Fine-tuning Central Banks Web Communications: Usability Tests & Content Management

Business processes especially in the Central Banks are more fully integrated and streamlined than ever before. Also, realistic system landscapes often consist of many systems. Disconnected silos of unstructured information continue to pile up for each organizational function and different interfaces are often implemented using the technology that is considered to be ideal for the respective interface. There appears to be lack of Enterprise Content Management strategy thus leading to significant business challenges such as untrustworthy business information due to inaccurate, outdated, conflicting information, longer financial cycles and generally inefficient processes, system performance degradations and poor data organization, inconsistent, confusing user interface as well as frequent context switching. There is therefore the need for an effective enterprise content management strategy. Web content management systems are often used for storing, controlling, versioning, and publishing industry-specific documentations. Usability testing of web sites is an essential element of quality assurance and a true test of how people actually use Central Banks’ web site. It is a test of whether outsiders can successfully use the Banks’ Web site. Although formal usability tests are expensive, time-consuming and often prohibitive, periodic user testing is an important element in developing and maintaining a reader-friendly Website. Usability should emphasise clarity of communication, accessibility, consistency, navigation design, maintenance and good visual presentation. A solution to corporate intranet/internet chaos are Enterprise Portals. An enterprise portal is the gateway to the end user. It offers a central point of access to information, applications and services in an enterprise. It is a one-stop shopping for knowledge workers; the portal is both a gateway to and a destination on the enterprise network that provides transparent, tailored access to distributed digital resource. An Enterprise Portal provides numerous benefits to users, allowing them to interact with relevant information and application, both internal and external to the company, collaborate with others both inside and outside the Central Banks through self-service publishing customise-and-tailor a Web page with information that is easily found. This paper discusses the issue of Usability Tests and Web Content Management that enhance user productivity. Drawing from some award winning intranets some areas for best practices for the financial services such as the African Central Banks are high-lightened vis-à-vis the infrastructural problems facing the African Continen

Towards a Toolset for Intranet Evaluation

Usability is an important component of information systems acceptance. Independent consultants in the assessment of organisational intranets often perform heuristic appraisal, a common method of usability evaluation. However, there are alternative usability models that offer valuable analysis in the evaluation process. Using a government organisation’s intranet as a case study, this paper assesses the value of an independent heuristic-based intranet audit by providing a comparable approach to assessment realisable internally in the organisation using questionnaires. Using a single case study, we empirically apply the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), together with some heuristic aspects, to provide an alternative tool for intranet usability and acceptance. We provide insight into the usability impact of intranet design changes, and compare the findings of an external usability audit with the approach outlined. An overall toolset for intranet evaluation is proposed as an initial step for further exploration and potential use

Usability and Accessibility of Air Force Intranet Web Sites

The Air Force is moving to a network centric environment where information must be data visible, accessible, and understandable. This transformation has seen the adoption of the Internet web browser as a de facto standard for information access. The Technology Acceptance Model suggests that information systems must not only be useful but also be usable and a large body of usability engineering knowledge exists to support usable design. In addition, the U.S. government mandates specific minimum design features required to support disabled user access. This research effort seeks to establish an understanding of how well common practice usability design principles and government mandated accessibility guidelines are followed by Air Force intranet web sites. Heuristic evaluation is used to investigate web site usability. Accessibility is inspected against government guidelines. The results of this study suggest that Air Force intranet web sites do not adequately comply with many usability principles and that accessibility compliance varies from site to site. Furthermore, although the majority of usability and accessibility design principles are not captured in military guidance, scores were higher for those principles that are captured in the guidance than for those that are not

Access and usability issues of scholarly electronic publications

This chapter looks at the various access and usability issues related to scholarly information resources. It first looks at the various channels through which a user can get access to scholarly electronic publications. It then discusses the issues and studies surrounding usability. Some important parameters for measuring the usability of information access systems have been identified. Finally the chapter looks at the major problems facing the users in getting access to scholarly information through today's hybrid libraries, and mentions some possible measures to resolve these problems

