6 Number of options
Psychologists recommend having a limited number of choices within each menu. If a
menu has more than seven, it is probably necessary to add another level to the hierarchy
to accommodate the extra choices.Page design
The page design involves creating an appropriate layout for each page. The main ele-
ments of a particular page layout are the title, navigation and content. Standard content
such as copyright information may be added to every page as a footer. Issues in page
design include:
Page elements. We have to consider the proportion of page devoted to content com-
pared to all other material such as headers, footers and navigation elements. The
location of these elements also needs to be considered. It is conventional for the main
menu to be at the top or on the left. The use of a menu system at the top of the
browser window allows more space for content below.
The use of frames. This is generally discouraged since it makes search engine registra-
tion more difficult and makes printing and bookmarking more difficult for visitors.
Resizing. A good page layout design should allow for the user to change the size of text
or work with different monitor resolutions.
Consistency. Page layout should be similar for all areas of the site unless more space is
required, for example for a discussion forum or product demonstration. Standards of
colour and typography can be enforced through cascading style sheets.
Printing. Layout should allow for printing or provide an alternative printing format.Content design
The home page is particularly important in achieving marketing actions – if the cus-
tomers do not understand or do not buy into the proposition of the site, then they will
leave. Gleisser (2001) states that it is important to clarify what he refers to as ‘the essen-
tials’ of: who we are, what we offer, what is inside and how to contact us.
A study of the advertising impact of web site content design has been conducted by
Pak (1999). She reviewed the techniques on web sites used to communicate the message
to the customer in terms of existing advertising theory. The study considered the creative
strategy used, in terms of the rational and emotional appeals contained within the visuals
and the text. As would be expected intuitively, the appeal of the graphics was more emo-
tional than that for the text; the latter used a more rational appeal. The study also
considered the information content of the advertisements using classification schemes
such as that of Resnik and Stern (1977). The information cues are still relevant to modern
web site design. Some of the main information cues, in order of frequency of use, were:
performance (what does the product do?);
components/content (what is the product made up of?);
price/value;
implicit comparison;
availability;
quality;
special offers;
explicit comparisons.CHAPTER 7· DELIVERING THE ONLINE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCEINMA_C07.QXD 17/5/06 4:23 pm Page 332