I. Introduction
There are many factors that can contribute to the effectiveness of an e-commerce system as well as the rate of adoption among site visitors. A web site is most often successful when it does a good job in each of five factors: download speed, navigation, content, interactivity, and responsiveness (Palmer 2002). All of these can be affected by an efficient and effective interface, and it for this reason that I am going to examine some of the major interface technologies available and their impact on these five factors. The specific technologies that I will examine are basic HTML, Java, Flash, and Ajax. My experience with web interfaces began in 1995 when the first popular web site that was not available on an edu domain was by a small company called Yahoo. During the last eleven years, I have worked with a variety of web technologies on both the client side and the server side. Throughout this paper, I have included personal professional experience in relation to web application development as well as their impact on web users in addition to supporting the major points with separate research resources.
II. Description of Web Interface Technologies
Palmer states that there are five factors to the success of a web site. Download speed is how long it takes for pages to download from the web server to the web browser client. Navigation is how easy it is to navigate the site, find information, and use applications. Not only must it be easy to find information, but the actual content of the web site needs to be useful and meaningful to the user. Interactivity is the e-commerce application’s responses and feedback to the user’s input. Responsiveness is how quickly the user receives output after doing something on the web site. Each of these things save content can be heavily impacted in some form or another by the choice of technologies used to develop the web site’s interface. The following sections will examine four different technologies of web interfaces and examine their impact on the five factors of web site usability and e-commerce adoption as a whole.
Basic HTML
Every web site involves using basic HyperText Markup Language or HTML to some extent or another. HTML is used to tell the web browser about text so it knows how it should be displayed. Making text bold, putting text into a table, creating headers, and inserting images are all done using HTML tags. Using best practices in development, a web site application can be created that has fast download speed, good navigation, good content, and good responsiveness. The shortcoming is that the user does not get much of a feeling of interactivity because HTML provides little to no immediate feedback to the user save for when a link is clicked to load a new page or a submit button is clicked in a form that has been completed.
HTML is currently a standard that is maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and it has gone through a few different versions that largely focus on the addition of new tags as opposed to changing older tags. The W3C actually defines several web and information standards and has organizational members including Yahoo!, Inc., VeriSign, Inc., University of Michigan, and IBM Corporation (W3C 2006).
Java
The Java programming language allows a web site developer to embed an application directly into a web page rather than requiring the installation of an entire application on the computer itself. Java increases the interactivity of a web site over a basic HTML web site but its download speed and responsiveness is usually negatively impacted. Web site applications written in Java and embedded in web pages give the user a more desktop application-like experience. At the same time Java is not as good at more basic HTML web applications in regards to navigation and the ability to provide content.
Java is owned and controlled by Sun Microsystems which began development of the language in 1991 as a tool for writing applications for consumer devices and computers (Java 2006). As it was released to the public, the World Wide Web was just beginning, and Java was quickly adopted to provide more interactivity to web sites as no other technologies had received wide adoption. It was its slow download speed and sometimes poor responsiveness that limited its acceptance on a majority of web sites. At this point in time, Java is primarily used on the server side in web applications and in Web Services but is still used on the client side in some applications.
Flash
When Netscape added the ability to integrate plug-in applications directly into their browser, Flash technology became a viable method of adding greater interactivity to a web site. Like Java, the download time of a web site can be negatively impacted by the use of Flash, but Flash is more closely integrated with the web browser making its download speed and responsiveness significantly better than most Java applications. Flash can potentially offer greater interactivity, better navigation, easy content presentation, and increased interactivity. From the user’s standpoint, the disadvantage of Flash is that not every user has the most recent version installed or may not have Flash installed at all. Despite this, Flash was the first technology available to provide users with a truly Rich Internet Application that received wide acceptance (Tekiela 2006).
Flash first entered the scene of web interface technologies as SmartSketch when it was released as a browser plug-in for Netscape Navigator in 1995 (Flashmagazine 2002). After being purchased by Macromedia and renamed Flash, its growth continued and has added features like database integration, web services, XML, and the ability to call Java and .NET object methods directly. Future improvements to Flash are likely to be improved development tools to create higher level applications.
Ajax
Built into the four primary web browsers (Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Apple Safari) are technologies that can be combined to give users a better web interface. HTML with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) enables the control and specification of how a page should be laid out. JavaScript allows for the addition of dynamic interactivity within the web browser client itself. JavaScript is also able to communicate directly with web services to retrieve XML-formatted data that can then be processed for display in the web browser. Each of these features is able to directly and positively impact a web site application’s download speed, navigation, content, interactivity, and responsiveness. As a whole, this combination of technologies is called Ajax for Asynchronous JavaScript And XML (Ajax 2006). An obstacle to Ajax is that some users and IT managers have disabled or do not have JavaScript in their browser or on their networks. By disabling JavaScript, an Ajax application cannot function.
HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and XML have been in existence for several years, and they have even been combined in the way that Ajax describes for the last few years. However, it was not until early 2005 that the term Ajax was invented as a shorthand way to refer to these technologies. The W3C maintains the standards for HTML, CSS, and XML while Ecma International controls the JavaScript specification. As Ajax as a development platform has grown, several companies have been creating IDEs to support Ajax application development. Because of the openness of the standards behind Ajax, it has the largest number of development tools available.
HTML
Java
Flash
Ajax
Download speed
2
4
3
1
Navigation
3
4
2
1
Content
1
4
3
2
Interactivity
4
1
3
2
Responsiveness
2
4
3
1
Each web site success factor is ranked based on best practices for each technology.
III. Business Applications of Web Interface Technologies
Each of these four web interface technologies can be used in the right applications. However, the growing force behind Ajax may make it the dominant technology in e-commerce applications in the coming years. Despite this fact, there are business reasons for which technology to use each specific interface technology. Using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), it is possible to further assess a specific e-commerce application and the impact of the choice of interface technology on that application (Koufaris 2002). Building on the idea that trust is also an important factor of consumer acceptance of e-commerce applications, Gefen, Karahanna, and Straub looked at trust in addition to TAM in evaluating user acceptance of e-commerce technology.
When designing an e-commerce application, it is important to assess the audience of the application. Are the users likely to be web novices? Is the application an intranet application where the browser environment can be controlled? What level of technology does the web developer expect each user to have installed? Is it acceptable to shut out some users based on their lack of installed software or their reduced user preferences? This assessment is done at the same time that the business goals and business needs are defined for the project. It is useful for the creation of the e-commerce application as well as in specifying the interface technology to be used.
Basic HTML
An e-commerce application that utilizes only basic HTML is suitable in cases where it is important that every possible user of the application be capable to use the application. HTML standards have been in existence since the beginning of the World Wide Web, and applications using purely HTML on the client side are likely to be usable by any and all browser client applications. For this wide coverage, the business must sacrifice some interactivity potential and reduced responsiveness to input from the user. At the same time, because the interface is basic and likely to work as expected for every user, the level of trust from the user is likely to be higher (Gefen et al 2003). An example of a basic HTML e-commerce application is Amazon’s e-commerce web site (http://www.amazon.com/).
Java
With the limitations of Java in regards to Palmer’s five factors for web site success, the business case for Java in comparison to these other web interface technologies resides largely with code reuse from other applications. Java was created with the idea of compile once, run everywhere so each application could be used on any other platform that also supports Java. While practically, this is not quite possible in taking a desktop or server-side application and bringing it into the web browser, large portions of a Java application written for a different platform can be incorporated into a browser-based e-commerce application. There is some likelihood though that the audience of the e-commerce application will be limited due to not every browser having Java installed or enabled. There is also a likely reduction in the perceived ease-of-use in the TAM as the user may question whether the loss of responsiveness and the slow download adds enough benefit to be worthwhile. Uproar.com (http://www.uproar.com/) is a web site that provides dozens of games for site visitors via Java as well as a variety of special offers of products available for purchase.
Flash
Flash is a good option from a business standpoint when interactivity is very important to aspects of the web application. In an appropriate use of Flash, the animation or interactivity serves a specific purpose beyond just getting the user’s attention (Hong et al 2004). Flash is most effective as a web interface technology when the features it offers can be directly used in improving its interactivity and responsiveness. Before using Flash as a web interface technology, business reasons must be established for forcing users wishing to use the web site to have Flash installed. Because of the interactivity and responsiveness, Flash is also able to impact the application’s ease-of-use and the perceived usefulness in the TAM. Google Finance (http://finance.google.com/) is an e-commerce application for investment research and portfolio management that incorporates Flash technology in portions of its web interface.
Ajax
While Java and Flash are able to give users a rich interface that has a great deal of responsiveness and interactivity, both of them require the installation and maintenance of third-party software. Ajax avoids the installation and maintenance aspect of rich Internet applications (O’Reilly 2006). Since an Ajax application requires JavaScript to be enabled, it demands careful consideration when the audience is expected to be very security-conscious users since those users may have JavaScript disabled. Also, if users are likely to be using browsers that do not support JavaScript, the appropriateness of Ajax must be examined. With these issues considered and adequately addressed, an Ajax application offers the highest potential for download speeds and responsiveness while also giving a very interactive application. Ajax is able to achieve the best responsiveness because only the portion of the page that needs to be changed has to be transmitted from the server to the client after the client submits a request. The drawback is that because Ajax is just now becoming more common, it may be difficult for e-commerce users to adjust to the features that it offers, negatively impacting the ease-of-use of the TAM. An example of an e-commerce site using Ajax is Flickr, a photo hosting, sharing, and printing service (http://www.flickr.com/).
