Development Of A Measurement Instrument For Website Design Utilizing Analytic Hierarchy Process (Ahp) Multi-Attribute Decision Modeling

For many organizations their websites are the first impression customers have of their companies. The impact and importance of web design on organizations continues to dramatically increase. Yet many organizations continue to struggle to find tools to strategically analyze their websites and overall online presence. While there have been numerous studies offering "best practices" for website design, most of these are dated and do not take into consideration new applications and social media tools that come into the market. In our research over 900 surveys were conducted on Inc. Magazine's Top 500 list (2011-13) of fastest growing companies in the United States. The analysis of these surveys resulted in a list of shared elements (best practices) common to the websites surveyed. Through the use of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Multi-attribute Decision Model, we developed a measure by which companies can assess their web presence in comparison to this best practices model. This model provides an internally consistent, robust model against which to measure an organization's website.