Communication: Key to Success on the Web

Much has been written about what constitutes good principles of web design. Significantly less attention has been paid to the related communication issues. Critical success factors taken from a pilot study of nine organisations are listed in this paper. We show that they imply that communication aspects of design and implementation of web presence of organisations are key. We point out and classify typical communication barriers. We argue that using localisation abstraction and metaphors can help to overcome communication barriers, implying that their use may enhance the user’s understanding and successful navigation through a web site. Our overall implication is that methods for the development of web applications need to shift their focus from technical aspects of applications to communication aspects in particular and on human factors in general.