In spite of numerous practical guidelines on Web design, there are few academic publications in this area. In the digital economy, developing an influential multinational Internet presence requires designing Web sites to attract more potential customers in a diverse multi-cultural environment. An effective Web site acquires a broad audience. But achieving this goal needs considerable effort. Robbin et al. (2003) developed a conceptual model that differentiates Web site content from design. The content component addresses the issue of what is included in the site and identifies the various types of information and Web elements. The design component addresses layout and navigational structures and features. In their exploration of global Web design, Robbins et al. found that the majority of Web site content features were significantly different across various cultural groups, but that the design features are similar across cultures. In addition, there appeared to be little association between the content and design features and industry. Robbins et al.’s (2003) investigation of accessibility issues of Web sites concludes that globally accessible Web sites improve corporations’ ability to communicate with a wide variety of stakeholders.
Applen (2002) examines tacit knowledge, knowledge management and active user participation in Web site navigation. Consistent interface design improves the performance of users. Ozok and Salvendy (2001) use a comprehensive approach to develop an instrument to measure all aspects of computer interface consistency and assess the impact of linguistic inconsistency of interface design on user performance. Experiments were conducted with 140 subjects using four different tasks and eight different interface types to verify the reliability of the instrument. Nine factors were identified as influential factors to interface consistency: text structure, general text features, information representation, lexical categories, meaning, user knowledge, text content, communicational attributes and physical attributes.
In its origins and continued rapid expansion and development, the WWW is essentially an open environment. It is global in nature, and so no regulatory bodies can enforce rules about Web content, information distribution or security. It is left to the individual user to solve the threats posed by virus attacks, pop-ups, especially those with adult content, and other inappropriate banner ads. In a dynamic environment, anti-virus software struggles to catch up with virus attacks. Educated Web users who are security conscious update anti-virus definitions and install security patches frequently to protect their systems from attack.
There are no social norms on the Web. Other forms of human culture have laws, regulations and rules to guide people’s behavior, but the virtual world has not yet developed its cultural norms to encourage a healthy Web environment. Education in Internet usage cannot focus only on the technical, but must also deal with the issues of decent, legal and appropriate Web behavior. However, there will probably always be a tension between the profound freedom available by accessing the Internet and society’s needs for laws and regulations.
There are also major technological issues for the future of the Web. IDC’s 2002 study identified three trends for products in the mature market of word processing and the newer market of Web authorship, including technology for creating text that is enhanced with audio and video elements. First, the sales of the PC market will have an impact on Web authoring software. Secondly, open source software plays a role in the Web authoring tool market. Thirdly, the effect of XML on enterprise applications is still uncertain.