E-Commerce and Usability

Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something. - Thomas Edison

               Themes in usability research

There are several standards of usability.  Some of the most widely known ones are the Microsoft standards, the ISO 9241-11(Green & Pearson, 2006) standard, and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998. Of these standards the Microsoft standards are most prevalent and more widely researched.  Research in the field of e-commerce and usability generally focus on how making visual changes to the website can increase or decrease revenue generated from the website (Cappel & Huang, 2007). 

There is also research on the motivation of the buyer.  Visitors to the website may lack the trust they need to purchase if a website seems unprofessional (Venkatesh & Agarwal, 2006).  There seems to be a correlation between the value of the product being sold and the need for the site to be looking more professional and stable (Tractinsky & Lowengart, 2007).  Related to motivation is the purpose of the buyer.  A buyer looking for a utilitarian items may be direct and to the point.  A simple search box may be all that buyer needs.  A hedonistic buyer is one that comes to the site without any preset idea about what they will buy.  For a hedonistic buyer, navigability is a key component their purchase on a website (To et al, 2007).

               Findings and Literature

Literature on topic of usability varies from article to article.  The term usability is often used to describe any different characteristics of a website.  For the purpose of this paper the term usability will be used to describe key factors that affect purchases and popularity and e-commerce websites.

                   Section 508

 Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998 is web standards that many large companies adhere to.  These standards allow visually impaired people to comfortably navigate website. A study in the Journal of Disability Policy Studies found that most sites fail to properly implement good accessibility standards (Jackson-Sanborn et al., p. 30).  Sites that do not properly follow these standards may make their site fully accessible to visually impaired.  Other studies note that there are many sites that are not fully accessible to people because of a number of reasons.  People with accessibility problems often to not buy from the site(Pearson & Pearson, 2008).  Some of these standards include: graphics lacking ALT tags, improper cluttered layout and organization, and compatibility problems with screen readers(Jaeger, 2008).

                   ISO Standard

The ISO standards breaks usability into several categories, these categories are; effectiveness efficiency, satisfaction and learning (Abran et al, p 334).   The ISO standards suffer from being too vague.  The ISO standards talk about many high level concepts like ease of use without defining what that exactly is.  While traits like effectiveness and learnability are good to have there is no correlation between correctly and leading ISO standards and revenue generation and e-commerce sites(Loorbach et al, p 193)

                   Microsoft Usability Standards

The Microsoft standards are a set of standards that are generally accepted in the usability industry.  Some of the standards are ease of use, made for the medium, emotion, content, and promotion (Pearson et al, 2007).  In studies, attention is paid to characteristics such as ease of use, customization ability, availability, and download speed (Pearson & Pearson, 2008).

                   Other Standards

Other research has been done on commonly held popular beliefs in the field of usability.  One such study reviewed aspects of usability such as use of blue underlined links, horizontal scrolling, and splash screens (Cappel & Huang, 2007).  While the common view of what is usable is oftentimes not scientific and based on style decisions, the scientific exploration of these traits are often valuable because they are used more commonly than any of the other standards in this paper.  Websites are often designed by what is popular at the moment.  Website usability standards often change in this environment.  For example, blue underlined links which are a popular way to show a navigation point have now become less popular and image links are considered more usable. 

                   Motivation

Research has been done that shows not every user who comes to a website is there for the same thing.  Some people known as utilitarian users know exactly what they want and need the quickest way to get there.  These users tend to frequent sites that are concise and easy to navigate, while hedonistic users do not know exactly what they want and tend to browse the site more.  These people tend to visit sites that allow them to browse more easily (To et al, 2007).  An example of a utilitarian website would be a website that sells boxes.  For such a website people tend to become less likely to buy if they can’t find what they are looking for.  An example of a hedonistic website would be a site such as Imagekind.  In this site people browse images and if they find one that they like they can purchase a print.

               Strengths and weaknesses

Research on the topic can help web site companies improve their web sites as well as improve usability of websites.  Research shows that people will tend to frequent sites who design makes people trust them more and also are easy to understand and navigate.  A research study found that when  people developed an image of the website as usable they tended to frequent the website more often(Yun & Good, 2007).

