Analysis of web content delivery effectiveness and efficiency in responsive web design using material design guidelines and User Centered Design

Abstract

Nowadays, websites are not only be accessed by computers with a large screen. They were mostly accessed via mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones that relatively have smaller screen size. Almost every website has their different style and visual appearance concerning content and information delivery. Even though they were visually looked different, they were mostly designed and developed by using one of one column, two columns, or three columns layout. The way to properly deliver content and information on a smaller screen size becomes a challenging matter. Responsive Web Design approach allows a single web page to be differently visualized based on the screen size of the accessing device. Such layout changing may affect the amount of information to be displayed on the screen, hence affecting the effectiveness and efficiency of information delivery in a web page. This study compares the effectiveness and efficiency of a web page that is being displayed on a computer screen, tablet, and smartphones. How the implementation of Materials Design Guidelines and User-Centered Design approaches in the design process may affect the effectiveness and efficiency of content and information delivery of a web page on smaller screens were also evaluated and presented. This research shows that User Centered Design and Material Design Guidelines improve the effectiveness and efficiency of content delivery on both tablet and smartphone. Materials Design Guidelines provide better usability improvement than User Centered Design approach for the smartphone screen regarding content delivery efficiency for web pages designed in three columns layout.