A Two-Factor Theory for Website Design

This study was designed to verify whether an analogy to Herzberg’s hygiene-motivational theory about workplace could be used in the web environment. According to this analogy, the presence of hygiene factors would provide the basic functionality of a website, while their absence would create user dissatisfaction. Motivating factors are those that contribute to user satisfaction. They add additional value and may entice users to keep returning to a website. In Phase I, we identified 44 core features in the web environment that were classified into 12 categories by subjects. In Phase II, a different group of subjects in a pilot study were asked to distinguish between the hygiene and motivational characteristics of these features and categories. The preliminary results show that 4 categories and 14 features were judged to be primarily motivational, while 3 categories and 13 features were perceived to be primarily hygiene in nature. The remaining 5 categories and 17 features were perceived to be both.