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A. Group assignment portion (60% of the assignment scores)

Task

Please makes use of the EC business model assessment methodology of Mahadevan and other related eCommerce theories to evaluate one of the following websites:

  1. http://www.good2me.com/
  2. http://www.fishround.com/
  3. http://www.ford.com/
  4. http://www.prenhall.com/
  5. http://www.cwow.com/
  6. http://www.elance.com/
  7. http://www.isyndicate.com/
  8. http://www.go2hk.com/
  9. http://www.bigboxx.com/

Requirements

  1. Each presentation lasts for 25 minutes.
  2. Assessment of the group work is based on: 

    (a) clear identification of the business model adopted by the website concerned (i.e. Portals, Market Makers, or Product/ Service Providers) and its specific business model building blocks (i.e. value stream components, revenue stream components and logistical stream components); 

    (b) a critical evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the specific business model as employed by the website, which leads to some tentative judgments on the competitiveness and business value of the business model adopted by the website. In this respect, the discussion may also consider other similar websites for comparison of relative strengths and weaknesses as a form of benchmarking exercise.

  3. The presentations will be made at lecture 4.
  4. An assignment report in 1,000 words should be submitted in hardcopy to the lecturer at lecture 4.
  5. Group size of the assignment: 4 students

 

B. Individual assignment portion (40% of the assignment scores)

Task

The task involves an evaluation of the usability of the website studied in the group assignment.

Requirements

  1. Each student should evaluate the usability of the website in terms of the three categories of usability principles as identified by Dix, Finlay, Abowd and Beale.
  2. The individual assignment report in 600 words should be submitted in hardcopy to the lecturer on Jan. 14 (Monday).
  3. The discussion in the report should clearly identify specific usability principles employed to evaluate the website (e.g. consistency, customizability, responsiveness, etc.) and comment on the usability of the website with supporting sample website screens for illustration.
  4. As a form of benchmarking exercise, the report may also mention other similar websites and explain why other similar websites are more usable in terms of particular usability principles.
  5. The assignment report cover page should clearly note the student name, student ID no., subject name and the date of report submission.

Main References

  1. B. Mahadevan (2000) "Business Models for Internet-based E-Commerce: An anatomy", California Management Review, Vol. 42, No 4, Summer
  2. M. Porter (2001) "Strategy and the Internet", Harvard Business Review, March
  3. A. Dix, J. Finlay, G. Abowd and R. Beale (1998) "Usability paradigms and principles" Chapter 4, Human-Computer Interaction, Prentice Hall.
  4. T. Mandel (1997) "Software usability testing" Chapter 7, Elements of user interface design, Wiley