Too Fast too Navigable : a study to research the effects of navigability for a customers purchase time

Abstract: Among today’s seemingly endless amount of online stores and markets, differentiation is crucial. However, attracting and satisfying online shoppers requires websites to not only present originality in offers and products, but to also be efficient and easy to use. As the developers of the website on which this study is based has hypothesized, is that navigability is a crucial element to the quality of any website. This study was therefore conducted to investigate how one can construct a web application to be as navigable as possible. In order to conduct this study, a web application was developed and named “ToneHub”. The web application was constructed as an online market in which users can post and buy new and used musical instrument and gear. The development was done in a sequence of four fixed time periods or “sprints” which consisted of developer education, research and planning, developing of the web- applica- tion and result evaluation, respectively. During research and development of the marketing plan, the functionality of the web application was carefully planned. In addition to what the developers felt were necessary to implement, a market survey was performed to shed light on what potential users considered important functionality and design. The results came from the four stages of testing performed during sprint 3, which consisted of both the time to complete a set of tasks, and the feedback given from the test-subjects to the developers. After careful examination of these results, this study concluded that among the many tools that can be used to produce navigable web applications, there were some that stood out as more useful. Some of these were: An efficient and accurate search function, a side- bar used for filtering with easily accessible categories, visual cues, sorting functionality as well as overall reliable functionality with a minimal amount of bugs and issues. After having reached these conclusions, the developers also concluded that more intense testing during development as well as further testing after the final version of the website was constructed, would most certainly have yielded interesting results and a website of higher quality and navigability.