Coastal Services Center

For Further Consideration

Think about your own organization and try to answer the following questions for yourself:

• What are the primary things for which you use the Web at work?
• For what purposes do your clients/customers/stakeholders use the Web?
• Is the Web your primary or secondary source of research information?
• How do you know which information is accurate, and how can you ascertain its credibility?
• Do you feel entertainment value is an important consideration for promoting and disseminating information on your organization’s Web site?

Now think about your personal Web usage and answer the following:

• What do you find most frustrating or difficult about using the Web?
• If you have a Web site, does your site exhibit any of these flaws?
• How do these flaws in your Web site affect your ability to provide information to stakeholders?
• What organization do you think does a good job with its Web site? How has this organization minimized Web site frustrations?
• Are most problems that you see on other organizations’ Web sites related to content, navigation, or technology (plug-ins, slow pages, browser-specific pages) issues?