Usability evaluation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Usability evaluation - Essay Example Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is a recognized branch of computer engineering which defines various standards to ensure a safe, effective, efficient, appealing and enjoyable user experience while interacting with a computer application or surfing over the internet.Closely related to HCI is the field of usability engineering which ensures user friendliness through effective and efficient Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) or Web Interfaces. Carroll has narrated the aims and objectives of HCI in these words, â€Å"HCI is the study and practice of usability. It is about understanding and creating software and other technology that people will want to use, will be able to use, and will find effective when used† (Carroll, 2002). The intelligent web design is an inevitable business necessity in this age of e-commerce. More often than not better and efficient web design is a matter of existence for businesses. Carey has pointed out the importance of user-friendliness in web applicati ons, â€Å"Businesses must pay attention to the functionality and usability of Internet-based tasks, because the young consumers of tomorrow’s markets will insist on doing business on the Internet and will be intolerant of dysfunctional and unusable systems.† (Carey et. al., 2003, p.360). Usability Evaluation Methods The methodical approach is a mandatory requirement for evaluating web pages. Heuristic Evaluation, Think-aloud and Performance testing are few among these evaluation methods. Each of these methods uses predefined rules to evaluate the website for its ease-of-use and other usability characteristics and have its relative accuracy in evaluating web sites usability. We can also employ a blend of these methods for evaluation purpose which may give us better insight into various met and unmet evaluation standards. This report will use a discounted heuristic method blended with think-aloud method where needed. The discounted heuristic blended with think-aloud will result in a protocol which will assess the website resources for a predefined set of heuristics and the same set of heuristics may be questioned from the naive users of think-aloud method. Usability Evaluation 1. Resource-I (http://sentencingcouncil.judiciary.gov.uk/) a) Consistency of presentation and controls i. The home page of Sentencing Council is loosely consistent. The hovering effect of various con trols is not consistent, on top level links of Home, Contact us etc. it is simple underlining with same text displayed as the feedback to the user the effect is background color change in menu controls like â€Å"About the Sentencing Council†, â€Å"About Sentencing†, etc. Similarly, the punctuation is not consistent at the site. ii. Blue and Gray colors are used consistently but there are used interchangeably i.e for headings and subheadings. iii. The overall impact of the color scheme and the text is consistent. Font size and style remained consistent over the home page. iv. Image used on home page is not tightly linked with the theme of the site. A keyboard with papers on it does not present a sentencing council perfectly. v. A quite large image of interrogation sign used at home page is a bit misleading it does not take you anywhere and creates a sort frustration for the user. b) Adequate Feedback i. There is not enough feedback provided to the user on home page. i i. Hovering is used to show the expected next click of the user but it is not clearly told where this click may navigate the user. iii. The hovering screen tip text is same as that of the label so it does not provide any additional information to the user. c) Natural organization of the information i. The information on the page is well managed ii. A clear page heading, subheadings, labels and menu bar, title heading are provided to clearly define various sections of information. iii. Each section of site provides only related information d) Contextual navigation i. There is enough contextual navigation available on the home page but without any feedback. e) Efficient