Utilising IGV approach to identify factors affecting web usability

Due to the changing nature of Internet technology and user needs,continuous web evaluation has become very important in determining the usability of web sites. However, web designers often face problems in identifying the right criteria for evaluation. Despite the growing number of guidelines and other literature on web design and evaluation,each of them varies in terms of quality, coverage, relevancy, and suitability. With this in mind, a study using IGV approach was carried out to identify key generic criteria that need to be taken into consideration by designers or others when assessing the overall usability of web sites. The results of the study include a comprehensive list of the identified usability criteria that were grouped into 7 major factors - screen appearance, content, accessibility, navigation, media use, interactivity, and consistenc

What is usability in the context of the digital library and how can it be measured?

This paper reviews how usability has been defined in the context of the digital library, what methods have been applied and their applicability, and proposes an evaluation model and a suite of instruments for evaluating usability for academic digital libraries. The model examines effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, and learnability. It is found that there exists an interlocking relationship among effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. It also examines how learnability interacts with these three attributes

An Examination of Web Site Accessibility Issues

The Web is becoming more important for communication andfor data access. Unfortunately, not all Web sites are accessible for all users. Web accessibility is concerned with overcoming the barriers that users with disabilities face when they try to access information on Web sites. Currently, for disabled users, the Web presents many barriers that make it dijfiult to use. These barriers can be addressed by organizational commitment and by improved development techniques. This paper examines how Web accessibility standards and legal mandates are affecting the design of corporate and governmental Web sites, and how the rate of adoption can be improved through increased awareness and education. In addition. It discusses the current need to create a methodology to assess the accessibility skills of information systems developers

Enhancing the effectiveness of World Wide Web sites

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1996.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-42).by Norbert J. Goetzinger, III.M.Eng

Quantitative analysis in a heuristic evaluation of web-based encyclopedia for children

Anapedia is a web-based encyclopedia designed specifically for children. The web was built because there are still very few Indonesian-language encyclopedias for children. This paper presents an evaluation of the usability of the Anapedia website developed for children in Indonesia to retrieve information available in a wide range of areas. In the context of usability evaluation of children encyclopedia, this is the first study to analyze usability problems identified by experts during the heuristic inspection on their overall evaluation score. This evaluation, performed by seven usability experts, involved the identification and analysis of usability problems in the selected website. The assessment process was mainly based on the Sirius framework evaluation mechanism. The web considered as having high usability level, but they identified many usability problems for further improvement of the site. The most violated heuristic item was found to be “help” whereas the least violated heuristic item was “labelling” aspect

Developing a web-based information resource for palliative care: an action-research inspired approach

Background : General Practitioners and community nurses rely on easily accessible, evidence-based online information to guide practice. To date, the methods that underpin the scoping of user-identified online information needs in palliative care have remained under-explored. This paper describes the benefits and challenges of a collaborative approach involving users and experts that informed the first stage of the development of a palliative care website.Method : The action research-inspired methodology included a panel assessment of an existing palliative care website based in Victoria, Australia; a pre-development survey (n = 197) scoping potential audiences and palliative care information needs; working parties conducting a needs analysis about necessary information content for a redeveloped website targeting health professionals and caregivers/patients; an iterative evaluation process involving users and experts; as well as a final evaluation survey (n = 166).Results : Involving users in the identification of content and links for a palliative care website is time-consuming and requires initial resources, strong networking skills and commitment. However, user participation provided crucial information that led to the widened the scope of the website audience and guided the development and testing of the website. The needs analysis underpinning the project suggests that palliative care peak bodies need to address three distinct audiences (clinicians, allied health professionals as well as patients and their caregivers).Conclusion : Web developers should pay close attention to the content, language, and accessibility needs of these groups. Given the substantial cost associated with the maintenance of authoritative health information sites, the paper proposes a more collaborative development in which users can be engaged in the definition of content to ensure relevance and responsiveness, and to eliminate unnecessary detail. Access to volunteer networks forms an integral part of such an approach.<br /

