User-Centered Evalutation of Personalized Web Sites

In addition to traditional usability issues, evaluation studies for personalized Web sites and applications must consider concerns specific to these systems. In the general case, usability studies for computer-based applications attempt to determine whether the software, in actual use, meets users’ needs, whether users can accomplish their goals in using the software, whether users can understand and use the application (whether they comprehend what they can do, and how), the rate, frequency, and severity of user errors, the rate of, and time duration for, task completion, and so on. But in the case of user-centered evaluations of personalized Web sites, there are additional questions and issues that must be addressed. In this paper, we present some of these, based on our experience in us-ability studies of a personalized eCommerce site.

A Methodology for Web Accessibility Development and Maintenance

Web design and evaluation are currently framed by legal restrictions and social demands for full accessibility. The main reason is that currently most web sites are not accessible for people with physical, sensory or cognitive restrictions due to diverse causes, such as disability, use of non-standard equipment or special work conditions. Accessibility awareness has advanced considerably in recent years, but designers are still having difficulties in updating or creating new accessible pages. Even though useful tools and sound evaluation methodologies are being designed, they are of no use if they are not integrated into the standard web design lifecycle, interacting naturally with common design and authoring tools. This chapter introduces the basic concepts related to web accessibility and proposes a method for including accessibility in standard web engineering methodologies. The key phases, accessibility, evaluation and maintenance, are described in detail. Finally, a model is proposed for implementing accessibility policy in organizations.

Information Architecture and Navigation Design for Web Sites

Information architecture concerns how to structure the content of an information space. Information architects design information spaces. Staying with the notion of information space leads us to the realisation that people need to be able to both conceptualise an information space and find their way through that information space to where they want to go. People need to be able to navigate information space. In this chapter we explore two key issues of web site design; information architecture and the design of navigation support. In order to do this we draw upon theories of information spaces and theories of navigation in urban spaces. From these theories a number of practical features of web sites are described.

Innovations in Collaborative Web Design

In this chapter we analyse the link between multidisciplinary design and team learning, which, we argue, need to be supported in equal measure during Web design projects. We introduce a new approach to collaborative Web design, called the “Design and Learning Methodology,” as a way to support these two processes. The approach involves many stakeholders, including future website users, in design decision-making. It structures stakeholder participation through multidisciplinary design teams (MDTs). It uses professional facilitators to guide design and learning processes. Facilitation tools are drawn from a combination of action learning methods, which help MDTs reflect and act on new knowledge gained from design experiences, and human-centred design, which is an international protocol for achieving quality in interactive systems design (ISO 9000 series). Based on our research, we describe how facilitation of the process of learning from design contributes to continuous improvement in collaborative competencies needed for Web design.

A Qualitative Study in user's Inforamtion-Seeking Behaviors on Web Sites

This chapter introduces a qualitative study of user’s information-seeking tasks on web-based media, by investigating user’s cognitive behaviors when they are searching for particular information on various kinds of web sites. The experiment, which is a major part of the recently completed doctoral research at the Institute of Design-IIT, particularly studies of cognitive factors including user goals and modes of searching. The main objective is to identify the corresponding impact of these factors on their needs and behaviors in relation to web site design. By taking a user-based qualitative approach, the author hopes that this study will open the door to a careful consideration of actual user needs and behaviors in relation to information-seeking tasks on web-based media. The results may compliment the uses of existing quantitative studies by supplying a deeper user understanding and a new qualitative approach to analyze and improve the design of information on web sites.

The Usability Engineering Behins User-Centered Processes for Web Site Development Lifecycles

Usability is integral to software quality. Software developers increasingly acknowledge the importance of user-centered Web-site development. The value of usability engineering and the role of the usability engineer (UE) are less well understood. A common assumption is that the UE’s role is only to be a user advocate. To this role, we add the responsibility of addressing concerns of other stakeholders in Web-site design and development. We discuss usability engineering and the processes that it encompasses, such as project planning, requirements-definition, user-centered design and evaluation/testing within the context of traditional software engineering lifecycles. We define the UE’s role throughout a user-centered Web-site development lifecycle. This lifecycle integrates compatible usability engineering processes into software engineering processes, drawing examples from research and experience.

Remote Usability Evaluation of Web Interfaces

Usability testing is a process that employs a sample of future users to evaluate software according to specific usability criteria. With the unprecedented growth and reach of the Internet, it is hard to reach representative users of Websites across the world. The new branch of remote usability testing has emerged as an alternative. While it is prohibitively expensive to conduct usability testing on a global range of users, it is technically possible and is more feasible to remotely collect the necessary information about usability problems and to analyze them the same way we do local tests. In this chapter, we present systematic methods and tools to support remote usability testing and evaluation of Web interfaces.

Walkthroughs in Web Usability

The evaluators of a website have a need for robust and easy-to-use usability inspection methods to help them to systematically identify the possible usability problems of the website being analysed. Three usability inspection methods – heuristic walkthrough (HW), cognitive walkthrough (CW), and activity walkthrough (AW) – are reviewed in this chapter. Reviewing that work, this chapter discusses the relative advantages and weaknesses of all of the techniques, and suggestions for web evaluation are offered, with a short website example. Based on these analyses, we suggest some changes to website evaluation to improve accuracy and reliability of the current walkthrough methods; however, this chapter is not a comparison between the walkthrough techniques in order to determine which technique is best at detecting usability problems of a website.

From Behavior to Design

This chapter explores user-centered design concepts such as personas, scenarios and task analysis. It argues that combining ethnographic research and psychographic data to create personas and scenarios produces powerful quantitative and qualitative evidence for product requirements. The chapter also illustrates ways the resulting interface specifications can be developed with fidelity to those initial requirements. This approach offers a substantive understanding of the nature of designing interfaces for a variety of contexts. Furthermore, the author hopes that by outlining and describing the various tools and techniques available to the user-centered design team, more complex and hybrid models of user research design will be developed for creating and studying information systems, as well as assist in the understanding of the intricate relationships that exist between different ways in producing user-center designed products as a whole.

Understanding the Nature of Task Analysis in Web Design

Designing usable web-based interfaces challenges practitioners to carefully consider end-user behaviour and requirements. Unfortunately, in meeting this challenge, human-computer interaction task analysis is often poorly understood and applied during web design activities. Rather than purely evaluating usability against prescriptive guidelines, we argue that designing for web-based interaction requires a more holistic and descriptive approach. This chapter provides an overview of cognitive and postcognitive human-computer interaction task analysis frameworks, and their respective abilities to capture a systemic view of stakeholder requirements. As such, this chapter provides a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners alike.