Download Organizational Size, Multiple Audiences, and Web Site Design

APPLIED RESEARCH
SUMMARY
䉬
Considers organizational innovativeness in
Web site design with respect to organizational
size and multiple audiences
䉬 Examines ways that organizational size is related
to multiple audiences, and how these factors
impact innovativeness in site design
Organizational Size, Multiple
Audiences, and Web Site Design
CANCHU LIN
T
he Internet has given rise to new forms of organizing work and new ways of doing business.
The operation of virtual and network organizations that represent new forms of organizing relies to a large extent on the Internet. Similarly, the Internet
makes possible new ways of doing business, such as
e-commerce and e-marketing. As an important part of the
Internet, the World Wide Web shapes these new ways of
organizing and provides impetus for organizations to implement e-commerce. This surely is not the sole function of
the Web, but it is enough to account for the growing
importance of a Web site for an organization.
I have reviewed previous studies that suggest methods
of effective Web page design. Some of this literature focuses on the technological aspects of Web page design.
Those studies either address strengths and weaknesses of
computer application software used for creating Web
pages, or call for new technologies to solve current problems. For example, Peek and Hane (1998) described two
stages of Cascading Style Sheets with regard to Web page
design. Likewise, Bell and Castagna (1997) analyzed various Web page design software packages, including Corel
WordPerfect Suite, Microsoft Word, Peachtree Business Internet Suite, and Macromedia Shockwave 6.
In addition to studies of Web software, a number of
writers have attempted to address the problems that occur
in the design process itself and offer suggestions for solving
them. Topics explored by these authors include use of
color, choice of font and size for textual material, design of
a grid, choice of graphics, spacing, and other humancomputer interface issues. For instance, Black (1997) explored in great depth what are deemed to be features of
good and workable Web pages. Weinman (1999) elaborated on designing Web graphics. And Ozok and Salvendy
(2000) investigated ways of measuring consistency of Web
page design and its effects on performance and satisfaction. Writers on these topics often have a design or human
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TechnicalCOMMUNICATION • Volume 49, Number 1, February 2002
factors background. Collectively, they articulate a designer’s perspective of Web page design.
However, the designer’s perspective sometimes focuses on the designer’s tastes and ignores the needs and
preferences of the user. Nielsen (1999) recognized the
insufficiency of the designer’s perspective and stressed the
need to focus on usability in Web page design. The usability principle calls for the designer to prioritize the user’s
need over the designer’s intuition and worldview. The
need to bridge the gap between the designer’s perspective
and the user’s perspective has been extensively addressed
in the computer software system design literature (for example, Bullen and Bennett 1990; Mandviwalla and Olfman
1994; Moran and Anderson 1990).
The designer’s alignment with the user is especially
important when it comes to designing a product for multiple users (Danner and others 2000). There are simply
more varied social, motivational, and political factors to
consider when it comes to designing a technology to be
used by a group rather than by an individual (Grudin
1994).
A Web site is such a multi-user product. It is also a
product designed for use by multiple audiences. Therefore,
designing a Web page imposes the need for the designer to
take the interests and concerns of those multiple audiences
into consideration. This task poses a particular challenge
for designers because the interests and concerns of those
multiple audiences are sometimes incompatible. The need
to appeal to multiple audiences requires innovation in
organizational Web site design.
In addition to appealing to multiple audiences, the role
of the organization also merits the attention of organizational Web site designers. Among the multiple users of the
Manuscript received 16 March 2001; revised 18 September 2001;
accepted 1 October 2001.
APPLIED RESEARCH
Lin
Organizational Size, Multiple Audiences, and Web Site Design
Web site is the organization itself. Organizational members
use their Web site for internal as well as external communication. The organization thus plays the dual role of host
and user for its Web site. This dual role, because it is
distinctive from that of merely hosting or using, deserves
special attention in the design of the Web site. This fact
further suggests that it is important to investigate the organizational factors that impact Web site design.
