A Study Of Web-Designers’ Criteria For Effective Business-To-Consumer (B2c) Websites Using The Repertory Grid Technique

Author: 

Felix B Tan
Lai-Lai Tung
Yun Xu

Abstract: 

Organizations are increasingly using websites not only to capture but also to build relationships with their desired markets. A clear understanding of how best to design effective B2C websites (for both e-commerce and e-service) is therefore vital. Despite its importance, research into the effectiveness of B2C websites remains highly fragmented and user-centric, ignoring the views of web-designers. This study therefore aims to investigate what web-designers consider as attributes of “effective” B2C websites. The relationships amongst attributes are also explored. Twenty web-designers were interviewed using the Repertory Grid Technique in order to elicit factors that they consider important when designing or developing B2C websites. Using a data reduction approach, the elicited attributes were then classified into 14 meta-categories. These meta-categories were compared to prior research. We found that although several meta-categories have been extensively covered in the literature, little attention have been paid to some meta-categories including ‘Establishing Website Identity’; ‘Categorization of Information’; ‘Presentation of Information’; ‘Advertisements, Pop-Ups and Animation”; and “Headlines”. The inductive approach also permitted the elicitation of the relationships among these meta-categories, giving us a richer understanding of how different website characteristics influence each other. Implications and future research are discussed.

Key Word: 

Published Date: 

August, 2009

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