A policy discussion sponsored by Northwestern University Library back in 1996(!)
BUILDING A WORLD WIDE WEB SITE
With millions of World Wide Web home pages to choose from, how will your company’s site stand out?
The newsletter Marketing Computers recently conducted a survey of over 160 World Wide Web sites from Fortune 500 companies which demonstrated that not all are taking full advantage of the Internet medium and its high potential for interactivity. Author Marcia Kadanoff states that the sites which were surveyed could be categorized as: (38)
- 37% were sites for viewingProduced for your viewing pleasure with advertising for support; like high-tech billboards or television.
- 50% were sites for talkingAllowed e-mail feedback. The survey found that up to three weeks was sometimes required to sluggishly fill routine information requests.
- 9% were sites for doingCreated a better environment for the customer to do business with you. The survey found that only 12% of sites provided enough information for customers to make an informed decision.
- 4% were sites for thinkingHad the potential to deliver a personalized “value stream of information” to a customer using intelligent agent technology.
Planning is essential…
—Extracted from an article authored by Renee E. McHenry, M.L.S., Librarian, Northwestern University