Web usability

Statistical analysis has meant to provide statistical methods for making tests of significance and trustworthy estimations of the magnitude of the effects indicated by the results for the reduction of data. Statistical method on the other hand involves the use of certain logical ideas appropriate to experimental procedure. As this research intends to review the different statistical methods for data reduction during the administration of usability evaluation as well as provides readers with statistical methods’ definitions and concepts, it will help researchers especially the one who conducts usability evaluation becomes familiar and find appropriate statistical methods to treat the data collected and these methods include: (1) frequency distribution, (2) percentage, (3) mean score, (4) standard deviation, (5) likert scale, (6) analysis of variance, (7) chi-square, and (8) pearson’s r (pearson product-moment correlation coefficient).

The main focus of this paper is to provide other researchers a review on the different statistical methods used to treat data obtained from usability evaluations for data reduction. In order to achieve this specified goal, the researcher will present various previous studies like the study of Thuseethan et al., Hammouche, Penha et al., Zhao, Deotale, Iqbal et al., Manlai, Sauro and Kindlund, and Joo and describes the process of how they statistically treated data collected from different usability evaluation techniques.

Although this paper’s primary focus is about statistical methods, an overview about usability evaluation and its methods were discussed to provide readers a brief introduction about usability concepts and familiarize them with most usability methods used in usability testing and evaluation.

Various evaluation methods exists that serve to measure system’s usability and these methods can be analytical or empirical. Analytical usability methods are conducted by usability experts who put themselves as the users of the application or the system while the empirical usability methods consist of various usability tests and questionnaires. The empirical usability methods can be done if a prototype of the system is already available and ready to use.

An example of analytical usability method is the Heuristic Evaluation that serves to measure a system’s usability. The recent Heuristic Evaluation – Usability Techniques used today was designed by Deniese Pierotti of Xerox Company that comprises of 13 heuristics: (1) Visibility of system status, (2) Match between system and the real world, (3) User control and freedom, (4) Consistency and standards, (5) Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors, (6) Error prevention, (7) Recognition rather than recall, (8) Flexibility and minimalist design, (9) Aesthetic and minimalist design, (10) Help and documentation, (11) Skills, (12) Pleasurable and respectful interaction with the user, and (13) Privacy.

The empirical usability method on the other hand is an approach which consists of various usability tests and questionnaires. Examples for usability evaluation techniques that measures usability are: (1) System Usability Scale (SUS), (2) Software Usability Measurement Inventory, (3) Post-Study System Usability Questionnaire (PSSUQ) and Web-based Learning Environment Instrument (WLEI), and (4) post-tasks walkthrough.

In this study, various statistical methods will be explored and reviewed. The selection of these methods will focus primarily on studies where data obtained from usability evaluation techniques such as: (1) Frequency distribution, (2) Percentage, (3) Mean score, (4) Standard deviation, (5) Likert scale, (6) Analysis of variance, (7) Chi-square, and (8) Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (or Pearson’s r).

Although statistical treatment for the reduction of data is preferably done by statistician to avoid uncertainty of data, listing various statistical methods in this study will help researchers to understand its importance and use.

The findings from each selected research show proofs and evidences that choosing appropriate methods for evaluation and statistical treatment is important and the information gathered from previous articles and studies support this research to help other researchers become familiar on choosing appropriate statistical methods used in usability evaluation and since the results of the statistical analysis process were recorded through this research it will help the future researchers with similar study to easily retrieve it for future use.

Remote usability evaluation enables the possibility of analysing users' behaviour in their daily settings. We present a method and an associated tool able to identify potential usability issues through the analysis of client-side logs of mobile Web interactions. Such log analysis is based on the identification of specific usability smells. We describe an example set of bad usability smells, and how they are detected. The tool also allows evaluators to add new usability smells not included in the original set. We also report on the tool use in analysing the usability of a real, widely used application accessed by forty people through their smartphones whenever and wherever they wanted.

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Addison-Wesley was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital ...

Rövid összefoglaló / Absztrakt: A weboldalak használhatóságának vizsgálatára több módszer létezik, melyek közül egyes módszerek stabil elméleti alapokon nyugszanak, mások a gyakorlat mentén fejlődtek ki, elméleti alapjaikat nem említi és nem tisztázza a szakirodalom.
Disszertációmban négy módszert mutatok be: a card sorting, a paper prototyping, az eye tracking és az online fókuszcsoport módszereket. Ezek bemutatása mellett feltárom, hogy azok milyen elméleti és tudományos alapokon nyugszanak, és gyakorlati példákkal illusztrálom működésüket.
Bemutatom az aktuális online környezetet, az internetpenetrációt, a figyelem és az észlelés kérdéskörét, a kognitív sémákat, valamint kitérek az ergonómia tudományára is. Ezt követően jellemzem az egyes vizsgálati módszereket, működési alapjaikat, a vizsgálatokhoz szükséges és optimális mintaszámot. Az egyes vizsgálatok működését gyakorlati példával illusztrálom.

