures focused on the corporate website design are believed to be applicable to the context of e-commerce platforms as intermediaries, and are included in the hypotheses tests. Meanwhile, this study also tries to fill the research gap in the third-party website context by including two additional dimensions that investigate the independent sellers’ performance as they operate on the web sites. Specifically, the additional components of e-service quality try to examine independent sellers’ ability to deliver the product as promised (i.e., in time and in proper conditions), and sellers’ willingness to professionally address the online transaction issues in a timely manner. Specifically, our research question is: what are the combining effects of web site attributes and sellers’ performance on the online transaction experience as measured by the perceived online transaction value and satisfaction

Cost Effective Evaluation of Companies’ Storytelling on the Web

Abstract: In this paper we present a cost effective and simple procedure for evaluating company web sites. Our assumption is that such sites are places for companies’ self-presentation and that customers are readers of these texts. Web site texts with narrative qualities, e.g. scenes, actors, acts, initiate the customers’ imagination and narrative mind and hence their decision making. These ideas are investigated in a qualitative study of two companies’ self-presentation as future work places for students. The results demonstrate that the students choose the company that has a web site with rich narrative qualities above the company that has a web site with good graphical appearance, but poor narrative qualities. In conclusion, we suggest that user centred evaluation of commercial web sites by using the suggested method can pay attention to deep, narrative structures in both the company’s self-presentation and the customers’ reading of the web site texts. Keywords: Competitive advantage, decision-making, dramas, imagination, narratives, storytelling, web-design