Quality Assessment of Estonian e-Government Services

Magistritöö esimeseks eesmärgiks oli uurida teoreetilist tausta, mis on seotud e-Valitsuse teenuste kvaliteedi hindamisega. Uuringud näitavad ja kinnitavad, et Euroopa Liit ja kogu maailm on liikumas kasutajakeskse e-Valitsuse teenuste paradigma suunas. E-Valitsuse teenuse ja selle kvaliteedi mõiste on erinevate organisatsioonides semantiliselt erinev, kuid lõppeesmärk jääb samaks, pakkuda veebis kodanikule tõhusaid ja tulemuslikke avaliku sektori teenuseid. E-Valitsuse teenuste kvaliteeti on võimalik hinnata neljal erineval tasandil: protsessi võimekuse, tehnilise võimekuse, veebi kasutatavuse ja kasutaja rahulolu tasandil. Erinevaid mudeleid on mitmeid, sealhulgas käesoleva magistriöö praktiliseks hindamiseks valitud e-GovQual, COBRAS ja Soome Rahandusministeeriumi kvaliteedi hindamise mudelid. Valitud kvaliteedi hindamise mudelid keskenduvad kasutajakeskse e-Valitsuse teenuste hindamisele ning on suunatud kasutaja rahuolu saavutamiseks e-teenuste kasutamisel. Need mudelid sisaldavad erinevaid kvaliteedi hindamise valdkondi nagu näiteks kasutatavus, sisu, maksumus ja võimalused. Magistritöö teiseks eesmärgiks oli hinnata praktiliselt kolme kvaliteedi hindamise mudelit e-GovQual, COBRAS ja Soome Rahandusministeeriumi mudelit kahel erineval Eesti e-Valitsuse teenuste portaalil eesti.ee ning Põllumajanduse Registrite ja Informatsiooni Ameti kliendiportaalil e-PRIA. Hindamise tulemusel selgus, et ühtegi valitud mudelit pole võimalik üks-üheselt Eesti Vabariigis kasutusele võtta ja need vajavad kohandamist Eesti oludele. E-GovQual ja COBRAS on üldisemad ja keskenduvad kasutajakeskse veebilehekülje hindamise tasandile, samas kui Soome kvaliteedimudel on täiuslikum ning hindab nii protsesse, tehnilist poolt kui ka veebi kvaliteedi tasandit. Magistriöö annab soovitusi edaspidisteks uuringuteks, kuidas välja töötada Eesti e-Valitsuse teenuste kvaliteedi hindamise mudel.The first goal of the thesis was to study theoretical background of e-Government services’ quality assessment. Studies show that European Union, and the world, is moving towards user-centric e-Government services paradigm. The definition e-Government service and its quality are semantically different in various organizations but the goal stays the same, to offer the citizen efficient and effective public sector services. The e-Government services’ quality can be assessed in four different levels: process performance, technical performance, website quality and user satisfaction. Various e-Government quality assessment models exist, including this thesis’s practical assessment models e-GovQual, COBRAS and Finnish Ministry of Finance’s quality assessment model. The chosen models focus on citizen-centric e-Government services’ quality assessment and achieving user satisfaction in using e-services. These models include various quality assessment areas, e.g. use, content, cost and opportunities. The second goal for the thesis was to practically assess the three quality assessment models e-GovQual, COBRAS and Finnish Ministry of Finance’s models on Estonian e-Government services’ portals eesti.ee and client portal of Agricultural Registers and Information Board. The assessment results indicate that none of these models could be completely take it use and need to be adjusted to Estonian needs. The e-GovQual and COBRAS models are more general and focus on user-centric website usability quality level, as the Finnish quality model is more comprehensive and assesses the process, technical and website quality levels. The Master’s thesis gives an input for further studies, how to develop Estonian e-Government services’ quality assessment model

Web Site Analysis: A Review and Assessment of Previous Research

The emergence of the World Wide Web as a major communication and transaction channel stresses the preeminent importance of a company\u27s Web site for representing the organization, interacting with customers and conducting transactions. In comparison to other channels, the opportunities for targeting specific market segments are somehow limited, due to the Internet\u27s worldwide reach and predominantly anonymous users. Additionally, an ever-increasing number of customers are going online, which prevents the fine tuning of a site for specific user groups. Therefore, it seems essential that organizations possessing Web presence should be well aware of their site\u27s general functionality and how it is perceived by Internet users. For many years the analysis of Web sites has been one of the major topics for both scholars and practitioners, which led to a huge number of different techniques being used for the evaluation of sites. Furthermore, a variety of different theories and models have been developed which include the effects of Web sites as dependent or independent variables. In this paper, I compare different approaches to Web site analysis and present a classification framework. Numerous examples will be given to illustrate the various dimensions of the framework. Furthermore, benefits and drawbacks of the respective methods will be discussed where applicable. The results provide important insights into the current state of the art of Web analysis and will be supportive for anyone planning to conduct a Web analysis as well as for someone who is interested in getting an overview of the research field

Development of a website to improve communication and learning

This project was developed to address the complex issue of disseminating information to high school students via the World Wide Web. Topics include: the need for greater communication among instructors, students and parents, the need to utilize instructional design techniques, the backwards design process in the development of web based projects; and the need to integrate internet technology for promoting instruction and learning

Web accessibility diagnosis, improvement and maintenance

Context: This thesis examines how organisations create and maintain their web pages with particular focus on ensuring pages are accessible. It also investigates the potential for using a Tree-Map based tool to support such web maintenance and process improvement. Novel process improvement recommendations are given and an adaptation of a class web publishing model is presented. Methods: To supplement a review of current literature, 20 accessibility specialists and 79 large organisations were surveyed. This identified web accessibility best practices and whether these practices were implemented in the reality. A subsequent assessment of the accessibility of each organisation's web site tested if certain activities could be linked with better accessibility. Finally, a controlled experiment tested the accuracy and efficiency of a Tree-map based tool for web maintenance. Results: The survey results suggested a wide variety of web accessibility awareness amongst web developers and accessibility specialists. Best practice appeared to be implemented by many organisations with the exception of training provision. It was found that when the best practices aimed specifically at web accessibility were implemented there was a significant improvement in web accessibility. The Tree-Map based tool was proved to be more efficient than and as accurate as report based tool for web maintenance activities. Conclusions of the study: Web accessibility awareness is now reasonably high amongst web developers but the extent to which it is addressed varies. Organisations which take a systematic and mature approach to accessibility have more accessible web sites. As such, accessibility should be integrated into web publishing. Better tools are also required to facilitate this systematic integratio