An empirical study of corporate Web site usability

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Huang, Albert H.

Affiliations: Eberhardt School of Business, University of the Pacific, 3601 Pacific Ave. Stockton, California, 95211, USA. Tel.: +1 209 946 2634; Fax: +1 209 946 2586; E-mail: ahuang@uop.edu

Abstract: Although corporate Web sites play many important roles in the modern business world, there is a surprising lack of empirical studies on their user interface. This study collected data from 50 Web sites owned by large international organizations. Analysis of the study's data: (1) provides an overview of the trends in corporate Web site design, (2) shows that many Web developers voluntarily adopt certain design conventions, and (3) indicates that most corporate Web sites do not make good use of multimedia capability. It further shows that, although some usability principles have been implemented, there is much room for improvement.

Keywords: WWW, Internet, web, usability, user interface, multimedia

DOI: 10.3233/HSM-2003-22103

Journal: Human Systems Management, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 23-36, 2003