Investigating the appropriateness and relevance of mobile web accessibility guidelines

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develop and maintain guidelines for making the web more accessible to people with disabilities. WCAG 2.0 and the MWBP 1.0 are internationally regarded as the industry standard guidelines for web accessibility. Mobile testing sessions conducted by AbilityNet document issues raised by users in a report format, relating issues to guidelines wherever possible. This paper presents the results of a preliminary investigation that examines how effectively and easily these issues can be related by experts to the guidelines provided by WCAG 2.0 and MWBP 1.0. Copyright 2014 ACM

To intervene or not to intervene: An investigation of three think-aloud protocols in usability testing

This paper presents the results of a study investigating the use of three think-aloud methods in website usability testing: the concurrent think-aloud, the speech-communication, and the active intervention methods. These three methods were compared through an evaluation of a library website, which involved four points of comparison: overall task performance, test participants’ experiences, the quantity and quality of usability problems discovered, and the cost of employing the methods. Data were collected from 60 individuals, with 20 participants allocated to each testing method, who were asked to complete a set of nine experimental tasks. The results of the study revealed that the three variations enabled the identification of a similar number of usability problems and types. However, the active intervention method was found to cause some reactivity, modifying participants’ interaction with the interface, and negatively affecting their feelings towards the evaluator. The active intervention method also required much greater investment than did the other two methods in terms of evaluators' time

AVALIAÇÃO DA CONFORMIDADE COM O WEB CONTENT ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES (WCAG)

This article aims to present steps of a research that studied the relationship between an accessibility assessment technique – the verification of website compliance with WCAG 2.0 – with the characteristics of the profile of the evaluator. To this end, two exploratory studies were preliminarily carried out: first, with different profiles of expertise and predetermined script; and second, with high level of expertise and free script, with only the technique to be used being predefined. The studies indicated (1) the confirmation of a high relation of a profile more adherent to the knowledge about accessibility and web technologies with the results of the evaluation and (2) the possibility of misinterpretations of the application of a technique without presetting all the steps to be followed. From this, with a predefined itinerary based on the document WCAG-EM 1.0, a third study was done, only with volunteers evaluators with adequate level of knowledge and experience related to accessibility, recruited through an online questionnaire. There were 83 respondents, with 62 valid answers and 25 fulfilled the criteria to be considered fit for the accessibility evaluation stage. Among these, nine volunteers performed individual evaluations by the technique studied according to the predefined itinerary, and the results were compared to each other. There were many inconsistencies in understanding and in the way of reporting the problems, with one of the evaluators who had a better self-assessment compared to the others. The results confirmed the importance of the evaluator profile for the effectiveness of the conformance verification technique.Este artigo tem como objetivo apresentar etapas de uma pesquisa que estudou a relação entre uma técnica de avaliação de acessibilidade – a verificação de conformidade de sítios eletrônicos com o WCAG 2.0 – com as características do perfil do avaliador. Para este fim, preliminarmente foram feitos dois estudos exploratórios: primeiro com diferentes perfis de expertise de avaliadores e roteiro predeterminado e segundo com avaliador com alto nível de expertise e roteiro livre, sendo predefinida apenas a técnica a ser utilizada. Os estudos indicaram (1) a confirmação de uma alta relação de um perfil mais aderente aos conhecimentos sobre acessibilidade e tecnologias web com os resultados da avaliação e (2) a possibilidade de interpretações equivocadas da aplicação de uma técnica sem predefinição de todos os passos a serem seguidos. A partir disso, com roteiro predefinido a partir do documento WCAG-EM 1.0, foi feito um terceiro estudo, apenas com voluntários avaliadores com nível adequado de conhecimento e experiência relacionados à acessibilidade, recrutados por meio de questionário on-line. Dos 83 respondentes, houve 62 respostas válidas e 25 preencheram os critérios para serem considerados aptos à etapa de avaliação de acessibilidade. Dentre estes, nove voluntários realizaram avaliações individuais pela técnica estudada segundo roteiro predefinido, e os resultados foram comparados entre si. Houve muitas inconsistências de entendimento e na maneira de informar os problemas, destacando-se de forma significativa um dos avaliadores que teve melhor autoavaliação em relação aos demais. Os resultados confirmaram a importância do perfil do avaliador para a efetividade da técnica de verificação de conformidade