Kulcsszavak: online kommunikáció; ergonómia; használhatóság; website usability; card sorting teszt; paper prototyping; eye tracking; online fókuszcsoport; usability tesztelés.

Pécsi Tudományegyetem
Nyelvtudományi Doktori Iskola, Kommunikáció Doktori Program
Kommunikációtudományi Doktori Iskola

Doktori disszertáció
Témavezető:
Síklaki István
2011.

Telephone interviews were conducted with 18 blind academic library users around the U.S. about their experiences using their library and its website. The study uses the perspective that blind users’ insights are fundamental. A common theme was that navigating a webpage is time consuming on the first visit. Issues identified include the need for “databases” to be defined on the homepage, accessibly coded search boxes, logical heading structure, and several problems to be resolved on result pages. Variations in needs depending on users’ screen reader expertise were also raised. Suggestions for libraries to address these issues are offered.

Networks of pervasive display systems involving public and semi-public displays have allowed experiences to be created that span across multiple displays to achieve a stronger effect on the viewers. However, little research has been done so far on the configuration of content for multiple displays, especially when encountered in sequence in what is commonly referred to as chained displays. As a first step towards determining appropriate configuration strategies for chained displays, we have identified and investigated different approaches for configuring content. We report on a user study on the effect of the different configuration models in terms of usability and user engagement.

The research as described in this document, was done by the first author as noted below. He/she was a student at the Munich University of Applied Sciences (MUAS) in 2014-the topic was given as a student project. It has not been peer reviewed, but has been edited for basic grammar and accuracy. References have been standardized as far as possible according to the Harvard system. Consider this document as a working paper, to be used for basic referencing but not as seminal source for research work. It could be useful for research in the fields of Website Visibility, Information Retrieval and Search Engines.

Web developers and usability specialists face the challenge of dealing with the cost and quality of usability testing that must be implemented in a short period of time. Multiple-User Simultaneous Testing (MUST) can reduce usability testing time by allowing data collection from many ...

The current study investigates how different types of company website designs influence first impressions, aesthetic evaluations, and memory performance. We implemented an online study with a between-subjects design to examine differences between three design categories identified by ten experts in a pretest: SCOFA (strong colours of one colour family), LAPIC (large pictures), and SAPAT (same amount of pictures and text). The data of 458 participants (52.2% female) reveal that a) after an exposure time of five seconds, response times for website-related attributes differ between the categories, b) LAPIC and SAPAT are perceived as more aesthetic than SCOFA, c) memory performance is best on SAPAT sites. These results underline the importance of first impressions of a site's appearance and provide practical guidance for web designers by showing what users associate with certain designs, which designs they prefer, and which sites are the most memorable. Research highlights: • Already a rough design categorisation of corporate websites based on first impressions yields significant differences on subjective and objective user experience measures. • Users differentially evaluate and remember websites after seeing them for only five seconds. • Considering a number of outcome variables reveals that there is not one superior website design regarding each outcome. This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Interacting with Computers following peer review. The version of record Douneva, M., Jaron, R. & Thielsch, M. T. (2016). Effects of different website designs on first impressions, aesthetic judgments, and memory performance after short presentation.

Content, usability, and aesthetics are core constructs in users' perception and evaluation of websites, but little is known about their interplay in different use phases. In a first study web users (N=330) stated content as most relevant, followed by usability and aesthetics. In study 2 tests with four websites were performed (N=300), resulting data were modeled in path analyses. In this model aesthetics had the largest influence on first impressions, while all three constructs had an impact on first and overall impressions. However, only content contributed significantly to the intention to revisit or recommend a website. Using data from a third study (N=512, 42 websites), we were able to replicate this model. As before, perceived usability affected first and overall impressions, while content perception was important for all analyzed website use phases. In addition, aesthetics also had a small but significant impact on the participants' intentions to revisit or recommend.

Website usability and the use of website metrics are both methods which could be used to indicate popularity and/or success of a website. For commercial websites, being successful in terms of listing on search engine result pages is of paramount importance. Prior research on website usability has indicated that a number of elements can be used to make up usability from the user's point of view. At the same time, programs that provide website metrics are freely available, and their output give many indications of website activity and performance. The purpose of this paper is to propose a method of determining whether or not there is a link between the results of measuring usability, as opposed to website metrics.

