Design of Business Communication

Redesigning the website of the Province of Zeeland

How to professionally analyze and redesign a website aimed at tourists, citizens and
companies

Student:

Anouk Versluis

Bachelor:

Communication and Information Sciences; Corporate Communication

and Digital Media

ANR-number:

S980211

Academic year:

2009

| Introduction
This paper was written for the course Design of Business Communication, part of the
Bachelor Corporate Communication and Digital Media at Tilburg University. The goal of this
course is to become familiar with the methodology of designing functional organisational
communication. In this course, we address the question of how processes and products of
organizational and business communication can be improved. The answer will be found in a
systematic approach of concrete communication problems.
This existing communication problem concerns the website of the Province of
Zeeland. The goal of this paper is to explore the question How to professionally analyze and
redesign a website aimed at tourists, citizens and companies?. The problem will be
elaborated in three parts. The first part is the analysis of the communication problem. The
second part describes the conceptual design and the last part contains the results of the
evaluation of the design.

| Table of contents
1

| Analysis

1.1

| Definition and description of the problem

1.2

| Communicative objectives

1.3

| Target group

1.4

| Activities of the target

1.5

| Conditions for the redesign

5
6
7

| Conceptual design 7
2.1

| Description conceptual design 7

2.2

| Choice of media

2.3

| Content and structure

2.4

| Style and lay-out

10
12

14

| Evaluation 15

1 | Analysis
1.1

| Definition an description of the problem

The problem becomes immediately clear when the website of the Province of Zeeland is
opened. The information overload and the unclear structure and goals of the website, confirm
that this communication tool malfunctions.
A right side menu with various options (citizens, companies, tourist or no
preference) can be found on the website. A big problem is, that after making a choice one
cannot see the specific information which one wants to see. In my opinion, there should be a
clear distinction between information for tourists, information for citizens or information for
businesses. Secondly, there should be more information for tourists, especially for German
people, to promote the province.
The problem of the communication tool can be described as a broad communication
problem. Many problems have to be solved. For example, not only the structure of the
website has to be improved, but also the design needs improvement.
1.1.1

| Causes

The main cause of the problem could be that the province does not see the importance of
being a user, who is looking for specific information. It is also possible that the administrator
of the site does not have enough knowledge about how to design a website. Besides, it is
possible that the province does not have enough money or time for redesigning the website.
In figure 1 the causes of the problem are visualized.
Customers factors

Province of Zeeland factors

Not seeing the

Not seeing the importance

importance of

of being users (tourists,

Not gaining any information

having an

citizens or companies)

about the province through its

attractive website

website

Having a
Not wanting to visit the unattractive website

malfunctioning

of the province

communication
tool

Having a lack of
the knowledge
how to make a
website attractive

Not having enough time and money

for redesigning
Being bad informed by
the Province of Zeeland

Figure 1: Visualization of the causes

4

1.1.2

| Alternative solutions

Alternative solutions to tackle the problem could be spending more money on Vereniging
voor Vreemdelingverkeer, the tourist board of the Netherlands. Secondly, the province of
Zeeland could spend more money on Omroep Zeeland, the television channel of the
province, and its broadcast Teletext. They could also spend more money on advertisements,
to promote the province, in the local newspaper, named Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant
(PZC). Then they can create more attention for citizens and companies.
1.2

| Communicative objectives

I will discuss the communication objectives, according to the sequential prerequisites of Mc

Guire (1969) for the various target groups.
A) Citizens
The main communication objective of redesigning www.zeeland.nl for this target group is
informing them about important information of living in the province. Another communication
objective is motivating the target group to develop a positive attitude towards the province, so
they will live comfortably in Zeeland.
B) Companies
The main communication objective for this target group (people between age range 21-65) is
persuading them to use www.zeeland.nl for business activities. This can be done by
informing the companies about the local business activities and possibilities.
C)Tourists
For the tourists is the main communication objective persuading them to go on holiday in the
province. Informing them about campsites, hotels et cetera is another important
communication objective.
A detailed description of the target group can be found in paragraph 1.3.
1.3
1.3.1

