A User-Centred Framework for Website Evaluation

The growth of the Internet has encouraged the creation of visually rich and perceptual interfaces on personal computers and mobile devices. Organisations develop websites for various purposes, and over time, the features and functions of websites have evolved significantly. Since website quality affects organisational performance, it is important to be able to assess the efficacy of websites. However, there are two key issues with the literature on website evaluation: a) a focus on specific aspects of website performance, not their overall impact, and b) limited attention on their ability to meet the broader needs of users, beyond usability and functionality, such as their social and emotional concerns. This paper uses design science to develop a theoreticallygrounded evaluation framework for this purpose. Drawing on Shneiderman (1998) and Brown (1999), the framework proposes that website evaluation should triangulate information from two sources (users and experts) and using different methods (task analysis with users, in-depth interview with users and expert reviews). The framework is applied in a website development project, and the results are discussed.