Informative Web Content Guidelines (IWCG)

In today's digital age, many organizations publish extensive knowledge bases online, providing crucial information to stakeholders, customers, and service users. While national laws mandate universal access to information, focusing on accessibility, the informativeness of content often gets overlooked. Existing frameworks for assessing information systems primarily concentrate on system facets or task completion, rather than content quality.

This interpretive study, my PhD project, addresses this gap by identifying key attributes that significantly impact information quality. Using four action case studies, the research examines these attributes and highlights areas for content improvement. Each case study involves observations using task scenarios and the concurrent think-aloud protocol to gather user perceptions and cognitive understanding of website information.

The findings lead to the development of the Informative Web Content Guidelines (IWCG), a new model for practitioners aimed at enhancing web content quality. These guidelines align with existing industry standards mandated by national governments to improve online accessibility. The study introduces three new attributes—fallback, information usability, and interactivity—integrating them with established academic information quality frameworks.

By synthesizing general literature with focused online studies, the IWCG offers a practical approach for refining web content. This model empowers practitioners to create more informative and user-friendly online content, ultimately improving the user experience. The guidelines are available below for those interested in implementing these best practices.

Links

• Practitioner guidelines for implementation on existing websites, including explanation of application
• Full PhD thesis