| Target group
| Selection of the target group

The target group of the website is quite large. People who are living in the province, people
who are a tourist or business people belong to this target group. Because the target group is
quite sizable, there is chosen for certain target groups.
1.3.2

| Description of the target group

According to the three visions on the analysis of target groups (Schriver, 1997), I applied the
intuition-driven audience analyses to describe the target groups. The intuition-driven
audience analysis is a model in which the communicator imagine the audience and draw on
their internal representation of the audience as a guide to writing and design (Schriver,
1997).
A) Citizens
This target group can be defined as; people of all ages, living in the province of Zeeland and
who want to have information about living in this province. Citizens will have information
about activities, so there should be a activity calendar on the website.
B) Tourists
This group can be defines as people of all ages and who want to have information about
going on holiday in the province of Zeeland. At least 50 percent of this group is living in
Germany, so it is important to take this into account when designing the communication tool.
There is a high risk of losing the target group, when the website and its content are too
difficult to understand for foreigners. So it is important to have an effective design, which is
easy to use and understand (Van der Geest, 2004).
C) Companies
This target group can be defined as; people between in the age range 21-65, living in the
province of Zeeland and who want to have information about business activities an
possibilities in Zeeland. The reason why the age range 21-65 is chosen, is because the age
of working generally stops at 65, and 21 because this is the beginning of adulthood. It is
important to have an effective design for this group. In the redesign there will be a job bank,
so companies could place vacancies on the website. The page for the companies should not
be too colorful. The page should have a business look, so it does not need too many colors.
1.4

| Activities of the target

It has been assumed that it is important to get to know the context in which the target group
will use the system. The target group will look for information on the on their own account,
because the province of Zeeland does not promote their website. The tasks and the context
in which the target group will use the website can be described according to the five
approaches of Quesenbery (2001):

Browse explore. For example: Information about campsites in the province.

Find locate something specific. For example: Information about campsites in a

specific area.

Query see items that meet your criteria. For example: Middelburg.

Structured to be led through choices to help you narrow your focus

Guided to be led through the information

The situational context of the target groups is in a certain way positive. In most of the cases
they want to have specific information, for instance about activities in the province, and
therefore they are visiting the website of the province. The positive context has as a
consequence that the lay-out has to be colorful but not too many colors. Too many colors will
make the page feel too busy. It usually makes it harder for the viewer to find the information
he or she wants and it is also more tiring to the eyes. A page with too few colors, on the other
hand, will make the page feel too boring.
1.5

| Conditions for the redesign

Based on the information above, the redesign of the website has to meet certain conditions
in order to function according to the stated objectives. First of all, it is important to make the
structure of the website clear. There should be a clear distinction between information
for tourists, information for citizens or information for businesses. Secondly, visualization
techniques should be used, to clarify the text and to make the website more attractive for
tourists. A lot of blue colors should be used. Another condition is that the website should offer
more interactive possibilities, for instance webcam images of the boulevard of Flushing
(Vlissingen) .
Two other limiting conditions are relevant. First, a budget of 750 for redesigning the
website. Second, there should be enough time to redesign and restructure the website.

2 | Conceptual design
2.1
2.1.1

| Description conceptual design

| Necessary information

The design consists of 4 parts; homepage, page for citizens, page for companies and the
page for tourists.
All information of the website should be included in the design of the homepage:
Coast and Water, Nature and Environment, Space and Living, Tourism and Recreation,
Safety, Traffic and Transport, Employment and Business, Care, Culture and Society.
The following information should be included in the design for the page for the
citizens: Coast and Water, Nature and Environment, Space and Living, Tourism and
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Recreation, Safety, Traffic and Transport, Employment and Business, Care, Culture and
Society.
The information that should be included in the design for the page for companies:
Employment and Business.
The design for tourists should include the following information:
Coast and Water, Nature and Environment, Tourism and Recreation, Traffic and
Transport.
Results of the online survey
I interviewed 81 people (appendix two) who could belong to the target group. I asked them
what kind of information they wanted to acquire from a province website. Based on that
information (appendix two), the following information should absolutely be included in the
design of the website:
Information about activities in the province
Webcam images (Boulevard in Flushing (Vlissingen), Westkapelle and the Delta Works)
A weather forecast
2.1.2

| Style attuned to different target groups

In paragraph 2.1.1 it is stated that the redesign is meant for different target groups. In
paragraph 2.3 the complete structure of the website can be found.
Ideas about style and lay-out for the redesign
For every target group is a different page. To give you an idea about the lay-out of the
different pages, you have to take a look at the following examples:

