Two approaches for website design: The open and strongly hyperlinked structure associated with “information architecture” and a more closed approach based upon narrative techniques are compared through analysis and user observation. As a result, a hybrid approach to website design, known as the reformulated accordion structure, is suggested.

Prior studies have suggested that a good website design which facilitates a person’s web browsing behaviour would generally lead to better user performance. In this research, we examine user website behaviour as a way to understand Website design. Main theoretical contributions of this research are the illustration of the flow of cognitive processes during the website browsing and the establish...

Many Web sites are for one use only and need to guide users through paths of decisions and data entering. Users use to feel insecure entering data in not well-known sites and don’t mind at all being guided in their first try. Goals Driven User Interfaces (GDUI) are based on an interaction style specially conceived for this type of users (occasional users). The traditional method that still prev...

Web sites play a critical role in attracting customers. Many Web sites provide different functionalities to assist customers in decision-making. Despite the importance of different types of functionalities provided by Web sites, there is little knowledge about how Web customers’ satisfaction is formulated using Web-based decision support systems (DSS). In this study, we develop a conceptual mod...

Two experiments were designed to replicate and extend [Lindgaard et al.’s, 2006. Attention web designers: you have 50ms to make a good first impression! Behaviour and Information Technology 25(2), 115–126] findings that users can form immediate aesthetic impression of web pages, and that these impressions are highly stable. Using explicit (subjective evaluations) and implicit (response latency)...

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the determinants of e-consumer productivity on a virtual store. This study drew on research dealing with consumer productivity, information retrieving and website design. A 2x2x2 online experiment with a sample of 350 participants was conducted. Results showed that e-consumer productivity depended on individual characteristics (e.g., Internet experie...

Guidelines for e-commerce website design deal well with the more objective aspects of page design, but have less to say about overall site structure and users' emotional responses. In this study we used a semiotic approach to investigate how several fashion websites provide affordances for navigation and produce affective responses. We gained some interesting insights into how users interpret t...

This study examines the Arabic interface design elements that are largely influenced by the cultural values. Cultural markers are examined in websites from educational, business, and media. Cultural values analysis is based on Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. The findings show that there are cultural markers which are largely influenced by the culture and that the Hofstede’s score for Arab...

This study compares previous analytical findings in the area of cultural web design using Hofstede’s dimensions with findings from a three year case study. This case study used an ethnographic and user-centric approach to better integrate cultural requirements into the website for a specific Indigenous community. We overview this design process and describe the ten key design features that were...

This paper reports results of a workshop on the design of electronic content for users with Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD), particularly Arabic dyslexics. First we shed some light on the nature of the Arabic language and discuss features that account for the unique needs of Arabic users with reading disorders. Then we present recommendations for accessible web design for Arabic content i...