IMPACT OF APPLYING UNIVERSAL DESIGN PRINCIPLES ON THE USABILITY OF ONLINE ACCOMMODATION BOOKING WEBSITES

Abstract

One of the concepts of human-computer interaction is the usability of websites, consisting of features such as efficiency, satisfaction, memorability, and learnability. Usability is particularly important in the case of websites that the user is expected to learn on their own. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the usability of user interfaces of websites and, based on this, to find how this evaluation is affected by the application of universal design principles. The objects of the study are two websites, one complying with the principles of universal design - created for the purpose of the study, and the other – an existing commercial website operating in the market, which does not follow these principles. Three hypotheses are defined: 1) effectiveness and efficiency of analyzed websites are higher for a service that followed the principles of universal design than a website that did not comply with these rules; 2) the quality of the user interface is greater for the service fulfilling the principles of universal design; 3) the satisfaction with the interaction with the interface is greater in case of websites conformed to the principles of universal design. The study uses two methods: eye tracking and questionnaires. The experiment involves 10 participants who had to perform a scenario consisting of 10 instructions that involved locating various elements in each of the tested GUI interfaces. The eye activity is recorded using a Gazepoint GP3 HD desktop eye tracker, which makes it possible to determine the effectiveness and efficiency values of using the analyzed interfaces. Each participant was also asked to fill out two questionnaires: the Lublin University of Technology one and the Questionnaire for User Interaction Satisfaction. The study proves the truth of the hypotheses, that is, the positive impact of universal design on the usability evaluation of user interfaces.