Few studies have investigated the implications of organizational features for Web site design. Similarly, little
research has been conducted on how to design a Web site
to appeal to multiple audiences, despite the fact that usability is a central theme in the design literature. My goal in
this article is to examine how organizational factors influence Web site design. I have two objectives:
1. To take an initial step in exploring how organizational size and multiple audiences, two important organizational features, shape the alternatives in Web site design
2. To move the issue of addressing multiple audiences
onto the agenda of organizational Web site designers and
propose some strategies for dealing with this issue
First, I will examine the dynamic relationship between organizational size, multiple audiences, and organizational innovativeness. This dynamic relationship will be summarized in
three major propositions. Next, based on those major propositions, I will offer several other propositions on organizational Web site design. The discussion will highlight the need
to consider multiple audiences in designing organizational
Web sites, and I will offer some specific strategies for doing
that. The article concludes with three case studies that illustrate the propositions provided earlier.
ORGANIZATIONAL SIZE, MULTIPLE AUDIENCES,
AND ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATIVENESS
This section discusses the dynamic relationship between
organizational size, multiple audiences, organizational innovativeness, and the implications of these organizational
attributes for Web design. The impacts of these organizational features on Web site design are translated into propositions for two reasons. First, these impacts are not conclusive findings of an empirical investigation but are simply
proposed for consideration and demonstration. Second,
propositions are usually suggestive and thought-provoking, and thus fit this article’s exploratory objective.
The propositions are grouped in two categories. The
first characterizes the interactions of organizational features
and their impact on Web site design; the second offers
specific strategies recommended for Web site design.
General propositions
Proposition 1-a: Organizational size positively influences the size of an organizational Web site. Organizational size is a structural feature positively related to the
Few studies have investigated the
implications of organizational
features for Web site design.
size of the organization’s Web site. Margolis, Resnick, and
Wolfe (1999) investigated political parties in both the U.S.
and Britain with regard to their presence on the Internet.
These researchers found that the major parties in both
countries are more prominent and sophisticated than the
minor parties. Larger organizations have more divisions,
have a larger scope of business, produce more products,
engage in more activities, manage more issues, possess
more ties and links, and thereby have a larger presence on
the Internet than smaller ones.
The most often-stated purposes for a Web site are to
provide information, to advertise and market, and to promote customer communication and feedback (White and
Raman 1999). It seems obvious that larger organizations
will tend to have more information to provide, more products to advertise and market, and more customers to communicate with and get feedback from. If an organizational
Web site must be congruent with those organizational
activities, the Web site’s size must be proportional to the
organizational size.
Proposition 1-b: As organizational size increases, the
number of audiences of the Web site augments. In
addition to organizational size, organizational audiences
dictate Web site design. The size of an organization’s general audience is strongly related to the organization’s size.
The general audience of an organization tends to be large
and diverse. This large and diverse audience will tend to
evidence what Fleming (1994; Fleming and Darley 1991)
termed the multiple-audience problem.
The different roles, perspectives, and interests that an
organization assumes attract multiple audiences. In actuality, any organization endeavors to satisfy the needs of more
than one audience. Audiences that an organization interacts with include, among others, shareholders, employees,
fellow organizations, customers, government agencies,
journalists, and the general public—a range of organizational stakeholders. These individuals and organizations
constitute the organization’s multiple audiences.
Organizational size is positively associated with the
size of the organization’s general audience and its diversity.
Larger organizations have a larger number of shareholders,
hire more employees, and attract more customers than
smaller ones. Because of their scale and importance, larger
organizations attract attention from more peer organizations, interact with more government agencies, and manVolume 49, Number 1, February 2002 • TechnicalCOMMUNICATION
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Organizational Size, Multiple Audiences, and Web Site Design
age issues that interest more journalists. In sum, larger
organizations possess a larger range of stakeholders than
smaller ones.
