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Site personality

The style elements can be combined to develop a personality for a site. We could describe 

site personalities in the same way we can describe people, such as ‘formal’ or ‘fun’. This 

Whither website design?

‘Website design is too complex, and 

too important, to be left to marketers 

and IT staff untrained in its principles. 

Specialist usability professionals and 

psychologists should be present in 

every large e-commerce team.’

Debate 11.2

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Chapter 11  Analysis and design

personality has to be consistent with the needs of the target audience. A business audience 

often requires detailed information and prefers an  information-  intensive style such as that 

of the Cisco site (

www.cisco.com

). A consumer site is usually more graphically intensive. 

Designers need to consider the constraints on the user experience, such as screen resolution 

and colour depth, the browser used and download speed. The list of constraints which must 

be tested is illustrated in Chapter 12. Rosen and Purinton (2004) have assessed the rela-

tive importance of design factors which influence a consumer (based on questionnaires of a 

group of students). They believe there are some basic factors that determine the effectiveness 

of an e-commerce site: