critical discourse ba hons graphic design, southampton institute, 1999 critical discourse - introduction

E-commerce: A study into the design of business Web sites and the advantages and disadvantages for businesses being on the Internet, specifically looking at online shopping.

The aim of this Critical Discourse is to investigate both the advantages and disadvantages for a business that is going online and to look at the aspects of Web site design that can influence their success. This will be achieved by studying both primary and secondary sources of information including the many books now available and numerous magazine and newspaper articles on this subject and by studying sources available, such as sales figures and annual reports, for existing businesses that are already on the Internet.

The opinions of Web site users will be an invaluable source of information to find out what they want when they visit a site and what discourages them, after all, they are the customers a site is trying to attract and so the primary source for this study will be a questionnaire undertaken on the Internet.

Correspondence with people involved in this media and companies undertaking an Internet business venture will also be of great assistance to me throughout my research. This will help to gather evidence on which to base speculations and theories and to consolidate the conclusions reached.

Advantages and disadvantages are not always going to apply in the same situations and so in the next few chapters I will be looking at both the features of business Web sites in general and the aspects of two particular company's Web sites to illustrate which of these features apply to them. This will enable me to assess the benefits or downfalls sites of this nature may have. I will also study existing statistics and information to assist in comparing and contrasting the many differing aspects involved in this virtual world and I will undertake investigations of my own in order to gather evidence to help understand and anticipate where this type of business is heading into the next century.

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