These stakeholders are the multiple audiences that
organizational Web sites tend to target. While a traditional
mass media vehicle may be aimed at a particular group,
many organizations try to appeal to all components of their
audience on their Web sites. A single Web site may provide
enough information to meet the complex wants and needs
of multiple audiences.
Esrock and Leichty (1999) examined the Web sites of
some representative Fortune 500 companies and found that
about one-third of corporate Web sites are used to communicate with multiple audiences in a variety of information formats. They further noted that the audiences most
often targeted by corporate Web sites are customers (including prospects), the financial community, and potential
employees.
Proposition 1-c: Organizational size and multiple audiences positively influence an organization’s innovativeness in Web site design. Organizational researchers have identified several factors that help to explain why
organizations adopt innovations. Among others, organizational centralization (Dewar and Dutton 1986; Ettlie,
Bridges, and O’Keefe 1984), formalization (Swanson 1994),
complexity (Cooper and Zmud 1990; Tornatzky and Klein
1982), and size (Damanpour 1987; Lai and Guynes 1997;
Moch and Morse 1977; Swanson 1994) are predictive of
organizations’ tendency to innovate. Damanpour (1991)
found that 13 structural characteristics of organizations are
stable predictors of organizational innovativeness. One of
these characteristics is organizational size. Larger organizations have consistently been found to adopt innovations
earlier than smaller ones simply because of financial advantages such as economies of scale and large funding
allocations for research and development (Flanagin 2000;
Dewar and Dutton 1986; Lai and Guynes 1997). Consistent
with their tendency to adopt technological innovations,
larger organizations established Web sites earlier than
smaller ones (Flanagin 2000).
These findings of a positive relationship between organizational size and organizational innovativeness have significant implications for Web site design. Organizational innova-
A single Web site may provide
enough information to meet the
complex wants and needs of
multiple audiences.
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TechnicalCOMMUNICATION • Volume 49, Number 1, February 2002
Lin
tiveness extends from Web adoption to Web site design. If
organizational size is positively related to organizational innovativeness, it can be established that larger organizations
are more likely to be innovative in Web page design.
Moreover, larger organizations have more audiences to
attend to. The presence of multiple audiences constitutes a
catalyst to organizational innovativeness. As I have already
discussed, multiple audiences may introduce conflicting
interests and concerns. The organizational goal of retaining
these multiple audiences despite those conflicts and reaching new audiences cannot be accomplished unless the
organization exhibits enough innovative power to manage
the incompatibility inherent in multiple audiences.
Most public relations practitioners believe that as a
communications tool, a Web site symbolizes an organization’s competitiveness, enhances its image, strengthens its
ties to current audiences, and reaches out to new audiences
(Hill and White 2000). Because of its prospect of engaging
multiple audiences, a Web site is seen as a value-gaining
communications tool. This fact is an incentive for organizations to make innovations in Web site design.
Specific propositions
The size and diversity of audience is a predictor of a Web
site’s size and multiple structural levels. As the size increases, the number of levels on the Web site will increase.
The entire site will take on a funnel format, and the pages
will be structured in a top-down pattern or hierarchical
order. On the top pages, information tends to be general.
As the user moves down the hierarchy, information tends
to be more and more detailed and specific.
Research conducted by Evans (2000) shows that in a
large site, people were able to locate information more
quickly and more accurately when the site contained more
levels because it had been designed to effectively guide
them to find information. The size and number of audiences of a Web site influence its layout. Specifically, organizational size and multiple audiences impact
䉬 The number of items on the main page
䉬 The amount of text on the main page
䉬 The level of ambiguity and use of metaphors
䉬 The site’s dynamics
䉬 Multiple language options
䉬 Page layout and formatting customized for various
audience segments
Proposition 2-a: Organizational size and multiple audiences are negatively related to the number of items
on the main page of an organization’s Web site. The
content of a large site’s main page is categorized, itemized,
or segmented. In analogy to a printed book, the main page
is like the table of contents in the sense that it is directional.
