A framework for integrating usability evaluations methods: The Mawhiba web portal case study

Abstract

Different usability evaluation methods (UEMs) are often combined to assess the compliance of interactive systems with usability standards and guidelines. In practice, combinations of UEMs have been applied in a rather ad hoc manner resulting in inadequate analyses of rich usability data sets. While the potential offered by recent advances in technologies such as eye tracking for usability is recognized, and the challenges of evaluating complex web systems such as portals which involve different interaction styles are highlighted, the issue of effectively integrating multiple UEMs to make sense of observations has emerged. This paper presents a framework developed for effectively integrating UEMs in usability evaluations by matching the methods' capabilities and limitations with a classification of usability problems. The framework is applied to evaluating the usability of the Mawhiba web portal with target user populations which demonstrates how better coverage of usability issues can be achieved.