3. INFORMATION FOCUS — 25.1% OVERALL

In 25.1% of the comments about Web Site Credibility, people in this study talked about the focus of information on the site. The comments varied in content. At times a focused site was seen as more credible, other times a narrow focus hurt Web Site Credibility. What's clear is that many people in this study relied on information focus to determine whether a site was credible or not. Sample comments are below:

• Credible because of the breadth of information available. — M, 35, California

• I find this site trustworthy because it offers a simple message to a very targeted community. — F, 34, Massachusetts

• This Web Site is filled with too much crap. I feel as though part of the reason it seems less credible is the fact that the crap they fill it with is taking attention away from their own Web Site. — F, 23, Illinois

• Broad categories, but shallow reviews and comparisons. — M, 35, California

• This site seems focused on body image. They have articles about feeling good naked, the perfect swimsuit for every body type, and toning exercises. Not a lot of solid health information. — F, 22 Minnesota

Information Focus comments, by site category

As Figure 8 shows, about one in four site evaluations (25.1%) made comments about issues of information focus, that is, the perceived scope or focus of the site. This generally occurred far more frequently in the information-heavy categories (health: 33.0%; news: 31.9%; sports: 30.8%), and occurred less frequently in the more transactional-heavy categories (e-commerce: 24.7%; search engines: 24.5%; finance: 18.9%).

Figure 8: Percentage of comments relating to information focus, by category.

What we find notable about Information Focus

The site content's focus (whether broad or narrow), clarity, potential bias, usefulness, and organization were all examined in this study, with focus or depth appearing most important to our participants when evaluating Web Site Credibility. We suspect that in many cases in Web surfing, users may not necessarily read the in-depth information, but simply having it available seemed to produce a sense of Web Site Credibility, suggesting the site is authoritative.

The other notable finding about information focus is how much this issue varied depending on the type of site, with information focus being most prominent when evaluating health and news sites and least prominent when evaluating nonprofit sites. The data suggest that people have clearer expectations about the focus of certain types of Web Sites. We speculate that the expectations about site focus are higher for the types of information-rich sites people know best (e.g., health, news, sports).

Back to start of the article: A Good Web Site Design Brings Trust and Success

Continue with:

• Company Motive
  
• Information Usefulness
  
• Advertising
  
• Identity of Web Site Operator
  
• Past Experience with Web Site
  
• Readability
  
• Why is Design Look so prominent?
  
• ENTERTAINMENT Web Sites: CREDIBILITY RESULTS
  
• HEALTH Web SiteS: CREDIBILITY RESULTS
  
• NONPROFIT Web SiteS: CREDIBILITY RESULTS
  
• TRAVEL Web SiteS: CREDIBILITY RESULTS