My PhD paper on how website design affects customer/consumer complaints touched on pain during shopping. That was surprising! I didn't think of the paper when I saw the call for research on pain and posted about it (link to post: https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-topic-pain.html). There really is a need for research in this area.
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In general, my signature assignments are the most important papers I prepared at NCU. But, there is one important paper that was not a signature assignment. That paper was on the design of an e-commerce website. It touched on usability and consumer decision-making. It was the final paper for a course just not called a signature assignment.
The paper was titled 'Method and Design for a Website Improvement Study.' The course was the Research Design course I completed in November 2016. I thought the course was very interesting. I learned a lot about different research designs. The professor was tough but I didn't mind. He helped me to improve my writing.
At first, I wanted to focus on online reviews and decision-making during the course. I decided on online consumer decision-making that involved website design and purchasing decisions. I did not have much time to decide on a topic. In week 1 (right out of the gate), I needed to select a topic to prepare a theoretical framework for a dissertation study. I think it turned out okay.
I enrolled in the Research Design course a short while after the Research Methods course so I had some knowledge of research. I used/applied that prior knowledge. I also applied knowledge from a paper on website design I prepared for another course. For that paper on website design, I briefly reviewed available journal articles on the topic. I discovered that there was a lot of research on website design. Some were very detailed. I reused some of the articles.
I worked really hard on the website improvement paper. I was expected to use the knowledge gained throughout the course in that final paper and I thought I did a good job. I designed a study that involved obtaining users' feedback on different website designs.
There is a lot of economics in my papers. "Where does the economics come from?" some may ask. I actually have a bachelor's degree in economics. And, I was studying economics long before then. I studied economics in high school. I passed economics at GCE O-level in 1991 (the certificates I posted about a month ago show this - see https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/2022/10/pc-certificates.html). Back then, economics was not offered at CXC so I wrote it through the London external examinations.
Having a strong background in an area/subject is important. My MS degree in Information Systems at UMBC (see https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/2022/07/commencement-documents.html) provided a strong background for website creation/development, among other areas. I took the basic IS course that taught me how to build websites, including coding/developing a shopping cart and creating an application that writes to a database. It started with a basic website that included a picture and a description of myself. Before long, I was creating more complex websites with tables and scrolling banners. I still remember the "mock" magazine e-commerce website I created for the course. I designed the website to allow the purchase of subscriptions to a variety of magazines.
I am familiar with the basics.
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| Fahmeena Odetta Moore UMBC Education |
Trust is important. Customers are more likely to purchase items (such as food) from a retailer he/she trusts. In the area of online reviews, users are more likely to act on a recommendation from a review he/she trusts (thinks is fair and balanced rather than one-sided, is from a recognized expert, provides pictures, and so on).
In web retailing / electronic commerce, customers are more likely to trust a retailer that has more security features. Security is a big issue. If the customer suspects that his/her information could be compromised during transmission or when in the possession of the retailer, then he/she is less likely to purchase items.
I found research that showed the quality of the user interface of a website also impacts trust in web retailing. The research found there is a strong relationship between interface quality and trust. Here is the paper:
The impact of interface usability on trust in Web retailers
By: Marie Christine Roy, Olivier Dewit, Benoit A. Aubert
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/10662240110410165/full/html
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Website design seems easy but could be complex. Usability studies tend to research consumers' reactions or attitudes toward detailed elements of a website. My paper 'Method and Design for a Website Improvement Study' basically designed a usability study for a hypothetical website. I took inspiration from a study at USPTO. At USPTO, I assisted to schedule participants for lab sessions and also assisted participants during actual testing of the video conferencing options. The course was great. I learned a lot.
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(Screenshots of paper 'Method and Design for a Website Improvement Study)
I am happy that I used my background in website design for selection a topic for my papers. The papers were pretty good and I thought the knowledge could be applied to other things.
Here I am working on websites (each blog has its own url that is pretty much a website). I made changes recently that improved the look and feel. HTML is not required for making changes.
My websites have a certain look and feel much like my writing has a certain style. It should be easy to identify the designer/writer. I guess no one should question whether I wrote my papers.
I am still working on my second LinkedIn page (https://www.linkedin.com/in/fahmeenaodetta/). I pretty much dumped data in the profile and am working to organize it all.
I want to show that I used my background (education, jobs, articles etc.) in my PhD papers - information I showed in my other LinkedIn profile some time ago. In that profile, I showed a connection between past jobs and specific papers.
I think it is clear that I used my background in website design and social media to select topics and write papers that fall under the Social Media, Websites, and Blogging category/area. For example, I wrote a paper on how websites should be designed to meet consumer needs.
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(From blog post https://moorefo1ncuresearchdesign.blogspot.com/2016/11/work-continues.html, Paper: Method and Design for a Website Improvement Study)
I determined which social media options/sites to use for LifeLessonsForAll/the Lessons Project. I used that knowledge in a paper on social media selections.