However, it differs from the table of contents in that the
APPLIED RESEARCH
Lin
Organizational Size, Multiple Audiences, and Web Site Design
To accomplish a communicative
goal, ambiguity must still
make sense.
content items are arranged spatially rather than simply
linearly. The directional nature of the main page entails that
there are fewer items on it than on a page lower in the
hierarchy.
Proposition 2-b: Organizational size and multiple audiences are negatively related to the amount of text
on the main page. Because the main page is directional
and navigational, it tends to contain less textual information. Text typically describes details, and detailed information is less likely to be present on the main page of a large
Web site because most of its space is used to establish
directions and navigational paths.
Proposition 2-c: Organizational size and multiple audiences positively influence the level of ambiguity
use of metaphor in components of the main page of
an organizational Web site. The directional nature of the
main page of a large site suggests that the majority of the
content items on that page will serve as hyperlinks. These
hyperlinks group content elements together and at the
same time respond to multiple audiences. Although this
grouping is based on commonality, there is still difference
and sometimes even conflict between the content and the
audiences. What is needed here is a strategy to present this
content and appeal to the various audiences in a unified
manner. This strategy must legitimate the minor differences
but unify the diverse elements. Such a communicative
strategy is called strategic ambiguity (Eisenberg 1984).
Eisenberg (1984) argued that strategic ambiguity promotes unified diversity. He further noted that this use of
strategic ambiguity is commonly found in organizational
missions, goals, and plans. A constitution must be strategically ambiguous because it must govern all human activities in a nation, allowing different individual interpretations
of the core values while ensuring that they fundamentally
agree. In terms of structure and functionality, the main
page of a Web site is similar to a national constitution. The
main page must be designed with strategic ambiguity so
that it can hold the diverse content elements in unity.
Although ambiguity can perform strategic communication functions, we must exercise caution when using it. We
must avoid the misconception that the more ambiguous the
page is, the better. To accomplish a communicative goal,
ambiguity must still make sense. Sense-making is an important attribute of metaphor (Lakoff and Johnson 1980).
Metaphors associate unlike phenomena and help people
visualize concepts. As a matter of fact, quite a few metaphors can be identified in the computer literature: “window,” “folder,” and “home page” are just a few examples.
Metaphors play a critical role in the communication
process and are especially effective at describing abstract
concepts (Johnson and Hackman 1995). Metaphors influence learning (Ortony 1979), thinking (Honeck and Hoffman 1980), knowledge creation (Kuhn 1979), and social
behaviors (Berg 1985). Metaphors are important in organizing because they allow cues from one context to be
applied to the understanding of another (Smith and Eisenberg 1987). For example, the cart icon on a Web page
represents shopping.
Given these influences, metaphor construction is an
enduring part of Web site design. For instance, some organizations (for example, Disney) have created central
unifying metaphors on the main pages of their Web sites to
strengthen their organizational identities. Furthermore,
specific elements on the main page and even on secondary
pages can be constructed as metaphors such as icons,
menus, and labels.
Because of their large size, multiple audiences, and
plentiful and varied content, the main pages of most large
organizational Web sites tend to consist primarily of hyperlinks and menus. Their labels tend to be ambiguous and
metaphoric.
Proposition 2-d: Organizational size and multiple audiences positively influence the dynamics of the Web
site. Large size and multiple audiences convince organizations of the need for effective public relations. Most Fortune 500 companies use their Web sites for external communication, focusing on promoting the company image
and enhancing public relations, rather than on direct sales
or other revenue-generating activities (Liu, Arnett, Capella,
and Beatty 1997, cited in Hill and White 2000). This concern of large organizations with public relations results in
the need to integrate aesthetics, symbolism, and pragmatism on their Web sites. Such integration stresses variation
as well as consistency on the site.
For example, because the main page is mainly navigational, most of its content consists of hyperlinks to content
areas that appeal to various elements of the site’s multiple
audiences. These different content areas that the hyperlinks lead to underscore the need for differentiation in the
hyperlinks themselves. Thus, different colors, shapes, spacing, typography, grids, and graphics can be used to create
variation on the main page and throughout the site, and all
these devices contribute to the site’s dynamics.