Master of Science

thesisThe Residency Review Committee (RRC) requires that general surgery residents document their Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) experiences. To satisfy these requirements we created a web based intranet log to make it easier for residents to track their patients and determine when these requirements were complete. A premium was put on usability to promote acceptance by surgical residents. A prototype web site was designed with input from an attending general surgeon. Three general surgery residents were selected to participate in the iterative design phase. They went through three iterations using a "think-aloud" method while performing tasks on the prototype web site. Each iteration led to improvements to the web site. In a comparison test, a group of seven medical students performed 14 typical web site tasks using both the prototype and the final versions. They were asked to complete a Questionnaire for User Interaction Satisfaction (QUIS) for each version. The time for completion of these tasks was also recorded. The user interaction satisfaction did not show any improvement (F(1,6)=0.13, p=0.912). Similarly, there was no improvement in times for delete and add tasks ( Delete F(1,5) = 0.949, p=0.375, Add F(1,5)=0.267, p=0.628 ); however, the time to complete edit tasks was faster for the final version of the web site (F (1,5)= 14.3, p=0.013). The primary reason for not detecting other differences between the two web sites is likely that the comparison study did not have sufficient power. This was suggested by the participants whose comments favored the final version over the prototype as well as a trend of consistently higher mean subset scores in the final version. The results indicate that differences may be seen when more complex tasks are completed (editing information) versus the two simpler tasks (adding or deleting a patient record in a web site). Future studies should focus on the impact of navigation strategies on speed and data warehouse approaches to creating the application. This study shows the benefits of using an iterative design approach to create a usable web site and demonstrates the importance of further research in the field of usability

Developing a Viable Intranet Site

This thesis will focus on establishing consistent guidelines in developing a successful corporate intranet website. Office intranets are often neglected due to popularity of electronic commerce, and the company\u27s investment in their public website. Standard instructions on how to develop a viable intranet site are not easily found and not likely taught. With intranet development being a relatively new field, site expectations are very subjective. A site\u27s perceived correctness largely depends on specific goals an organization has established for its site. There are generally high expectations and low budgets for intranets and if usability goals are not kept close at hand, design standards can become a political issue. This study attempts to identify the main components that contribute to a viable intranet site. The objective is to determine how non-technical employees can create successful sites for their department, detailing one such employee\u27s experience. The following chapters contain: current usage of corporate intranets; identification of research resources; guidelines for creating a dynamic intranet; the result of a first attempt at developing a site and finally, an evaluation and recommendation for future improvement of the site. Research and analysis determines four categories to consider when planning an intranet site: content; design; usability testing; and promotion. In order to positively impact employee communication and productivity, intra.net sites must be carefully planned, written, and tested. Establishing intra.net site development guidelines will help ensure a consistently positive outcome

Model-based information navigation for engineering documents

Engineering and the manner in which engineers think is largely visual and functional, and yet engineers are typically provided with search engines that are text-based. While software based on a visual and functional ethos exist (CAD for example), when searching for information engineers are still required to enter a text query into a search box. This process holds potential incompatibilities both with the nature of the data (i.e. 3D models) and with the way in which engineers think and work. Consequentially, the proposition tested in this paper is that a model-based approach to information access, i.e. a representation of an organisations information around a model of an artefact i.e. CAD model, can improve engineering information retrieval. In an A-B test with a traditional text-based search engine, and using study questions derived from real-world information seeking scenarios based on the activities of a world-leading aircraft manufacturer, the results presented in this paper suggest that there is merit to such an approach.Specifically, this paper shows that there is no significant difference in time to complete a search between a model-based and text-based interfaces in spite of the addition of a new stage in the search process (navigating a 3D model); that the system structure of the model-based interface allows for non-text based documents to be indexed, making up for the inherent limitations in traditional text-based search; and that participants enjoy using the model-based interface and find it intuitive, easy and simple to use. Further, this paper also finds that those with more experience/familiar with the product structure and those in managerial positions are more likely to find information using a model-based interface that those who are not, who perform better using a text-based interface