11. IDENTITY OF Web Site OPERATOR — 8.8% OVERALL

In 8.8% of the comments we collected, study participants talked about how site operators' disclosed information about themselves. Comments coded in this category indicate that a Web Site wins Web Site Credibility points by giving information about the organization behind the Web Site: who they are, what they do, and how to contact them. Sample comments are below:

• This site contains a clear description of the goals and activities of this charity. There are contact names and e-mail/snail-mail addresses. There is even a phone number. — F, 44, Washington

• This site might be a good place to start, but I don't really know what its mission is-especially for a for-profit venture. — M, 34, Connecticut

Identity of Site Operator comments, by site category

Figure 16 shows that in general, site evaluators did not seem to focus much on the company or organization identity when assessing a Web Site Credibility. Less than 10 percent of site evaluations included comments about site identity. This occurred far more frequently in the nonprofit (28.9%) category , and far less frequently in the news (4.7%), travel (4.6%), and search engines (4.3%) categories.

Figure 16: Percentage of comments relating to identity, by category.

What we find notable about Identity of Site Operator

The comments from this study suggest that Web Sites win credibility by clearly disclosing the people and the organization behind the site. This finding is consistent with previous studies on Web credibility (Fogg et al., 2000; Fogg et al., 2001; Fogg et al., 2002; Princeton, 2002).

What's most interesting in this part of the data is how nonprofit Web Sites scored. The credibility of nonprofit-organization Web Sites depends more directly on demonstrating that there are real people and a genuine organization behind the site than for any of the other site categories investigated in this study. Many comments about the nonprofit sites questioned the use of donated money. It seems clear that nonprofit Web Sites are held to higher standards regarding being up-front about site operator identity.

12. SITE FUNCTIONALITY — 8.6% OVERALL

While study participants experienced the functionality (or lack of it) whenever they visited a Web Site, the comments talking about credibility include issues of site functionality 8.6% of the time, usually in a negative way: The site was down, links were broken, search features were not helpful. The functionality of a site, whether or not under the direct control of the site operator, affected the perceived credibility of the site. Sample comments are below:

• The command lines which appear at the top — a bug — make it feel like no one is watching, taking care of the site. — F, 35, California

• Biggest complaint is the poor search facility. A search produces only three items. — M, 50, California

Site Functionality comments by site category

As shown in Figure 17, less than 10 percent (or 8.6%) of all site evaluations made comments about a site's functionality, which includes technical performance and the services a site offers. Perhaps not surprisingly, this occurred with far greater frequency in the search engines category (20.5%), and with less frequency in the e-commerce (6.6%) and news (5.1%) categories.

Figure 17: Percentage of comments relating to functionality, by category.

What we find notable about Site Functionality

The most utilitarian of categories in this study — search engines — received the most comments about functionality. People seemed to see these sites as tools, and people brought expectations of functionality into their credibility evaluations. In other words, for search engines Web Sites (and to a smaller extent Web Sites about entertainment and travel) people seem to ask the question, "What can you do for me?" If people were impressed with what the site offered in terms of functionality, they also assessed it to be credible.

13. CUSTOMER SERVICE — 6.4% OVERALL

We created a category called "Customer Service" so we could account for comments people made about the perceived relationship between the company and the end user. In other words, the comments in this category are about how the sponsoring organization operates and, especially, how the organization treats customers along the way. People in our study commented on these customer-service issues 6.4% of the time. Sample comments are below:

• This site seemed to have less accountability to its customers on the items that can be purchased. — F, 46, Mississippi

• They spell out very clearly what one would get for becoming a member. — F, 34, Massachusetts

Customer Service comments, by site category

As shown in Figure 18, less than 10 percent (or 6.4%) of all site evaluations commented on customer services issues or related business policies. Not surprisingly, these comments occurred with much greater frequency in the transactional-heavy categories (travel: 18.1%; e-commerce: 16.7%), and with far less frequency in the content-heavy categories (search engines: 1.0%; news: 0.8%; health: 0.4%).

Figure 18: Percentage of comments relating to customer service, by category.

What we find notable about Customer Service

Overall, the comments said that clear and straightforward explanations of a company's business practices and fees enhanced site credibility. But when the operations of a company were not clear, then the site lost credibility.

The data show that people noticed issues of customer service most often when examining sites dealing with travel and e-commerce. This makes sense. These sites are highly transactional, and provide services for users, not just information. In contrast, site categories that are more exclusively about information — such as sports, entertainment, news, or health — received few comments about customer service. The marked difference between information and service sites leads us to speculate that two main subclasses of credibility elements exist: one that applies to information sites and another that applies to service sites. Making this distinction could be helpful in future Web credibility studies.

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

Continue with:

• 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