Evaluación de la accesibilidad web: oportunidades con inteligencia artificial y aprendizaje automático

Web accessibility is essential for the full participation of people with or without disabilities in society. However, most sites do not meet the minimum accessibility requirements. La accesibilidad web es fundamental para la plena participación de las personas con o sin discapacidad en la sociedad. Sin embargo, la mayoría de los sitios no cumplen con los requisitos mínimos de accesibilidad. A acessibilidade na web é essencial para a plena participação de pessoas com ou sem deficiência na sociedade.&nbsp

Investigation into the impact of the usability factor on the acceptance of mobile transactions:Empirical study in Saudi Arabia

Both the rapid advances in wireless technologies and the high proliferation rate of mobile communication services and artefacts have had a profound impact on industry, and are beginning to offer interesting and advantageous new services. In particular, the mobile transaction (mtransaction) system has emerged, enabling users to pay for physical and digital goods and services using their mobile devices whenever they want, regardless of their location. Although it is anticipated that m-transactions will enjoy a bright future, there is apparently still reluctance among users to accept mobile transactions, particularly in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, it is believed that usability is critical to the success and acceptance of mobile technology innovations in general, and m-transactions in particular. While most of the research into IT innovation acceptance is based on TAM (Technology Acceptance Model) and its many variants, the literature review reveals that there is little research on mobile application usability as an important antecedent factor for the success and acceptance of mobile technologies. This is particularly true in developing countries, especially the Middle East, therefore this project aims to fill this gap in the research. This paper is an extension of four previous studies by the authors, which indicated that usability is the most influential factor in Saudi users’ intentions of utilising mobile transactions. It aims to investigate and empirically test the usability level of mobile transactions from the perspective of Saudi users; this will be achieved by conducting usability experiments with real mobile applications within the target group. In other words, this study is a part of a larger research project and it serves as a validation/verification tool to answer the question “Why does the ease of use of mobile transactions have the highest impact on the intention to use mobile transactions in Saudi Arabia?” Moreover, it will produce a set of empirically-based recommendations for the developers and providers of mobile applications who are interested in the Saudi market. The results of the this study showed that the usability of the tested application, which is considered one of the most popular commercial mobile application in Saudi Arabia (i.e. ‘Souq.com’), is unsatisfactory, with an average SUS Score of 50. Not surprisingly, this low usability negatively affected the willingness of the participants to use the application again

Comparing automatic accessibility testing tools

Recently, the Web has become increasingly important as information and many essential ser-vices move to the Web. Accessibility aims to make services to users with disabilities. Web accessibility’s goal is to make the Web accessible, which means disabled people can use the Web. It has been estimated that 15% of the world's population lives with some form of disabil-ity, and the aging population makes web accessibility increasingly important. Similarly, recent legislation Increasingly requires the Web to be accessible to all. Web accessibility evaluation can be done to ensure that the website conforms to the needs of disabled people or legal requirements. There exist different accessibility evaluation meth-ods, each with its benefits and drawbacks, and the methods often complement each other. Automatic testing tools are an important part of accessibility testing. There are many different automatic accessibility evaluation tools to choose from. And previous studies show that tools detect a different number of issues. In this thesis, we compared three automatic accessibility testing tools in terms of how many success criteria they cover, testing speed, and the number of detected issues. Tools were used to test Finnish e-commerce sites and a test site containing a set of accessibility issues. We found that the WAVE was the fastest tool to scan pages. IBM Accessibility Checker covered the greatest number of WCAG success criteria. The number of detected issues de-pends on the selected page and the type of accessibility issues present on the page. In five out of six tested pages, IBM Equal Access Accessibility Checker found the greatest number of issues, and in one out of six pages WAVE found the greatest number of issues

