Issues in Informing Science and Information Techno

IssuesinInformingScienceandInformationTechnologyEvaluationofWebPagesasaToolinPublicRelationsPeterTrkmanandJakaLindicUniversityofLjubljana,[e-mail]@ef.uni-lj.siAbstractThepaperdealswiththequestion,howtheefficiencyandsuccessfulnessofwebpagesininfor-mationdisseminationcanbemeasured.Thepaperconcentratesontheuseofacorporatewebpageinpublicrelationswithdifferentinterestgroups.Basicprinciplesofpublicrelationstheoryaresummarized.Theimportanceofweb-pagecredibilityisemphasizedanddifferentfactorsthatcanhaveinflu-enceonitareidentified.Obviously,reliability,punctualityandqualityofpublishedinformationareofutmostimportance.Howeverotherfactorsthatcanaffectcredibility(suchastechnicalquality,pagestructureetc.),arealsostudied.Specialattentionispaidtoanotherimportanttopicinpublicrelationstheory–howcanawebpagebeusedtobuildandflourishdialoguerelationshipsbetweenthecompanyanddifferentin-terestgroupsthataffectcompany’sperformance.ThenewlydevelopedmodelCUT(Content,Usability,Technology)forevaluationofwebpagesispresented.Themodelincludesevaluationofwebpagesfromdifferentperspectives.Whileac-curate,completeandup-to-dateinformationiscertainlycrucial,otherfactorsfromusabilityandtechnologyperspectivearealsoemphasized.Themodeluseisdemonstratedonacasestudyofcompaniesfromdifferentcountriesandindustrybranches.Keywords:publicrelations,evaluationofwebpages,usability,disseminationofinformation,interestgroups.IntroductionPublicrelationsarebecominganincreasinglyimportanttopicintoday’scompetitiveeconomy:howtoefficientlyinformdifferentinterestgroupsthatcanaffecttheperformanceofacompany,iscertainlyacrucialquestion.Theoryandpracticehaverepeatedlyshownthatefficientcommu-nicationwithpubliccanbevitalforthesurvivalanddevelopmentofacompany.Whileacompanycanusedifferentmediaforcommunication(television,radio,press,leafletsetc.)wehavewitnessedatremendousdevelopmentandcommercializationoftheInternetintherecentyears.Consequently,nowadaysalmosteverycompanyhasitsownwebpageandupdatesitmoreorlessregularly.However,asshowninthisandotherpapers,onlyfewcompaniesareusingtheirwebpageeffectivelyaspartoftheirwholestrategy.Asuitablydevelopedwebpagecanbeanimportantadditioninachievingthisgoalforaparticularcompany.TheMaterialpublishedaspartofthisjournal,eitheron-lineorinprint,iscopyrightedbyInformingScience.PermissiontomakedigitalorpapercopyofpartoralloftheseworksforpersonalorclassroomuseisgrantedwithoutfeeprovidedthatthecopiesarenotmadeordistributedforprofitorcommercialadvantageANDthatcopies1)bearthisnoticeinfulland2)givethefullcitationonthefirstpage.Itispermissibletoabstracttheseworkssolongascreditisgiven.Tocopyinallothercasesortorepublishortopostonaserverortoredistrib[e-mail]saToolinPublicRelations774obviousproblemindesigningawebpageisthegapbetweendevelopersandusers(“webdesign-ersarenotusers”isafamousquoteoftheusabilityguruJakobNielsen).Usabilitystudiesareincreasinglyusedtotestsuitabilityofwebdesignandstructure.Inordertoattainthedesiredgoalintheusageofwebinpublicrelationsacompanyobviouslyneedsgoodknowledgeofbothfields:publicrelationstheoryanditsgoalsononehandandus-abilityandwebpagedevelopmentconceptsontheother.Inthispaperweconnectthosetwofieldsofresearch.Themainpurposeofthepaperistopresentanewmulti-criteriamodelfortheevaluationofwebpages.ThemodeliscalledCUT,afteritsthreemaincriteria:Content,UsabilityandTechnology.Inthepaperthismodelisspeciallytailoredtotheuseofmeasuringthequalityofwebpagesasatoolinpublicrelations.Importantguidelinesthatshouldbeusedinpublicrelationsareidentified.Thosetopicsincluderelationshipsbuildingwithdifferentinterestgroupsandcredibilityofpub-lishedinformationandwebpageasawhole.Thepresentedmodelcanserveasaframeworkforaparticularcompanywhendeveloping,evalu-atingorre-designingitswebpageasitprovidesacomprehensivereviewofimportanttopicsthathavetobeconsideredwhencreatingandmaintainingawebpage.Itcanalsobeusedasatooltocomparethequalityofdifferentpages,eitherfromthesamebranchorforcross-sectional(orcross-national)analyses.Anexampleisshowninthepaperwhereasampleof15corporatewebpagesisexamined,evalu-atedandcompared.Thegeneralfindingofthisexperimentisthat,whiletherewascertainlyaconsiderableimprovementintheoverallqualityinrecentyears,thegeneralqualityofwebpagesstillleavesmuchtobedesired.Thepresentedmodelalsoallowsustopointoutthemaindefi-cienciesofacertainwebpage.Thestructureofthispaperisasfollows:thefirstsectionpresentsthemainconceptsofpublicre-lationstheory,alongwiththeeffectofInternetinthisfield.Thenmainmethodsandconceptsofusabilitytestingareshown.ThethirdsectionpresentstheCUTmodel.Theuseofthemodelisfinallydemonstratedbyanevaluationofasampleofcorporatewebpagesfromdifferentcoun-triesandbranches.PublicRelationsTheoryBusinesssuccessofacompanyincreasinglydependsondifferentstakeholdersandsuccessfulcommunicationandinteractionbetweenthemandacompany.Effectivepublicrelationswithallrelevantinterestgroupsarewidelyrecognizedasanimportanttoo