This thesis raises the issue of quality in E-commerce websites and addresses methodologies and approaches to standardize their assessment. The thesis blends the knowledge of academic research with the opinions and insights from experts and practitioners in the field to provide a comprehensive view of the issues and their remedies. The most experienced and successful E-commerce companies are beginning to realize that key determinants of success or failure are not merely a web presence or a low price but delivering a high quality website. Recent research shows that price and promotion are no longer the main draws for customers to make a decision on a purchase. More sophisticated online customers would rather pay a higher price to a provider with high quality service. Given that the establishment of an E-commerce website is mainly a software development effort; there are several standards that apply in governing the quality of such development. There seems to be an almost overwhelming abundance of quality standards that lead to a high level of cynicism and skepticism surrounding them and the eventual lack of use. Furthermore, no standard can directly predict the quality a website under development is going to achieve. Past approaches concerning the quality of E-commerce websites emphasize usability standards using techniques like feature inspection and collecting data about end-users' opinion by questionnaires. These methods provide important feedback and their results can be utilized as a useful background for future work, however, they do not contribute directly to a dynamic model that enables forecasting. The study of quality in the domain of the Internet in general, and E-commerce in particular, poses new challenges as technology evolves, including methods and metrics for estimating, managing quality during the product life cycle and quality-of-use measurement. The solution proposed by this research is to use a Bayesian Belief Network model. This model provides a consistent and practical approach to assessing the quality of the website. The assessment can be carried out before the completion of the website development, thus, providing insight on the trend and direction for correction and improvements. It can also be carried out on completed and operational work, providing analysis of areas for improvement. The model should be relatively quick and practical in providing an overall comprehensive assessment with root-cause analysis that would lead to corrective measures to improve the quality of the E-commerce website. In this research idioms were applied in realizing a complete Bayesian Belief Network model. The conclusions are measured against comparative assessment to validate the practical benefits of the work accomplished. The WebQual method was utilized to validate the "belief" established by the model.

E-commerce has increased substantially, as e-retailers engage with consumers online. Users require more than products and quality service; they also expect a good user experience. User experience is affected by branding, functionality, navigation, content, aesthetics and usability. This study investigates the attainment of better user experience on e-commerce websites. A dual-method usability evaluation approach – usability testing with end-users and heuristic evaluation by experts – was employed to obtain a holistic picture of how usability aspects support or hinder the user experience. Usability testing provided insights into detailed interface issues and the type of content and journey that users prefer when making a purchasing decision, while heuristic evaluation was mainly directed at overall user interface and interaction factors. In a complementary way, each method identified a high number of usability problems. Key findings are summarized, and design guidelines are identified that can facilitate the development of e-commerce websites to promote user experience. / E-handel het aansienlik toegeneem, soos e-kleinhandelaars by verbruikers aanlyn betrokke raak. Gebruikers verlang meer as produkte en kwaliteit diens; hulle verwag ook 'n goeie gebruikerservaring. Gebruikerservaring word deur ‘branding’, funksies, navigasie, inhoud, estetika en bruikbaarheid beinvloed. Hierdie studie ondersoek die bereiking van beter gebruikerservaring op e-handel webwerwe. 'n Dubbelemetode bruikbaarheidsevaluering benadering – bruikbaarheidstoetsing met eindgebruikers en heuristiese evaluering deur kundiges – is gebruik om ‘n holistiese beeld te verkry van hoe bruikbaarheidsaspekte gebruikerservaring ondersteun of verhinder. Bruikbaarheidstoetsing lewer insigte in gedetailleerde koppelvlak kwessies en die tipe inhoud en roete wat gebruikers verkies wanneer hulle 'n aankoop maak, terwyl heuristiese evaluering hoofsaaklik gerig is op algehele gebruikerskoppelvlak en interaksie faktore. Op 'n komplementêre manier, het elke metode' n groot aantal bruikbaarheidsprobleme geïdentifiseer. Belangrike bevindings word saamgevat, en ontwerp riglyne is voorgestel wat die ontwikkeling van e-handel webwerwe fasiliteer wat gebruikerservaring bevorder. / Computing / M. Tech. (Information Technology)

E-commerce has increased substantially, as e-retailers engage with consumers online. Users require more than products and quality service; they also expect a good user experience. User experience is affected by branding, functionality, navigation, content, aesthetics and usability. This study investigates the attainment of better user experience on e-commerce websites. A dual-method usability evaluation approach – usability testing with end-users and heuristic evaluation by experts – was employed to obtain a holistic picture of how usability aspects support or hinder the user experience. Usability testing provided insights into detailed interface issues and the type of content and journey that users prefer when making a purchasing decision, while heuristic evaluation was mainly directed at overall user interface and interaction factors. In a complementary way, each method identified a high number of usability problems. Key findings are summarized, and design guidelines are identified that can facilitate the development of e-commerce websites to promote user experience. / E-handel het aansienlik toegeneem, soos e-kleinhandelaars by verbruikers aanlyn betrokke raak. Gebruikers verlang meer as produkte en kwaliteit diens; hulle verwag ook 'n goeie gebruikerservaring. Gebruikerservaring word deur ‘branding’, funksies, navigasie, inhoud, estetika en bruikbaarheid beinvloed. Hierdie studie ondersoek die bereiking van beter gebruikerservaring op e-handel webwerwe. 'n Dubbelemetode bruikbaarheidsevaluering benadering – bruikbaarheidstoetsing met eindgebruikers en heuristiese evaluering deur kundiges – is gebruik om ‘n holistiese beeld te verkry van hoe bruikbaarheidsaspekte gebruikerservaring ondersteun of verhinder. Bruikbaarheidstoetsing lewer insigte in gedetailleerde koppelvlak kwessies en die tipe inhoud en roete wat gebruikers verkies wanneer hulle 'n aankoop maak, terwyl heuristiese evaluering hoofsaaklik gerig is op algehele gebruikerskoppelvlak en interaksie faktore. Op 'n komplementêre manier, het elke metode' n groot aantal bruikbaarheidsprobleme geïdentifiseer. Belangrike bevindings word saamgevat, en ontwerp riglyne is voorgestel wat die ontwikkeling van e-handel webwerwe fasiliteer wat gebruikerservaring bevorder. / Computing / M. Tech. (Information Technology)