Figure 2: Top of the page for tourists

Figure 3: Top of the page for companies

Figure 4: Top of the page for citizens

Figure 5: A
part of the
current
Website

Figure 6: The redesign

The website has to look professional. The lay-out must be modern and there must be a good
readable typography. Pictures make the website attractive and they clarify the text. The
colors and the lay-out should harmonize with the corporate identity of the province of
Zeeland, using a lot of blue colors. Blue refers to water and the province consists of a lot of
water. There are no links that open new browsers, so the users dont move away from the
site.
2.1.3

| Flexibility of the design

The redesign is suitable for different target groups. The structure of the design takes the
different target groups into account. The redesign is also suitable for foreigners, by offering
the opportunity to switch into another language such as German. The design is flexible
enough for changes in the future. The colors blue and white will always be good colors for a
website. The target groups will be the same in the future, so the design will also be good
enough in the future.
2.2

| Choice of media

In this paragraph 3 other media to reach the target groups will be discussed, namely:
Vereniging voor Vreemdelingenverkeer, Omroep Zeeland and the Provinciale Zeeuwse
Courant. VVV reaches the tourists, Omroep Zeeland and PZC reach the locals.
2.2.1

| Pros and cons of the other media

Advantages VVV
There is face-to-face communication. The questions of tourists can quickly be answered by
people who are working by VVV. Another advantage is that VVV has up-to-date information,
for instance information about activities in the area.
Disadvantages VVV
A tourist office is not 24/7 open, so a person cannot get information at every moment.
Another disadvantage is that there could be a line of people in the office, so a person have to
wait before someone will help him. Thirdly, a VVV office is not situated in every place and a
website can be consulted everywhere.
Advantages Omroep Zeeland
One can watch TV while one is relaxing on the couch. Watching television is an easy way to
get information. On the television there is image and sound, while internet often lacks sound.
10

Disadvantages Omroep Zeeland

The signals flow in only one direction, from the transmitter to the receiver, so asking and
answering questions is impossible.
Advantages PZC
A lot of actual information can be found in the newspaper. A newspaper reaches a lot of
people.
Disadvantages PZC
The signals flow in only one direction, from the transmitter to the receiver.
2.2.2

| Added value of the website

The internet allows people to read information at their own place and at every time. It is easy
to find information on the website and people can ask for more information by contacting the
website.
2.2.3

| Interactivity

Interactivity is a good thing to have, it can make surfing a more satisfying experience to
users, and the more of it better (Liu & Shrum, 2002), so interactive functions are incorporated
in the design. The interactive functions which are recommend are the following:

A local weather forecast

Webcam images (Boulevard in Flushing (Vlissingen), Westkapelle and the Delta Works)
A place for vacancies (vacaturebank)
The possibility for customers to ask online questions. One can find under many
components non-profit addresses. Public libraries maintain this directory. Secondly,
visitors can send an e-mail to the developers of the website.

There is no chat box, forum or prikbord on the website, because it takes too much time for
the developers to check the communication functions.
2.3

| Content and structure

The structure of the site will be:

Left side menu:
-Burger

Components:
-Kust en Water
-Natuur en Milieu
-Ruimte en Wonen
-Toerisme en Recreatie
-Veiligheid
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-Verkeer en Vervoer
-Werken en Ondernemen
-Zorg, Cultuur en Samenleving
-Bedrijven

-Werken en Ondernemen

-Toeristen

-Kust en Water
-Natuur en Milieu
-Tourisme en Recreatie
-Verkeer en Vervoer

-Geen voorkeur (homepage)

