Web site evaluation: Do Web applications meet user expectations? Music, consumer goods and e-banking on the test bed

Abstract

The paper presents an analysis of twelve commercial Web sites in three different business sectors: music, consumer goods, and e-banking. The Web sites were assessed using the Extended Web Assessment Method, an evaluation tool which has been specifically created for the assessment of e-commerce applications. The findings show that most Web sites are far from fully meeting user expectations. Interestingly, the lessons learned are quite different for each sector. Music selling Web sites should have an easy job in meeting customer requirements because they can deliver their products directly over the Internet. Nevertheless, the download of mp3 files from US-based companies onto a Swiss computer seemed to be a big problem. Consumer goods are a local business. Despite of this possible disadvantage they showed the best performance in satisfying their customers. E-banking applications do not present differentiated features, one can seemingly be replaced by the other with no problem.