It was concluded in the literature review that small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMME) should prioritise utilising the websites on the Internet, as it provides a low cost infrastructure, unlocking opportunities and allowing small- to medium-sized enterprises to market to the international customer, promoting business activities in a low-risk environment. However, visitors do not know that they do not know, meaning a need for facilitation exists between the Internet user in terms of the information required and the information available on the Internet.
Search engines (governed by their organic ranking algorithms) were created for this very purpose, to facilitate users in finding relevant information on the Internet in the shortest time possible. Search engines interpret and evaluate any given indexed web page from a targeted keywords perspective, indicating that web pages must be optimised from a search engine perspective. However, the elements search engines perceive to be important may not always be aligned with what website visitors perceive to be important. Anything on the web page that may remotely impede the visitors’ experience could be detrimental as alternative website options are but a click away. An example would be the excessive use of content on a given web page. The search engine may find the excessive content useful as it may provide contextual interpretation of the web page. However, the excessive content may impede a visitor’s website interaction as it is estimated that the average visitors will often view a web page for 45-60 seconds and read a maximum of 200 words only.
During the process of identifying the contradictory search engine optimisation (SEO) elements and website usability (WU) attributes, three journal articles were written, with two journal articles following their own research methodologies and the third journal article utilising all the research results in order to create the fused SEO and WU model.
Journal Article 1:
Two websites were used as part of the experiment:
• Control Website (CW): http://www.copywriters.co.za
• Experimental Website (EW): http://www.copywriters.co.za/ppc/.
The CW is an existing website with no special emphasis applied to SEO and/or WU. The EW was developed by implementing the WU attributes and ignoring all contradictory SEO elements. In order to ensure integrity of the experiment, search engines were denied access to the EW. The traffic sources for the CW were search engines (organic) traffic, as well as direct and referrer traffic. The traffic source for the EW was purely PPC.
The two websites sold exactly the same products. Owing to the different traffic sources, performance was measured by considering the number of conversions obtained from the amount of website traffic obtained (conversion – traffic ratio) of each website over the same period of time, which were then compared (keeping the traffic source in mind). Additional factors, such as time spent on site, page views and Return on Investment (ROI) were also considered as measuring tools. Additional experiments (interviewing Internet users and directing the PPC traffic source to the CW for the same period of time) were conducted for triangulation purposes.


The statistical analysis was based on the Mann-Whitney U test. This analysis indicates that Visitors, Average Page Views per Visit and conversions are all significantly different when comparing the CW values with the EW values. Average time on site per Visitor and ROI were not considered as being significantly different. Accumulated results obtained from the triangulation experiment interview indicated the importance of security, minimising content and making the contact form as easy as possible to complete. The PPC triangulation experiment obtained five times more traffic (including PPC traffic) than the EW (primary experiment). However, the EW obtained approximately 50 percent more conversions as opposed to the number of conversions obtained during the triangulation experiment.


The primary objective of this research project was to determine the WU attributes which are in contradiction with SEO elements. The literature review clearly indicated that contradictions do exist between SEO and WU. The secondary objective of this research project was to determine whether or not the WU attributes identified do in fact have an effect on conversions. The primary experiment results combined with the results obtained from the triangulation experiments, provided evidence that WU attributes do have an effect on conversion. The journal article results contribute to the body of knowledge by evaluating the WU and SEO contradictions from a WU perspective, which has a direct impact on website conversions.


Journal Article 2:
The objective of the second journal article was to prove that implementing search engine optimisation elements that are in contradiction to website usability attributes is essential to improve rankings.

The primary experiment included two websites, which were utilised as part of the experiment, the CW: http://www.copywriters.co.za and the Experimental Website Two (EW2): http://www.translation-copywriters.co.za/. The CW is an existing website with no special emphasis applied to SEO and/or WU. The EW2 was developed by implementing all on-page SEO elements and ignoring all contradictory WU attributes. The EW: http://www.copywriters.co.za/ppc/ was utilised for triangulation purposes. 
The purpose of the primary experiment was to monitor 130 predetermined keyword rankings across the three major search engines, over a period of four months, comparing the CW with the EW2 rankings. The primary experiment ranking results documented were the results obtained at the end of month four. During the four months a number of systematic changes were made to the EW2 for SEO purposes. However, no changes were made to the CW at all. For triangulation purposes, four additional experiments were conducted, of which two were the keyword rankings and organic traffic improvements documented each month, comparing the CW results with the EW2 results. The two additional experiments were the conversions obtained and interviews conducted, whereby the CW, EW and EW2 results were compared.