Proposition 2-e: As organizational size and audiences
increase, language options and page layout and forVolume 49, Number 1, February 2002 • TechnicalCOMMUNICATION
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Organizational Size, Multiple Audiences, and Web Site Design
matting customized to particular audience components are more likely to appear in a Web site’s design.
Large organizations tend to have audiences or customers
scattered all over the world. In addition, user characteristics
such as gender, culture, age, education, and computer
skills further create multiple audiences even within the
same location. Furthermore, users with disabilities add to the
diversity in the already varied multiple audiences. These diverse multiple audiences create various needs and concerns
that must be taken into account in Web site design.
Meeting the needs of these audiences requires that
Web site designers adopt appropriate strategies to address
their needs and concerns. Providing multiple language
options, for example, is one effective method (Becker and
Mottay 2001; Mitra 1997). Some organizations already offer
multilingual versions of their Web sites. However, Turau
(1998) found that some Fortune 500 corporations have
failed to provide multilingual documents on their Web
sites, a pattern that is inconsistent with their globalization
goals. Mitra (1997) noted that some overseas Indian Web
sites use language to marginalize audiences unfamiliar with
the language to discourage their access to these sites. However, the opposite strategy can also be used to include as
many audiences as possible in an organization’s Web site.
Therefore, organizational Web site designers should provide language options that promote inclusion.
Page layout is another strategy that can be used to
accomplish the goal of inclusion. In some cases, the designer can learn to adopt the audience segregation approach (King 2000). Specifically, the communicator can try
to control access to the communication by addressing one
audience at a time. For example, on global organizations’
Web sites, some pages might be designed with one particular audience in mind (for example, the French audience
or Chinese audience). When designing those pages, the
designer should take the cultural attributes of that particular audience into consideration. The audience’s preferences of colors, graphics (for example, national flags or
symbols), and textual organization (left to right or top
down) ought to be respected (Becker and Mottay 2001).
In other cases, what King (2000) termed the hidden
messages approach can be applied to page design by
sending mixed, ambiguous, or hidden messages to certain
members of the audiences. Layout can be used to try to
address both the global audience as well as a local community (Mitra 1997). For instance, on a global organization’s Web page about its Chinese subsidiary, most content
can be written in Chinese, while some labels, navigational
cues, and links can be provided in English so that both
Chinese and other audiences feel welcome. While the Chinese audiences can explore the content on that page, other
audiences can either stay to browse or simply move on to
other parts of the site by using the English links and cues.
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Figure 1. The Purdue University home page uses the typical
hierarchical structure.
I have demonstrated that two organizational features,
organizational size and multiple audiences, are critical determining factors for Web site design. The propositions I
have offered on the relationship between organizational
size, multiple audiences, and aspects of Web design serve
as important suggestions for Web site designers.
CASE STUDIES
In this section, I analyze three organizational Web sites in
terms of the propositions introduced in the preceding section. I address each of those propositions except Proposition 1-c, which relates the size of a company and the
number of its audiences to its Web site’s level of innovation. One’s perception of innovativeness in a Web site’s
design is largely subjective and based on one’s prior experience with the Web. Moreover, the time lag between the
conception of this article and its appearance in print necessarily means that features that may have been innovative
more than a year ago are now likely to be perceived as
ordinary or expected.
Purdue University’s Web site illustrates most of the
propositions detailed in the previous section. Purdue is one
of the largest universities in the U.S., and its Web site is
correspondingly large (http://www.purdue.edu; see Figure
1). The Purdue University Web site thus supports Proposition 1-a.
The University has multiple audiences: it recruits students
from all over the world, its graduates are scattered in different
parts of the world, it has a diverse faculty, and it operates
cooperative educational and research programs with partners
in other countries. Thus, Proposition 1-b is also supported.
