A Proposed Framework for the Development of Web- Based Systems for the Service of Muslim Pilgrims

Saudi Arabia’s government, like many other governments, isjumping on the technology bandwagon in an effort to take advantageof the ever-evolving web technologies in its new trend to employ theinternet for the service of people. The e-Government Program, Yesser,translates the Saudi Government s keen interest in implementing the egovernmentconcept [1] Among its directions are to provide webservices that help Muslim pilgrims arriving in millions yearly to SaudiArabia to perform Hajj and/or Omrah.Often, designers of web sites fall into the pitfall of buildingcutting edge multimedia web sites that cost too much money, time andeffort, only to find users turning away from the web site, discouragedby its slow download times, by its navigation complexity, or by thefact that it does not contain the information they really need.This paper proposes a six-step user-centered design approachthat can be used to guide designers in developing a Hajj and Omrahweb site that is both ‘useful’ to pilgrims, in that it helps themaccomplish their goals, and ‘usable’, in that it enables them to easilyand successfully find the information they want.