Abstract
Research for the evaluation of web-sites has already begun, however it is proceeding at a very slow rate. The main reasons for this are, in our opinion, the attempt to adapt existing methodologies to the particularities of the web, the individual s tructure of web-sites and the issue of finding the appropriate evaluators. This study copes exactly with these points and suggests a heuristic approach for the evaluation of web-sites. In our study we tried primarily to train the evaluators in the particularities of the heuristic evalu- ation; in its classic form as well as in its web-adapted form. By doing this we try to answer the core question if we can augment the evaluators' expertise with a kind of training prior to the conduction of the evaluation itself. Next we used web-adapted heuristics, found in relative literature and tried to clarify them to the evaluators as well. Finally the evaluators were involved in a real evaluation of five web sites and they wrote down their comments on appropriately prepared questionnaires. The results from this study confirm firstly two known conclusions, that the method is applicable to the Web and that the prior evaluators' expertise is of great importance. Yet, in addition to these, we concluded that it is possible to augment, under conditions, this expertise in a short way so they have an increased performance during the evaluation as well. Our main conclusion is, however, that the used heuristic list performed inadequately, but we noted the trend of the evaluators following a somewhat similar mode of thinking, thus providing us with the way to adapt these heuristics in a more holistic approach to the web.
Highlights
Interface evaluation of a software system is a procedure intended to identify and propose solutions for usability problems caused by the specific software design
Evaluation of user interface design is of special importance in the overall software evaluation plan, for two major reasons: Firstly because it concerns exactly that part of the software product which enables users to communicate their instructions to the machine
Evaluation should verify that the interface design delivers a friendly, intuitive and transparent yet powerful environment to end-users for the accomplishment of their goals, which in our case is the acquisition of knowledge through the interaction with the instructional environment, which in its turn supports our claim that usability affects learnability
Summary
Interface evaluation of a software system is a procedure intended to identify and propose solutions for usability problems caused by the specific software design. The main goal of an interface evaluation is, as already stated, to discover usability problems. Evaluation of user interface design is of special importance in the overall software evaluation plan, for two major reasons: Firstly because it concerns exactly that part of the software product which enables users to communicate their instructions to the machine. Evaluation should verify that the interface design delivers a friendly, intuitive and transparent yet powerful environment to end-users for the accomplishment of their goals, which in our case is the acquisition of knowledge through the interaction with the instructional environment, which in its turn supports our claim that usability affects learnability. Because evaluation of the user interface should be carried out at the right time; early enough to offer designers the chance of getting valuable feedback about their design ideas and possibly proceed to interface redesign, while all important interface characteristics have been designed and are included for evaluation
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