Käyttöliittymän tehtäväpohjaisten arviointimenetelmien tuottamien tulosten erot

Käyttöliittymän arviointimenetelmät voidaan jakaa kahteen eri kategoriaan: asiantuntija-arviointeihin ja empiirisiin menetelmiin. Asiantuntija-arvioinnit suorittaa käytettävyysasiantuntija, kun taas empiirisiin menetelmissä tarkastellaan testikäyttäjien tapaa käyttää testattavaa järjestelmää. Tässä tutkielmassa käsitellään kognitiivisista läpikäyntiä, simulointitestausta, käytettävyysläpikäyntiä ja käytettävyystestausta. Näistä menetelmistä kaksi ensimmäistä sijoittuu asiantuntija-arviointeihin ja kaksi jälkimmäistä empiirisiin käyttäjätesteihin. Tutkielmassa vertaillaan, millaisia käytettävyysongelmia arviointimenetelmillä löydetään. Lisäksi tutkitaan sitä, onko yhdellä menetelmällä löytynyttä käytettävyysongelmaa edes mahdollista löytää muilla menetelmillä. Vertailu tehdään suorittamalla kaikki menetelmät samaa testitehtävää käyttäen. Arvioinnin kohteena käytetään Matkahuollon ja VR:n verkkosivustoja. Arviointimenetelmillä löytyneet käytettävyysongelmat jaotellaan opittavuusongelmiin, turhaa kognitiivista työtä vaatineisiin ongelmiin, turhaa mekaanista työtä vaatineisiin ongelmiin, puuttuvaan toiminnallisuuteen liittyviin ongelmiin, tietosisällön aukkoihin liittyviin ongelmiin ja muihin ongelmiin. Työssä arvioidaan, olisiko yksittäinen ongelma mahdollista löytää muilla menetelmillä. Tutkielmassa vertaillaan, millaisia ongelmia löydettiin usealla menetelmällä. Lisäksi työssä käsitellään vain yhdellä arviointimenetelmällä löytyneitä ongelmia. Tutkielman tulosten perusteella voidaan todeta, että arviointiemenetelmillä on omat vahvuusalueensa. Kognitiivinen läpikäynti, käytettävyysläpikäynti ja käytettävyystesti auttavat opittavuusongelmien löytämisessä, kun taas simulointitestauksella voidaan paikantaa pääasiassa turhaan työhön liittyviä ongelmia. Useilla arviointimenetelmillä voidaan löytää samoja ongelmia, mutta kaikilla menetelmillä löydettiin testeissä sellaisia ongelmia, joita ei muiden menetelmien suorituksen aikana kohdattu. ACM Computing Classification System (CCS): Human-centered computing → HCI design and evaluation method

Implementing Usability Testing Of Technical Documents At Any Company And On Any Budget

In my thesis I discuss the cost effectiveness of usability testing of technical documents and how any size company with any size budget can implement usability testing. Usability is achieved when the people who use products or technical documents can do so quickly and easily to accomplish their own tasks. Usability testing is best defined as the process of studying users to determine a documentation project\u27s effectiveness for its intended audience. Users are tired of dealing with confusing and unintuitive technical documentation that forces them to either call customer service for help on simple issues or throw out the product in favor of one that is more usable or provides better technical documentation. That is why all technical communicators should include usability testing as part of the technical documentation production cycle. To help technical communicators understand the importance of usability testing, I discuss the cost effectiveness of usability testing and share ways that companies with large budgets and companies with small budgets can begin incorporating usability testing. Then I provide information on all the steps that are necessary for technical communicators to implement usability testing of technical documentation at their company. Options are presented for everything from bare minimum usability testing with a shoe-string budget with pencils, note pads, and only a handful of users to full scale usability testing in large laboratories with the latest equipment and a wide variety of users. The research provides examples from real companies, advice from experienced technical communicators and usability experts, and research demonstrating how many resources are truly required to benefit from usability testing. By showing technical communicators that usability testing is cost effective and that there are many options for implementing usability testing no matter how large or small their budget is, I hope to empower technical communicators to start including usability testing as part of the documentation production cycle at their companies

