A User-Centred Framework for Website Evaluation

The growth of the Internet has encouraged the creation of visually rich and perceptual interfaces on personal computers and mobile devices. Organisations develop websites for various purposes, and over time, the features and functions of websites have evolved significantly. Since website quality affects organisational performance, it is important to be able to assess the efficacy of websites. However, there are two key issues with the literature on website evaluation: a) a focus on specific aspects of website performance, not their overall impact, and b) limited attention on their ability to meet the broader needs of users, beyond usability and functionality, such as their social and emotional concerns. This paper uses design science to develop a theoretically-grounded evaluation framework for this purpose. Drawing on Shneiderman (1998) and Brown (1999), the framework proposes that website evaluation should triangulate information from two sources (users and experts) and using different methods (task analysis with users, in-depth interview with users and expert reviews). The framework is applied in a website development project, and the results are discussed

On Online Banking Authentication for All: A Comparison of BankID Login Efficiency Using Smartphones Versus Code Generators

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Theorizing the Relationship between Affect and Aesthetics in the ICT Design and Use Context

With an increasing interest in both affect and aesthetics in the context of information and communication technology (ICT) design and use, there is a timely need to provide a theory based understanding of these concepts and their relationships. In this paper, we point out some confusion as shown in the literature and provide a theory based understanding of the concepts and their relationships. Such an understanding can eventually provide practical suggestions on researching affect and aesthetics in the ICT context and suggest researchers to expand the coverage of aesthetics concept from focusing primarily on pleasantness or positivity to a broader coverage indicated by affect’s structure

The Aesthetic Dimensions of U.S. and South Korean Responses to Web Home Pages: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

Culturally influenced preferences in website aesthetics is a topic often neglected by scholars in human-computer interaction. Kim, Lee, and Choi (2003) identified aesthetic design factors of web home pages that elicited particular responses in South Korean web users based on 13 secondary emotional dimensions. This study extends Kim et al.'s work to U.S. participants, comparing the original South Korean findings with U.S. findings. Results show that U.S. participants reliably applied translations of the emotional adjectives used in the South Korean study to the home pages. However, factor analysis revealed that the aesthetic perceptions of U.S. and South Korean participants formed different aesthetic dimensions composed of different sets of emotional adjectives, suggesting that U.S. and South Korean people perceive the aesthetics of home pages differently. These results indicate that website aesthetics can vary significantly between cultures

EDAMUX : A method for measuring User Experience

Background: User experience (UX) is seen as an important quality of a successful product and software companies are becoming increasingly interested in the field of UX. As UX has the goal to improve the experience of users, there is a need for better methods in measuring the actual experience. One aspect of UX is to understand the emotional aspect of experience. Psychophysiology studies the relations between emotions and physiology and electrodermal activity (EDA) has been found to be a physiological measurement of emotional arousal. Aims: The aim of this thesis is researching the utility of measuring EDA to identify moments of emotional arousal during human-computer interaction. By studying peaks in EDA during software interaction we expect to find issues in the software that work as triggers or stimuli for the peaks. Method: We used the design science methodology to develop EDAMUX. EDAMUX is a method to unobtrusively observe users, while gathering significant interaction moments through self reporting and EDA. A qualitative single-case study was conducted to evaluate the utility of EDAMUX. Results: We found that we can discover causes of bad user experience with EDAMUX. Moments of emotional arousal, derived from EDA, was found in conjunction with performance issues, usability issues and bugs. Emotional arousal was also observed during software interaction where the user was blaming themself. Conclusions: EDAMUX shows potential in discovering issues in software that are difficult to find with methods that rely on subjective self-reporting. Having the potential to objectively study emotional reactions is seen as valuable in complementing existing methods of measuring user experience

