Results

A total of 101 responses, including 72 from university students, covering 17 Websites from the banking, recruitment, travel, retail and automotive sectors were collected.

Page Design and Layout

It was found that users seem to prefer less saturated colors. While a number of suites used both red and blue, only one got a relatively high rating. This could be attributed to the fact that the colors were less saturated, and so less obtrusive, and that there was less of the colour, rather using the colour to highlight more important areas.

There seem to be a general dislike for background colors. One site had a light blue background, and another had a yellow background. Neither got high ratings. On the other hand, a site with an off-white background did not get low ratings, which suggests t users do not like colored backgrounds.

Those sites packed with information, with little background space showing, did not get high ratings. Two sites with a high percentage of content and little background got low ratings, while two sites with a high percentage of blank space showing, got higher ratings. This suggests that users prefer sites to have some free space so that they are not too busy or full with information.

The one aspect of design that is strongly warned against by many authors is the use of frames, but the researchers did not find any evidence that users do not like them.

Navigation

Websites that have a high level of clarity and a well-defined layout are rated much higher than those sites with a "busy" layout. A greater use of white space, i.e., blank spaces on the page, translates into more favorable navigation ratings opposed to those with little blank space.

The pages whose navigation bars were both text and graphics based, also resulted in a favorable perception by the user of the site's navigation capabilities. Those Websites that had no navigation bars were rated average or below average by the respondents as these sites used plain links on the page. A possible explanation for this is the fact that the user does not have a feeling of a standard and structured navigation layout and therefore their experience, and thus, consequent satisfaction are detracted from.

Finally the use of well positioned and clearly defined sub-menus have a good effect on a user's satisfaction with the Website, as this provides the user with information in a neat and structured format.

Security and Privacy

Only one site, a bank, got a high ranking for security. This may be attributed to the fact that the design of the Website was extremely professional in comparison to the other sites, creating a sense of security, even though it may not have been one of the most secure Websites. The general sense of uncertainty could be attributed to the fact that South Africa has an emerging e-commerce market, and consumers have not yet adapted to the idea of their safety on the Internet.

There seemed to be no evidence that privacy statements and digital certificates had any affect whatsoever on the perceived security of the sites.

Usefulness

The sites preferred for usefulness had accuracy, reliability and relevance as common characteristics with regards to their information content.

Specifically, value added services provided by sites tended to translate into a favorable response from users. This included all the various possibilities and variations that a user might opt for or require whilst using the Website. Much attention was given to the accuracy, reliability and the relevance of the information on these sites in relation to their core business activities.

Conversely, the remaining sites were rated lower, due to the fact that these value added services were not present or were present but had no relevance to the Website's core business activities. Specifically, this could be seen on some sites that have these so called extras on the site, but are unrelated to any of the core activities performed by the businesses.

Often users did not find the information due to the poor design of the site's navigation.

The User

Since the sample consisted mostly of university students, it did not offer a wide range with regards to age, language and computer experience; therefore, no conclusions regarding this could be drawn.