All components

-Verkeersinformatie
-Vacatures
-Verkeersinformatie
-Contact
-Toerisme en Recreatie
-Subsidieloket

Right side menu:

-Kust en Water

Components:
-Deltawerken
-Kustveiligheid
-Verbindingen
-Zeeuwse Wateren
-Inspraak Waterplannen
-Water
-Container Terminal
-Zwemwaterkwaliteit
-Adressengids

-Natuur en Milieu

-Natuur
-Milieu
-Duurzaam = gewoon doen!
-Adressengids

-Ruimte en Wonen

-Ruimte
-Wonen
-Regio's
-Leefbaarheid
-Gemeenten
-Waterschappen
-Adressengids

-Toerisme en Recreatie

-Accommodaties
-Attracties
-Culinair
-Cultuur
-Evenementen
-Fietsen
-Wandelen
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-Natuurgebieden
-Jachthavens
-Stranden
-Toeristische cijfers
-Zwemwaterkwaliteit
-Sport
-Adressengids
-Veiligheid

-Openbare Orde
-Externe veiligheid
-Kustveiligheid
-Sociale veiligheid
-Verkeersveiligheid
-Zeeuwse risicokaart
-Denk Vooruit
-Adressengids

-Verkeer en Vervoer

-Openbaar vervoer
-Wegen
-Vaarwegen
-Verkeersinformatie
-Verkeersveiligheid
-Goederenvervoer
-Meld ongerechtigheden
-Adressengids

-Werken en Ondernemen

-Werkgelegenheid
-Werk zoeken
-Ondernemen
-Bedrijventerreinen
-Container Terminal
-Economische Impuls Zeeland
-Adressengids

-Zorg, Cultuur en Samenleving

-Zorg
-Cultuur
-Onderwijs
-Jong in Zeeland
-Vrijwilligerswerk
-Sport
-Adressen Zorg
-Adressen Cultuur
-Adressen Onderwijs
-Adressen Samenleving

-Informatie over het Provinciaal beleid

-Informatie over Bestuurlijk Zeeland
-Het laatste Nieuws uit Zeeland
-Overzicht van Producten & Diensten
-Vacatures
-Mijn Zeeland
-Contact
13

-Zoeken in deze website

-Veelgestelde vragen
-Algemene voorwaarden
-Laatste wijzigingen
-RSS feeds
-Meest bekeken
-Sitemap
2.4

| Style and lay-out conditions

2.4.1

| Stylistic conditions

The text in the redesign of the website should meet the following stylistic conditions:

The text structure should be as clear as possible. Headings should always be

relevant and identify the subject matter. The purposes of headings are to attract the
attention of the reader, to make the subject matter readily apparent, and indicate the
relative importance of items. To avoid large texts, you have to divide the text into
sections (Figure 7) and subsections. (Petterson, 2001)

Principle 16, according to Strunk & White (1979) is an important stylistic condition.
Principle 16: Use definite, specific and concrete language.

Increase personal involvement, make the reader a part of the action (Sadoski, 1999).
For example: Zin in zelfvertrouwen? (Figure 7)

Figure 7: A part of the redesign

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2.4.2

| Conditions for the lay-out and illustrations

The lay-out of the redesign of the website should meet several conditions:

Font: Arial (different sizes)

Text color: Black and blue

Background color: White

The following figures (slogans) illustrate a part of the lay-out of the redesign: 2,3,4.
Figure 6 illustrates a screenshot of the redesign.

3 | Evaluation
3.1

| Methods

In chapter 1 certain communicative objectives, for the various target groups, have been
described.
The main communication objective for the citizens is informing them about important
information of living in the province. Another communication objective is motivating the
citizens to develop a positive attitude towards the province. For the companies is the main
objective persuading them to use the site for business activities an for the tourists is the main
communication objective persuading them to go on holiday in the province.
The communicative effect should be informative, persuasive and to motivate people
to go to the province. The information needs to be understandable, especially for German
tourists, and visitors must be able to find where they are searching for. The following
components need to be evaluated: the content, the attractiveness and the structure. The
methods of evaluation will be qualitative and quantitative. There will be a product evaluation
as well as a user-oriented evaluation.
3.1.1