Understanding and Evaluating User Interface Visibility

Technology dominates our lives, mobile technology in particular. In 2016 Apple sold their billionth iPhone. By 2018 they had sold their 2 billionth device based on the same underlying operating system. We access such technology through the user interface (UI) and concerns have been raised about the usability of such devices. The situation has been described by some as a “usability crisis”. One of the key issues raised is the lack of visibility of user interface elements, which is deemed to be a critical component of an effective UI. An initial investigation highlighted that UI visibility can be broken down into three key aspects: Firstly; some user interface elements are effectively ‘missing’; Secondly, they are ‘missed’ because they are not seen by the user; and thirdly, they are seen but ‘misunderstood’. Further analysis of the home screen of an iPhone revealed that only 8% of the available functions were visible at the top level, in other words, 92% were effectively ‘missing’. This raises key questions about how UI visibility can be evaluated, and such evaluation adopted into design practice. This research took a psychophysical perspective to better understand UI visibility. This led to the development of an evaluation framework and associated tool called vis-UI-lise. The tool represents UI visibility as a series of 5 hurdles between the user and the interface that have to be overcome for a successful interaction. This tool was applied to an everyday task on a mobile phone which resulted in highlighting a range of possible usability problems. Comparison of the predicted versus observed problems showed that the vis-UI-lise tool had predicted 74% of them, a score that compares well with other usability evaluation tools. A training and support package was also developed for the vis-UI-lise tool and evaluated with four different organisations. This provided key insights into how the tool could be improved to fit in with typical design practice. This thesis brings a new perspective to the understanding and evaluation of UI visibility that could have a real impact on the design of everyday user interfaces

A framework of mobile transaction use: the user’s perspective

The remarkable advances of mobile technologies and the prevalence of mobile devices have profoundly transformed telephony systems. They provide functionalities which surpass telephony needs, and which motivate the development of value-added mobile services and functions. The number of mobile phones in use far exceeds any other technical devices that could be used to market, sell, produce, or deliver products and services to consumers. These developments open lucrative opportunities to retailers and service providers. The literature highlights the fact that mobile transactions (m-transactions) are one of the most critical incentives for successful mobile commerce (m-commerce). However, the successfulness of m-transaction systems in Saudi Arabia requires a strong acceptance of the Saudi consumers. The importance of this study is accentuated by the fact that mobile commerce and its services are still in their infancy and there is still an apparent lack of acceptance of mobile transactions amongst Saudi users. Research needs to address the issue of acceptance of m-transactions from the user’s perspective, particularly within developing countries as they suffer from a noticeable lack of studies in this field. This research initially starts with a comprehensive literature review about the critical factors affecting the acceptance and use of electronic commerce (e-commerce), m-commerce and focuses on m-transactions, including different technology acceptance models and theories, helping to investigate whether there exists an effective comprehensive framework for adopting m-transactions within the context of Saudi Arabia and, more specifically, from a consumer’s perspective. Furthermore, to emphasize the true value measure of m-transaction, we must comprehend and evaluate the potency and limitations of mobile purchasing and the key factors affecting the m-transaction use decision. M-transactions hold a huge potential for online business and sales, but merely having an m-transaction service “hosted” on the World Wide Web (WWW) should not lead us to believe that customers will rush into mobile commercial websites for their desired products. Recognising that fact and realizing that there are different important factors and concerns over m-transactions playing a significant role, highlight the need for investigating and developing a framework that encompasses the critical factors affecting the intention to use m-transaction within the context of a Saudi consumer’s perspective. In order to achieve this goal, this study evolved in several stages aiming to reach a satisfactory level of maturity. These stages can be divided into three main phases: (1) exploratory phase which contains three exploratory studies which helped to add the cultural qualities as a further dimension that would play a significant role in such a unique cultural region. Consequently, a holistic framework is integrated that includes the key factors affecting the intention to use m-transactions. This framework is empirically validated in (2) a further study using a statistically representative sample size of 1008 Saudi users from different demographic backgrounds. The empirical analysis revealed that security, ease of use, usefulness, social influence, navigational structure, telecommunication infrastructure, individualism, masculinity, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and visual appeal have a significant impact on the intention to use m-transactions. Amongst those factors, ease of use was the most significant influential factor. Therefore, this led to (3) another study aiming to empirically investigate the level of ease of use (usability) of conducting m-transactions within the Saudi context. In total, this research comprised five different empirical studies to extend our understanding of the phenomenon of m-transactions. The ultimate product of this research is to develop a consolidated framework for the intention to use m-transactions, combined with a set of recommendations for mobile websites and application developers, designers, government, and other organizations that intend to extend their business in the mobile commerce area, and this should eventually benefit the users