Web accessibility and mental disorders

Background: Mental disorders are a significant public health issue due to the restrictions they place on participation in all areas of life and the resulting disruption to the families and societies of those affected. People with these disorders often use the Web as an informational resource, platform for convenient self-directed treatment and a means for many other kinds of support. However, some features of the Web can potentially erect barriers for this group that limit their access to these benefits, and there is a lack of research looking into this eventuality. Therefore, it is important to identify gaps in knowledge about “what” barriers exist and “how” they could be addressed so that this knowledge can inform Web professionals who aim to ensure the Web is inclusive to this population. Objective: The objective of this work was to identify the barriers people with mental disorders, especially those with depression and anxiety, experience when using the Web and the facilitation measures used to address such barriers. Methods: This work involved three studies. First, (1) a systematic review of studies that have considered the difficulties people with mental disorders experience when using digital technologies. A synthesis was performed by categorizing data according to the 4 foundational principles of Web accessibility as proposed by the World Wide Web Consortium. Facilitation measures recommended by studies were later summarized into a set of minimal recommendations. This work also relied data triangulation using (2) face-to-face semistructured interview study with participants affected by depression and anxiety and a comparison group, as well as (3) a persona-based expert online survey study with mental health practitioners. Framework analysis was used for study 2 and study 3. Results: A total of 16 publications were included in study 1’s review, comprising 13 studies and 3 international guidelines. Findings suggest that people with mental disorders experience barriers that limit how they perceive, understand, and operate websites. Identified facilitation measures target these barriers in addition to ensuring that Web content can be reliably interpreted by a wide range of user applications. In study 2, 167 difficulties were identified from the experiences of participants in the depression and anxiety group were discussed within the context of 81 Web activities, services, and features. Sixteen difficulties identified from the experiences of participants in the comparison group were discussed within the context of 11 Web activities, services, and features. In study 3, researchers identified 3 themes and 10 subthemes that described the likely difficulties people with depression and anxiety might experience online as reported by mental health practitioners. Conclusions: People with mental disorders encounter barriers on the Web, and attempts have been made to remove or reduce these barriers. This investigation has contributed to a fuller understanding of these difficulties and provides innovative guidance on how to remove and reduce them for people with depression and anxiety when using the Web. More rigorous research is still needed to be exhaustive and to have a larger impact on improving the Web for people with mental disorders

How does website design in the e-banking sector affect customer attitudes and behaviour?

This thesis researches the interface between ebanks and their customers. An industry traditionally based upon personal contact, the rise of ebanking has changed this relationship such that transactions are now mainly conducted via website interfaces. The resultant loss of personal contact between bank and customer has removed many of the cues available to customers upon which judgments of service, reliability and trust were made. The question raised by this change is: what factors influence consumer choice when viewing bank websites? The arguments of this thesis are that user evaluation of websites and their willingness to use those websites is based not only on user centred factors such as motivation, experience and knowledge but also upon their appraisal of website structure and content

The role of technology in improving the Customer Experience in the banking sector: a systematic mapping study

Information Technology (IT) has revolutionized the way we manage our money. The adoption of innovative technologies in banking scenarios allows to access old and new financial services but in a faster and more secure, comfortable, rewarding and engaging way. The number, the performances and the seamless integration of these innovations is a driver for banks to retain their customers and avoid costly change of hearts. The literature is rich in works reporting on the use of technology with direct or indirect impact on the experience of banking customers. Some mapping studies about the adoption of technologies in the field exist, but they are specific to particular technologies (e.g., only Artificial Intelligence), or vice versa too generic (e.g., reviewing the adoption of technologies to support any kind of banking process). So a specific research effort on the crossed domain of technology and Customer Experience (CX) is missing. This paper aims to overcome the following gaps: the lack of a comprehensive map of the research made in the field in the past decade; a discussion on the current research trends of top publications and journals is missing; the next research challenges are yet to be identified. To face these limitations, we designed and submitted 7 different queries to pull papers out of 4 popular scientific databases. From an initial set of 6,756 results, we identified a set of 89 primary studies that we thoroughly analyzed. A selection of the top 20% works allowed us to seek the most performant technologies as well as other promising ones that have not been experimented yet in the field. Main results prove that the combined study of technology and CX in the banking sector is not approached systematically and thus the development of a new specific research line is needed