The statistical analysis for the primary experiment was based on the univariate analysis of variance test. The results indicated that the EW2 retained better search engine rankings than the CW. The triangulation ranking results documented each month indicated similar results to the primary experiment. The statistical analysis utilised for the triangulation organic traffic experiment was the linear regression analysis. Although the EW2 did not draw as many visitors as the CW, the experiment did provide evidence as to the EW2 experiencing significant traffic growth over time owing to the application of SEO. Conversely, the CW´s traffic growth was virtually zero over the same period of time. The results obtained from the triangulation conversion experiment were analysed utilising the Kruskal-Wallis test, indicating that the EW obtained significantly more conversion that the CW and the EW2. The interviews emphasised that SEO elements, as implemented on the EW2, were considered to be obstacles from a WU perspective. The unanimous choice of website was the EW.
The results obtained from all the experiments clearly indicate the importance of applying both WU attributes and SEO elements to ensure the success of a conversion orientated website. The results also indicate that some WU attributes (content, text and media) contradict certain SEO elements (content and keywords), which have a direct impact on the process of obtaining conversions. Although search engine algorithms constantly change, certain fundamental elements will remain the same, such as the artificial intelligence programs which have to crawl, index and arrange the search results through an organic ranking algorithm. The journal article results contribute to the body of knowledge by evaluating the WU and SEO contradictions from a SEO perspective, which has a direct impact on search engine rankings.
Based on the results obtained from the two journal articles, the author was able to construct a model, synergizing the SEO elements and WU attributes along with the contradictions and solutions in an attempt to provide guidance to industry (SMME).

The primary objective of this research project was to determine whether on-page search engine optimisation elements and website usability variables can be applied to a single website simultaneously, without resulting in degradation of service to either of the two concepts.
The fused SEO and WU model addresses the visitor's concerns by removing or isolating any obstacles that may impede visitor interaction, without compromising the on-page SEO elements, thus successfully fusing SEO and WU. The author is thus of the opinion that the research problem and questions have been resolved and answered.

The primary objective of this research project was to investigate and report on the importance of finding synergy between the concept of website visibility and website usability. A website needs to attract visitors and the website designer needs to ensure the website is visible to search engines. Websites that are not ranked highly by search engines are less likely to be visited. It is common practice for Internet users to not click through pages and pages of search results, so where a website ranks in a search is essential for directing more traffic toward the website. Users tend to examine only the first page of search results and once they find a good match for their search, they normally do not look further down the results list. Most search engines display only 10 to 20 of the most relevant results on the first page. Search Engine Marketing
(SEM) is often used to describe acts associated with researching, submitting and positioning a website within search engines to achieve maximum exposure for a website. SEM includes search engine optimisation (SEO), paid listings and other search-engine related services and functions aimed at increasing exposure and traffic to a website. SEO is the process of improving the contents of a web page so as to offer a richer harvest to a search engine crawler. The higher a website ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that that website will be visited by a user. SEO helps to ensure that a website is accessible to search engines and improves the chances that the website will be found by the search engines. Website usability focuses on what happens after users arrive on a website. Usability professionals observe what users do once they arrive on a certain page. Do the users take the desired call to action? Do the users understand what page they are viewing? Is the website easy to navigate? Website usability, therefore, can be defined as a website’s user-friendliness and the extent to which users can use the information on the website to meet a specific objective. The methods employed in this project include the review of literature and secondly, an inspection of South African based websites to determine the level of visibility and usability elements implemented. Results seem to indicate that very few South African based websites have both visibility and usability elements implemented on the same web page.

The growth of the World Wide Web has spawned a wide variety of new information sources, which has also left users with the daunting task of determining which sources are valid. Many users rely on the Web as an information source because of the low cost of information retrieval. It is also claimed that the Web has evolved into a powerful business tool. Examples include highly popular business services such as Amazon.com and Kalahari.net. It is estimated that around 80% of users utilize search engines to locate information on the Internet. This, by implication, places emphasis on the underlying importance of Web pages being listed on search engines indices. Empirical evidence that the placement of key words in certain areas of the body text will have an influence on the Web sites' visibility to search engines could not be found in the literature. The result of two experiments indicated that key words should be concentrated towards the top, and diluted towards the bottom of a Web page to increase visibility. However, care should be taken in terms of key word density, to prevent search engine algorithms from raising the spam alarm.