| User-oriented: the quantitative evaluation method and results

The user-oriented evaluation was used to determine if the conceptual redesign is

understandable and user-friendly for the various target groups. The method for this useroriented evaluations is letting participants fill in an online questionnaire (appendix 1). The
following questions need to be answered: Is the structure clear?, Is the content interesting?
and Are the colors attractive ?. Surveys were held under 81 participants in the age range 1340. The participants were invited via a Dutch Social Networking website, namely Hyves.
Participants were shown the current website and a screenshot of the redesigned homepage.
They were asked to answer questions on a seven-point-scale about the content, structure
and lay-out of the website.

15

The participants reacted positive to the content and the lay-out of the redesigned
page, but they found that the structure of the redesign has a better improvement. However,
they find the structure the best improvement, the results for the content and lay-out are also
good, so the redesign has been successful. To determine if they want to have certain
applications on the redesigned website, a question was asked about some applications. Most
participants want to have an activity calendar, with a wide range of information about local
activities, on the redesigned website. Other participants want to see webcam images on the
website or a weather forecast.
3.1.2

| Product-oriented: the qualitative evaluation method and results

A product evaluation was used to check the navigation, understandability and the visual
aspects. The following questions have to be answered: How do users find the information?
(Farkas and Farkas, 2000), Do the users understand the information? (Spyridakis, 2000),
Are the visual aspects on the website clear and attractive for users? (Williams, 2000) and
Which relation between the organization and the user will be created? (Coney and
Steehouder, 2000).
A CIW student, a colleague, was asked to have a critical look at www.zeeland.nl and
to give her opinion. A person with communication knowledge see what readers/users do not
see. The main point made by the student is that there should be more blue colors, as a
reference to the important role that water plays in the province, on the website. Another point,
is that the colors (orange, green, blue and red) in the left side menu not good readable are
for partially sighted people. So the colors in the left side menu should be replaced for more
suitable colors. When these changes are implemented, the website should be informative,
persuasive and motivating for the target groups.
3.2

| Validity and reliability

The validity of the results for both evaluating methods are not high. This could be improved
by asking many communicative experts about their opinion. In contrast, the reliability is high
because 81 people (included some CIW students), who could belong to the target groups,
filled in the online questionnaire.
3.3

| Conclusions

Considering the evaluation, the conclusion may be drawn that the redesign has been
successful. The information is clear for the various target groups and visitors are able to
acquire the specific information on the website. In short, the redesigned website is, according
to a user-oriented evaluation and a product-oriented evaluation, user-friendly and
understandable. Important is that the province should start a campaign to promote their
16

website, because a lot of people have never taken a look at the website (appendix 2). The
province can attract, through holding a campaign, a lot of tourists and people from the other
target groups.

17

| References
Coney, M.B. & Steehouder, M. (2000). Role playing on the Web: Guidelines for designing
and evaluating personas online. Technical Communication, 47 (3), 327-340.
Farkas, D.K. & Farkas, J.B. (2000). Guidelines for designing Web navigation. Technical
Communication, 47 (3), 341-358.
Geest, T. van der (2004). New Media: Tax to the max: Designing web services for ordinary
people. Information Design Journal + Document Design 12 (3), 213 218
McGuire (1969).
Petterson, R. (2000). Attention; An information design perspective. Document design 2 (2),
114-130
Quesenbery, W. (2001). Meeting user needs for useful online information. Technical
communication, 48 (2), 182-188
Sadoski, M. (1999). Theoretical, empirical, and practical considerations in designing
informational text. Document Design, 1 (1), 25-34
Schriver, K.A. (1997). Dynamics in document design: Creating texts for readers. New York:
Whiley.
Shrum, L.J. & Liu, Y. (2002). What Is Interactivity and Is It Always Such a Good Thing?
Journal of Advertising, 31, 53-63
Spyridakis, J.H. (2000). Guidelines for authoring comprehensible Web pages and evaluating
their success.Technical Communication, 47 (3), 359-382.
Strunk, W., Jr., & White, E.B. (1979). The elements of style (3). New York: Macmillan
Williams, Th. R. (2000). Guidelines for designing and evaluating the display of information on
the Web. Technical Communication, 47 (3), 383-396.

