Measuring website quality: asymmetric effect of user satisfaction

Website quality measurement tools have been largely static and have struggled to determine relevant attributes of user satisfaction. This study compares and contrasts attributes of user satisfaction based on usability guidelines seeking to identify practical easy-to-administer measurement tools. The website users assessed business school homepages according to six criteria and fulfilled a randomly assigned yet typical task. After completing the task, respondents assessed the same six website quality/satisfaction criteria again. The consumer-product relationship seems similar to the link between a user and a website. User satisfaction, just like consumer satisfaction, is asymmetric and non-linear. Content and navigation have been identified as key ingredients when users judged website quality, alerting web designers and website practitioners to focus more closely on those attributes. Similar lessons can be drawn for marketing professionals, who typically supervise or determine the content, structure and other website facets. 1. Introduction Since its rapid expansion in the mid 1990s, there has been growing research interest in investigating key elements leading to website quality and positive user experience. Several studies emphasized the role of content (Huizingh, 2000) and attributes contributing to the effective use of website content (Palmer, 2002 – e.g. navigation, layout and website structure). The importance of information in today's information saturated world and the information role of websites has been increasing (D'Ambra, and Wilson, 2004). Providing information used to be an original idea, which gave the www its birth. Information could itself be seen as a special product with many specifics (e.g. Raban, 2007). Similarly, website usability has been defined as " the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use " (ISO 9241-11: Guidance on Usability, 1998). Areas of effectiveness and efficiency can be perceived as necessary yet insufficient conditions for attaining subsequent user satisfaction. Therefore, usability research has shifted its focus to user experience and user satisfaction (Hassenzahl and Tractinsky, 2006), two areas related to a number of diverse phenomena (Forlizzi and Battarbee 2004), including beauty and aesthetics (Lingaard and Dudek, 2003). It is not website content but the emotional reaction to visual appeal which is much faster than intellectual reaction, linked with easily measurable website characteristics (Lindgaard, 2007). Such a strong initial emotional impression retains its importance, even for latter work with a particular website (Lindgaard et al., 2006). Empirical evidence indicates that users might …