How website design options affect content prominence: a literature-derived framework applied to SME websites

The literature offers a fragmented view of design options with the
potential to affect the prominence of selected content (e.g., privacy
information) on organizational websites. This article contributes
to knowledge by consolidating the design options into a single
framework. It argues that future research should consider how
the design options in combination, not just individually, can affect
content prominence. The article summarizes the types of qualitative
and quantitative studies needed to apply and extend the framework.
It presents an example qualitative study showing how the
framework can be applied to, and extended by, examining the prominence of ecologically sustainable practices (i.e., green content)
on small and medium enterprise websites. The example study
emphasizes the value of the framework by illustrating how content
prominence may vary depending on interrelationships between
design options. The article finally offers suggestions on how practitioners and developers can use the framework when making website design decisions.