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| Appendix 1: Online survey

(http://www.enquetemaken.be/toonenquete.php?id=29527)

19

20

21

22

| Appendix 2: Results of the online survey

In totaal legden 81 mensen deze enqute af.

Statistieken voor vraag 1 : Geslacht:
1.1 Man

39.51%

1.2 Vrouw 60.49%

Statistieken voor vraag 2 : Leeftijd:

Statistieken voor vraag 3 : Bent u woonachtig in de provincie Zeeland?

3.1 Ja

66.67%

3.2 Nee 33.33%

Statistieken voor vraag 4 : Heeft u een positief of negatief beeld van de provincie Zeeland?
Gemiddelde waarde: 2.70
Variantie: 2.13

23

Statistieken voor vraag 5 : Ik heb ................. gekeken op de website

5.1 weleens

23.46%

5.2 regelmatig 3.70%

5.3 nog nooit 74.07%
Statistieken voor vraag 6 : Open de website www.zeeland.nl of kijk naar onderstaand screenshot.
Wat vindt u van de kleuren van de website?
Gemiddelde waarde: 3.85
Variantie: 2.77
Statistieken voor vraag 7 : Ik vind de structuur:
Gemiddelde waarde: 3.46
Variantie: 3.06
Statistieken voor vraag 8 : Ik vind de informatie:
Gemiddelde waarde: 3.84
Variantie: 1.94
Statistieken voor vraag 9 : Welke ontbrekende informatie op de huidige website zou u graag op
de vernieuwde website willen zien?
1 Een forum (voor toeristen, burgers etc.)

7.79%

2 Een prikbord (voor het verkopen en kopen van spullen)

7.79%

3 Een chatbox

2.60%

4 Webcambeelden (Boulevard van Vlissingen, Westkapelle, Deltawerken etc.) 20.78%

5 Weeroverzicht

15.58%

6 Uitgebreide informatie voor toeristen

12.99%

7 Uitgebreide informatie over activiteiten in Zeeland

27.27%

8 Uitgebreide vacaturebank

5.19%

Statistieken voor vraag 10 : > REDESIGN In het redesign van de website is er een duidelijk
onderscheid gemaakt tussen informatie voor de verschillende doelgroepen (burger, toerist,
bedrijf of 'geen voorkeur'). Men dient een keuze te maken, in een menu aan de linkerkant, tot
welke doelgroep men behoort, vervolgens wordt de specifieke informatie voor die doelgroep
getoond. De huidige website heeft al zo'n menu, maar na het maken van een keuze wordt de
specifieke informatie helaas niet getoond. Daarnaast zijn de kleuren van de website aangepast.
24

Ook zijn er bepaalde applicaties op de website toegevoegd. >>> Wat vindt u van de kleuren van
het redesign? Het redesign vindt u hieronder:
Gemiddelde waarde: 5.12
Variantie: 2.73
Statistieken voor vraag 11 : Wat vindt u van de structuur?
Gemiddelde waarde: 2.85
Variantie: 2.89
Statistieken voor vraag 12 : Wat vindt u van de informatie?
Gemiddelde waarde: 3.15
Variantie: 2.42
Statistieken voor vraag 13 : Vragen of opmerkingen?
Deze antwoorden werden gegeven:
-zeker het actule weer en de google zoekmachine zijn een positieve verbetering van de website.
-Anouk, leuk joh zo\'n onderzoek. Alleen als je de site www.zeeland.nl wilt openen dan gaat de
enqute helemaal weg dus dat is misschien een puntje! Succes verder!
-Een geslaagd redesign; duidelijker, aansprekende informatie. Dubbele zoekmachine kan misschien
verwarrend zijn voor sommige mensen.
-ziet er goed uit het redesign!
-Leuke verbetering aan de site!
-Website was bij mij niet bekende, misschien wat meer promoten zodat meer mensen deze website
gaan bezoeken.
-mag wel wat meer kleur en wat vrolijker

25