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...with each other than the earlier samples and will thus exhibit the development of standardization. The study finds increased standardization in the 2006 homepages in the categories of homepage length, primary navigation orientation, primary navigation style, fiscal point, and search engine presence and location.
Keywords: Internet; homepage; design; corporate; typography; World Wide Web; Web site
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The first graphical browser for the World Wide Web was Mosaic, released in 1993. With it, the World Wide Web was born. In the 13 years since then, the World Wide Web has undergone a rapid, often unchronicled transformation. For people who have used the World Wide Web throughout this time, the gradual change often goes unnoticed. For people relatively new to the World Wide Web and lacking knowledge in early Web site design, these changes are unknown. Figures 1 and 2 demonstrate this change. Figure 1 shows a printout of a corporate homepage from 1996, and Figure 2 shows a screen capture of the same site as of 2006. (1) This article examines some of the changes that the World Wide Web has undergone since its inception by analyzing corporate homepages from two periods. In addition, it seeks to determine whether standards have developed for some features of corporate homepage design and if the development of such standards suggests increasing homogeneity in corporate homepage design as the World Wide Web matures as a medium. This study provides a valuable snapshot of how Web design has changed between these two periods, suggests that media may increase in homogeneity as they evolve, and calls for more historical studies of the Web. In the first section, I will review previous research on the Web as a medium and briefly discuss the evolution of typography, suggesting it as a potential parallel for the evolution of Web site design. The next sections discuss my methodology and results. Lastly, I close with a discussion of implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research.
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PRIOR RESEARCH ON THE WEB AS A MEDIUM
As the World Wide Web evolves, academic studies rarely examine its changes. Rather than investigating the Web over time, researchers tend to investigate the Web at a specific moment. Much of the academic work has been done from the more limited perspective of online commerce. For example, McKinney, Yoon, and Zahedi (2002) have constructed a theoretical model of online shoppers' information gathering. Other studies have focused on how specific Web site features change online shoppers' attitudes and behaviors. One of these studies, by Kwon, Kim, and Lee (2002), examined how the design of online auction sites alters a potential buyer's opinion of the site and subsequent purchasing behavior. Meanwhile, Wakefield, Stocks, and Wilder (2004) studied what e-retailer Web site traits influence a user's initial trust in the site. Everard and Galletta (2005) analyzed how user perception of flaws in online stores influenced perception of the store's quality. Similarly, Kim and Kim (2006) examined what steps online stores can take to promote customer satisfaction.
Other researchers have explored user behavior and satisfaction in Web sites in general. Song and Salvendy (2003), for example, proposed an object-oriented model to describe user behavior, focusing on how a user may employ the experiences of others to guide his or her own Web usage. Another attempt at constructing a model was conducted by Hong and Kim (2004), who developed a system for evaluating Web sites based on architectural principles, using the following criteria: internal reliability, external security, useful content, usable navigation, system interface, and communication interface. Hone and Kim then analyzed the impact of these criteria on user satisfaction and loyalty, discovering that the criteria had differing importance based on Web site type. When examining corporate Web sites, Palmer (2002) found that success was associated with download delay, navigation, content, interactivity, and responsiveness. Cheung and Lee (2004) studied the importance of system navigation, information reliability, information usefulness, and information understandability on user satisfaction with Web sites. Lastly, Sicilia, Ruiz, and Munuera (2005) conducted an experiment to test the influence of Web site interactivity on users, finding the influence of such interactivity to be positive in general.
Another line of research has focused on evaluating Web sites and their features--unlike the previously mentioned studies, which focused on the opinions, practices, and reactions of users. For example, Yeung and Lu (2004) developed a framework for analyzing Web sites using four types of functions: information, communication, downloading, and transaction. The most comprehensive study was that of Tarafdar and Zhang (2005), who focused on 40 Web sites from each of the following categories: retail, financial services, news and information, search and portal, and entertainment. Each site was evaluated for various factors: information content, ease of navigation, usability, customization, download speed, and security. The results suggested which factors were most important for each of the various categories of Web sites.
Although these studies valuably identify specific features of successful Web site design, they lack three characteristics central to my study:
1. A longitudinal focus
2. A focus on corporate homepages
3. An emphasis on simple design issues
Although there is a place for complex studies of satisfaction and usability, there is also a place for chronicling changes in corporate homepage appearance, such as in my study. One academic researcher who has looked at changes to a Web site is Argenti (2006), who, as part of a broader discussion of the influence of technology on the field of corporate communication, briefly examined changes in the homepage of the AFL-CIO's Web site between 1996 and 2005. However, although academic studies usually have not emphasized simple design features such as those covered...
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