Much like the organizational structure of the university,
the Web site structure is basically hierarchical. One level
APPLIED RESEARCH
Lin
Organizational Size, Multiple Audiences, and Web Site Design
Figure 3. The “About the company” page looks like an
Figure 2. The Coca-Cola Web site is characterized by
ordinary main page.
simplicity and dynamics.
leads to a deeper level as the user navigates inward, although some links connect a page with others on the same
level. There are a limited number of items on the main
page. Most of them are hyperlinks as we can observe.
There are few text items on this main page. Therefore,
Propositions 2-a and 2-b are also supported.
The main page of the Purdue Web site is like the table
of contents of a book. The content items are concise and
directional because each of them consists of only one or
two words and they are hyperlinks leading to other pages.
The wording of each item tends to be ambiguous and
metaphoric. For example, the Academics hyperlink leads to
the page that displays all the units that are engaged with
teaching and research. The word Academics makes this
hyperlink work effectively because of its ambiguity and use
of metaphor. It is ambiguous enough to cover all the
university’s academic units and all the activities that these
units are engaged in. Neither “schools” nor “departments”
can be used as the nomenclature here because each excludes the other. Moreover, although the term “academic
units” might make more sense to the various audiences, it
is less inclusive because it would excludes other academic
aspects, such as activities and issues, which are encompassed by the more ambiguous term.
Besides being ambiguous, the word Academics is metaphoric as well because it provides a cue to help the user
understand what it represents. The term Academics evokes
an image or idea in the user’s mind associated with what
the item represents. It makes sense to the user. This quality
supports Proposition 2-c.
While the Academics hyperlink provides a successful
example of integrating ambiguity and metaphor, the Giving
hyperlink serves as a negative example. The word Giving is
too ambiguous to make any sense to the audiences. It fails
to provide any cue for the audiences to understand what it
means and where it leads. It provides no further association. It is not metaphoric. Actually this hyperlink relates to
the university’s fund raising activities. The hyperlink label
would be more effective if it were Donor or Donations.
The general layout and the hyperlinks on the Purdue
home page suggest that this Web site is designed for both
internal and external audiences. For example, while the
Employment page predominantly addresses external audiences, the Services page appeals mainly to internal audiences. The entire Web site implements the idea that the
organization is host as well as user of its Web site. Thus, the
site supports Proposition 2-e.
The Coca-Cola Company’s Web site (http://www.cocacola.com; see Figure 2) lends further support to Proposition
1-a because the organizational size is directly related to the
size of the Web site. In addition, despite the site’s large size,
there are few items on the main page, which consists of only
four hyperlinks, an image of a Coke bottle, and a succession
of graphics. There are virtually no text items on the main
page, except for the names of the hyperlinks. Therefore,
propositions 2-a and 2-b seem to be supported by the main
page of the Coca-Cola Company’s Web site.
Furthermore, propositions 2-c and 2-d are also supported by this site. All four hyperlinks are ambiguously
named. The About the Company link encompasses everything related to the company. The name of this link is so
all-embracing that the other three hyperlinks could conceivably be included under this link. The user can click this
hyperlink to look for information that he or she thinks may
not be included in other categories. The ambiguity of the
label makes it possible to hide other hyperlinks that are
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Figure 4. The Disney Web site highlights all the
propositions.
usually placed on a main page under this super-category
(see Figure 3).
About the Company is also metaphoric. It provides a
cue for users to understand that it connects to a page where
some general information about the company is available.
Indeed, this hyperlink leads to a page that serves as a table
of contents because all these four hyperlinks together with
some others are listed on the secondary page. The CocaCola Web site is noteworthy for its dynamic quality too.
The pursuit of dynamics on the main page outweighs the
page’s index nature. That fact could explain why the page
to which the About the Company hyperlink leads plays the
role of an ordinary main page. The main page’s succession
of pictures, the vivid drops of beverage, the shadowed
globe, the effervescing coke bottle, and the use of different
values of a single color all contribute to the creation of a
dynamic feel on this page that in fact pervades the entire
site.
