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Do you know what your website's
visitors think about your site? A number of academic
studies* have shown that consumers evaluate websites
based on three main criteria - Entertainment, Informativeness
and Organisation. What do each of these mean?
1. Entertainment
Research shows the most entertaining
websites have 3 main things in common. They are imaginative,
fun and exciting to visit. Websites that have been found
to provide entertainment include Disney.com and amazon.com
(to name just a few). Very
few websites can be considered entertaining, so if your
site is able to achieve this, you can gain a rare competitive
advantage.
2. Informative
Informative websites are helpful,
knowledgeable, resourceful, useful, and intelligent.
Websites that score highly on Informativeness include
Dell.com and Woolworths.com. If
the main aim of your company, and your website is to
provide people with information, then users will place
the most importance on how informative your site is,
when deciding on their overall attitude.
3. Organisation
Organisation (or a non-irritating
site) is one of the most important factors contributing
to the way your company is perceived by current and
potential clients. Sites
that are confusing, cumbersome, slow or messy all rate
low on the Organisation evaluation criteria.
Overall, these 3 criteria - Informativeness, Entertainment
and Organisation are the most important dimensions employed
by users when they are assessing a website.
When evaluating if your firm's
site needs to be changed, you must decide what are the
objectives of your particular site and what are the
expected objectives of the visitors to the site. For
example, you must determine if users visiting your firm's
site for the purposes of entertainment or to collect
information. The answer will then determine the focus
of your firm's site. Since, the focus is the most important
factor users will use to form their overall attitude
to your website.
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