The Future of Web Interface Technology
The explosive growth of Ajax in the last year since the term was coined indicates that the benefits that Ajax offers are too hard to resist as the web moves into the next generation of development (Lindquist 2006). Every web developer I have spoken to in the last several months is aware of Ajax and is examining the appropriateness of potentially using it in existing or new applications. This speaks loudly of Ajax as more than just a gimmick but a new paradigm of web development that will continue to grow as a web interface technology. With the growth of Web Services, Ajax will grow even faster as applications can be written that pull together XML data from distinct and separate Web Services to create new tools and applications. A web application that combines information and data from multiple sites has been termed a mashup (Mashup 2006). An example of a mashup is HousingMaps.com which combines Google Maps and Craigslist classified ads to see homes for sale and apartments for rent plotted on an easy to use map. (http://www.housingmaps.com/).
IV. Analysis and Discussion
Web interfaces to applications offer significant benefits to organizations wishing to give wider access to e-commerce systems. Each of the technologies discussed has strengths and weaknesses that must be examined by web developers before choosing one as an interface technology. Palmer’s five factors of web site success are important for assessing not only a complete e-commerce application but also an interface technology’s potential impact on an application’s rate of adoption.
Basic HTML gives an e-commerce application the widest possible audience with the loss of interactivity and responsiveness. Java and Flash both offer greater interactivity but increase download times and may shut out some users that do not have the appropriate software. Ajax offers the interactive benefits of Java and Flash without requiring users to install special software, but users without JavaScript or with JavaScript turned off may be unable to use the application.
Is there a way for developers to work around the issues of Ajax applications? Parallel development of an application for users with JavaScript enabled and for those without JavaScript is time consuming and challenging. However, I believe that the right tools could be developed that would enable the development of Ajax and basic HTML applications in parallel without requiring extraordinary efforts by the developer.
Ajax applications build the interface at the web browser while basic HTML applications build the interface at the server. In true Ajax e-commerce applications, most of the server side of the system is effectively a Web Service that provides access for a client to request and receive data via XML. With this in mind, a server-based client could be implemented that would utilize the same requests for data to the Web Service that the browser-based client makes. Obviously, creating this application would be time consuming and difficult for a web developer to implement individually. That is why I believe that the development of IDE tools that combine the browser-client development and the server-client development could speed the adoption of Ajax for e-commerce applications and provide the interactivity and responsiveness benefits of Ajax to users who wish to use them. For those users not able or unwilling to use an Ajax application because of JavaScript, the basic HTML version of the e-commerce application would be available.
These web interface technologies all impact the adoption of an e-commerce application by users. The Technology Acceptance Model used to evaluate many IT applications involves the ease-of-use as well as the usefulness of the application. These items combined with trust play an important role in the adoption of e-commerce applications. Palmer’s five factors of site usability and performance can help us not only evaluate specific e-commerce applications but also the technologies that we might use in creating an application.
V. References
Ajax. (2006) "Ajax (programming)." Wikipedia.com. Accessed April 22, 2006, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJAX.
Flashmagazine. (2002) "The Flash History." Flashmagazine. Accessed April 22, 2006, at http://www.flashmagazine.com/413.htm.
Gefen, David; Karahanna, Elena; Straub, Detmar. (2003) "Trust and TAM in online shopping: An integrated model." MIS Quarterly. Volume 27, Issue 1. pp. 51-91.
Hong, Weiyin; Thong, James Y. L.; Tam, Kar Yan. (2004) "Does Animation Attract Online Users’ Attention? The Effects of Flash on Information Search Performance and Perceptions." Information Systems Research. Volume 15, Issue 1. pp. 60-87.
Java. (2006) Web site of the Java programming language accessed April 22, 2006, at http://www.java.com/.
Koufaris, Marios. (2002) "Applying the technology acceptance model and flow theory to online consumer behavior." Information Systems Research. Volume 13, Issue 2. pp. 205-225.
Lim, Kai H.; Benbasat, Izak. (2000) "The effect of multimedia on perceived equivocality and perceived usefulness of information systems." MIS Quarterly. Volume 24, Issue 3. pp. 449-472.
Lindquist, Christopher. (2006) "Ajax Arrives for Enterprise."CIO. Accessed March 28, 2006, at http://www.cio.com/archive/021506/et_article.html.
Mashup. (2006) "Mashup (web application hybrid)." Wikipedia.com. Accessed April 22, 2006, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashup_%28web_application_hybrid%29.
O’Reilly, Tim. (2006) "What is Web 2.0." Accessed March 31, 2006, at http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html.
Palmer, Jonathan W. (2002) "Web site usability, design, and performance metrics." Information Systems Rsearch. Volume 13, Issue 2. pp. 151-169.
Tekiela, Robert. (2006) "Rich Internet Applications Pick Up Where HTML Stops." Computerworld. Accessed April 20, 2006, at http://www.computerworld.com/developmenttopics/development/story/0,10801,107237,00.html
W3C. (2006) Web site of the World Wide Web Consortium accessed April 22, 2006, at http://www.w3c.org/.