The Coca-Cola Company’s Web site also effectively
uses the strategies introduced in Proposition 2-e to cater to
multiple audiences. The site’s various content areas attempt
to address the needs of the audiences for which Esrock and
Leichty (1999) found that most corporate Web sites would
provide information. Information is provided to multiple
audiences such as customers, investors, scholars, journalists, and potential employees. And the Around the World
hyperlink leads to pages about the company’s presence in
various countries.
Another communication strategy, page layout and formatting, is also evident on the Around the World pages.
The audience segregation approach in which the communicator deals with different audiences separately seems to
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work well in this case. One page is devoted to each location so that cultural preferences can be reflected in the
design. The page for each location uses both English and
the local language. However, the background color is red
across the pages. This practice integrates consistency and
diversity. While a specific national audience explores a
particular page, the global audience can move on to other
places with the help of links and directions available on the
page.
A third site that illustrates the propositions I have put
forward is the Disney Company’s Web site (http://www.
disney.com; see Figure 4). This site clearly supports Proposition 1-a. The large size of the Web site parallels the size
of the company. Next, the hyperlinks and their hidden
“table of contents” suggest that this site provides plentiful
information to cater to a variety of audiences. Thus, Proposition 1-b is also supported.
Like the main pages of the other two organizational
Web sites, the main page of the Disney Web site is characterized by simplicity. It contains a limited number of
items that are mostly used as hyperlinks. The few text
boxes show content of the hyperlinks. Therefore, this site
supports both Proposition 2-a and Proposition 2-b.
What strikes the audiences is the amusement park
metaphor that best characterizes the company. As a unifying central metaphor, the amusement park image consists
of eight cartoon pictures, each of which signifies one of the
eight hyperlinks. In addition to implementing the amusement metaphor, each of the eight picture hyperlinks has its
own cascading table of contents hidden underneath. These
tables of contents help to make the hyperlinks more understandable and navigationally helpful. There is a wellmaintained balance between ambiguity and metaphor in
the hyperlinks. Therefore, Proposition 2-c is also supported
by this site.
Although the main page is characterized by the simplicity stressed in Proposition 2-a and Proposition 2-b, the
site also has a dynamic and vigorous feel. The background,
the layout, the use of colors, and the shapes all contribute
to the dynamics of this site. The cartoon pictures are all
uniquely drawn. Each hyperlink label uses a different font.
A variety of colors used in the pictures add to the dynamics.
Thus, Proposition 2-d is also supported by this site.
CONCLUSION
The designer’s perspective that pervades the literature of
Web design—and more generally, the human-computer
interface design literature—focuses on techniques and
skills but is not sufficient to guide designers in solving
complex design problems. Underlying this perspective is
an assumption that all Internet users will respond to the
Web page in a similar way (Paden and Stell 2000). This
article demonstrates that organizational size and multiple
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Organizational Size, Multiple Audiences, and Web Site Design
audiences are two influential factors in Web site design. It
has specifically explored the relationship between organizational size, multiple audiences, and Web site design.
In doing so, this study has developed eight propositions.
Most of the propositions are related to the design of the main
page of a Web site. The general propositions lead to the
specific propositions in that they are grounded in the former.
The specific propositions touch on important issues including
simplicity, amount of text, ambiguity and metaphor, dynamics, and communication strategies to address the multiple
audiences problem of Web site design. The article also examined three organizational Web sites and found that the features of these sites seem to support the propositions.
I suggest that future studies investigate other organizational features and their impact on Web site design. TC
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CANCHU LIN is a doctoral student of organizational communication at Purdue University. He is also simultaneously
pursuing a Master of Science degree in computer graphics
technology at Purdue. His research interests include humancomputer interface design, organizational leadership and
technology, virtual organizations, and instructional design.
He worked for a Taiwanese company that specializes in
courseware in Beijing for 3 years. Contact information:
[email protected]