Over the past 30 years, companies wishing to improve their performance have progressively introduced computers in their work place and this has led to the appearance of computers on manufacturing shop floors. As part of their duties, shop-floor employees are now asked to use computer applications, in particular industrial hypermedia applications (IHA) containing task-related information (set-up, assembly, maintenance, testing, and quality procedures) to support task completion and/or training activities. If accepted and used, an IHA offers many benefits to both the company and the operators. Thus, logically an IHA should be evaluated to check the extent to which it is used or will be used. Although knowing the extent of acceptance is useful, the evaluation should also explain why it is so in order to enable developers to concentrate their efforts on key characteristics influencing user acceptance. To identify the key characteristics, this paper reviews the literature on the development and evaluation of IHAs. The objective is to summarise and organise those key characteristics within a framework and point out that the degree of appreciation of some of the characteristics are influenced by user differences. This framework provides developers with a frame of reference to evaluate whether an IHA meets most users’ expectations, to correct its shortcomings, and to build a body of knowledge around the development of well-designed IHAs. Before employing the proposed framework to evaluate an IHA prior and after implementation, it is essential to find reliable and valid instruments to measure two of the four characteristics and conduct empirical tests. This work is currently underway.