Research on the topic lacks a large amount of empirical evidence (Peason et al, 2007, Castro et al, 2007).  The term usability means different things to different people.  It can mean ease of use on one study and embody certain characteristics in another. This presents a problem when trying to research a specific case. The terminology can also be quite ambiguous.  Ease of use is a term that can be hard to quantify.

               Further research

Further research is needed on the low-level elements of usability.  There has been a good deal of research about ease-of-use; however, there are very few studies that show what elements on a web page making it easier to use.

Further research needs to be done that compare elements such as blue underline links and image links.  Research can be done that compares design change elements with website usage.  There are sites that monitor and ranked website usage such as compete.com and Alexa.com.   Terms such as ease of use and navagatability are hard to pin down to actual design changes.  Many companies such as Amazon.com review changes to their webpages to see which design changes will have the biggest impact on revenue.  Academic research like the kind done on Amazon.com needs to be done. 

               Conclusion

The topic of usability and website popularity is fairly new.  In the past two years there has been an attempt to quantify design elements with revenue or popularity.  These studies show that there are more to usability than just style elements.  A website involved with e-commerce should give the user a feel of trust(Venkatesh & Agarwal, 2006)  and be fast and easy to use(Pearson & Pearson 2007).  Navigability is key to the success of a website.  When people can find what they want they are more content with the website(Castro et al, 2007).

               References

Abran, A., & Khelifi, A., & Suryn, W., & Seffah, A. (2003). Usability meanings and interpretations in ISO standards. Software Quality Journal, 11(4), 325-338.  Retrieved November 24, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database.

Cappel, J., Huang Z. (2007). A usability analysis of company websites. The Journal of Computer Information Systems, 48, 117-123.  Retrieved October 21, 2008, from ABI/INFORM.

Castro, C. C., Santiago, M., Genero, M.,  Poels, G., Calero, C. (2007). Towards improving the navigability of web applications: A model-driven approach. European Journal of Information Systems,16, 420-447.  Retrieved October 25, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database.

Green, D., &  Pearson, M. J. (2006). Development of a web site usability instrument based on ISO 9241-11. The Journal of Computer Information Systems, 47(1), 66-72.  Retrieved November 24, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database.

Jackson-Sanborn, E., & Odess-Harnish, K., & Warren, N. (2002). Web site accessibility: A study of six genres. Library Hi Tech, 20(3), 308-317.  Retrieved November 24, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database.

Jaeger, P. T. (2008). User-centered policy evaluations of section 508 of the rehabilitation act: Evaluating e-government web sites for accessibility for persons with disabilities. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 19(1), 24-33.  Retrieved December 10, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database.

Loorbach, N., & Steehouder, M., & Taal, E. (2006). The effects of motivational elements in user instructions. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 20(2), 177-199.  Retrieved November 24, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database. 

Pearson, M. J., & Pearson, A., & Green D. (2007). Determining the importance of key criteria in web usability. Management Research News, 30(11), 816-828

Pearson, M. J., &  Pearson, A.  (2008). An exploratory study into determining the relative importance of key criteria in web usability: A multi-criteria approach. The Journal of Computer Information Systems, 48(4), 115-127.

To, P., & Liao, C., & Lin, T. (2007) Shopping motivations on Internet: A study based on utilitarian and hedonic value, Technovation, 27(12), December 2007, 774-787 

Tractinsky, N., & Lowengart, O. (2007). Web-store aesthetics in e-retailing: A conceptual framework and some theoretical implications. Academy of Marketing Science Review, 207(1). Retrieved October 26, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database.

Vessey, R. I., & Glass, V. R. (Fall 2002). Research in information systems: An empirical study of diversity in the discipline and its journals. Journal of Management Information Systems, 19, 129-174. Retrieved October 25, 2008, from Business Source Complete database.

Venkatesh, V.,  Agarwal, R (2006). Turning Visitors into Customers: A Usability-Centric Perspective on Purchase Behavior in Electronic Channels. Management Science, 52(3), 367-382.  Retrieved November 24, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database

Wang, L., & Baker, J., & Wagner, J., & Wakefield, K. (2007). Can a retail web site be social?. Journal of Marketing, 71(3), 143-157. Retrieved November 25, 2008, from Business Source Premier database.

Yun, Z., & Good, L. K. (2007). Developing customer loyalty from e-tail store image attributes. Managing Service Quality, 17(1), 4.  Retrieved November 25, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database