Background: Most websites, especially those with a commercial orientation, need a high ranking on a search engine for one or more keywords or phrases. The search engine optimisation process attempts to achieve this. Furthermore, website users expect easy navigation, interaction and transactional ability. The application of website usability principles attempts to achieve this. Ideally, designers should achieve both goals when they design websites. Objectives: This research intended to establish a relationship between search engine optimisation and website usability in order to guide the industry. The authors found a discrepancy between the perceived roles of search engines and website usability. Method: The authors designed three test websites. Each had different combinations of usability, visibility and other attributes. They recorded and analysed the conversions and financial spending on these experimental websites. Finally, they designed a model that fuses search engine optimisation and website usability. Results: Initially, it seemed that website usability and search engine optimisation complemented each other. However, some contradictions between the two, based on content, keywords and their presentation, emerged. Industry experts do not acknowledge these contradictions, although they agree on the existence of the individual elements. The new model highlights the complementary and contradictory aspects. Conclusion: The authors found no evidence of any previous empirical experimental results that could confirm or refute the role of the model. In the fast-paced world of competition between commercial websites, this adds value and originality to the websites of organisations whose websites play important roles.

The primary objective of this research project was to identify and investigate the website usability attributes which are in contradiction with search engine optimisation elements. The secondary objective was to determine if these usability attributes affect conversion. Although the literature review identifies the contradictions, experts disagree about their existence. An experiment was conducted, whereby the conversion and/or traffic ratio results of an existing control website were compared to a usability-designed version of the control website, namely the experimental website. All optimisation elements were ignored, thus implementing only usability. The results clearly show that inclusion of the usability attributes positively affect conversion, indicating that usability is a prerequisite for effective website design. Search engine optimisation is also a prerequisite for the very reason that if a website does not rank on the first page of the search engine result page for a given keyword, then that website might as well not exist. According to this empirical work, usability is in contradiction to search engine optimisation best practices. Therefore the two need to be weighed up in terms of importance towards search engines and visitors.

Kullanılabilirlik özellikle insan-bilgisayar etkileşimi alanında üzerinde durulan ve yaygın bir şekilde araştırılan önemli bir konudur. Bu alanda çalışmalar gerçekleştiren araştırmacılar, insan ve bilgisayar arasında başarılı etkileşimin tasarım ve uygulama konusunda önemli bir faktör olduğunu vurgulamaktadırlar. Kullanılabilirliğe ilişkin yaptıkları açıklamada altını çizdikleri konu, bir ürünün belirli kullanıcılar tarafından etkili, verimli ve memnuniyet verici bir biçimde belirtilen bağlamda kullanılmasıdır. Farklı araştırmacılar kullanılabilirlik konusunu çalışırken bunun çok boyutlu olduğu ve birbiriyle etkileşim halinde olan çeşitli faktörlerin kavram açısından büyük önem taşıdığına ilişkin fikir birliğinde bulunmaktadırlar. Yeni iletişim teknolojilerinin yaygınlaşmayla birlikte World Wide Web’in yaygın bir kullanım alanı haline gelmesi sonucunda; kullanılabilirlik üzerine çalışmalar gerçekleştiren araştırmacılar web ortamlarına temel kullanılabilirlik prensiplerini uygulamışlar, webe özel kullanılabilirlik metrikleri, ilkeleri, araçları ve teknikleri geliştirmişlerdir. Kullanılabilirliğin değerlendirme yöntemleri kuramcıdan kuramcıya değişen çeşitlilikte gruplara ayrılabilmektedir. Araştırmacılar araştırma amaçlarına en uygun olan yöntemi, avantajları ve dezavantajlarını da göz önünde bulundurarak seçmektedir. Gerçekleştirilen bu çalışmada; web kullanılabilirliğinin kavramsal olarak ne ifade ettiğinin açıklanması; kullanılabilirlik özelliklerine ilişkin geliştirilen teorik modellerin neler olduğu ve kullanılabilirliğin değerlendirilmesine ilişkin geliştirilen yöntemlerin hangileri olduğunun belirlenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Bu amaç doğrultusunda literatür taraması gerçekleştirilmiş ve elde edilen bilgiler araştırmanın ilgi odağı olan konular etrafında açıklanmıştır. Kullanılabilirliğe ilişkin gerçekleştirilen çalışmalardan elde edilen bilgiler kavramın son derece geniş bir alanı kapsadığı, bu alanda çok farklı özelliklerin ve prensiplerin yer aldığını göstermektedir. Kavramın daha net bir biçimde açıklanabilmesi için geliştirilen teorik çalışmalar yakından incelendiğinde araştırmacıların yaslandıkları kuramsal arkaplana göre geliştirdikleri kullanılabilirlik modellerinin de çeşitlilik taşıdığı görülmektedir. Çalışmada üzerinde durulan konulardan biri olan kullanılabilirliğin değerlendirme yöntemlerine ilişkin var olan yöntemsel çeşitlilik ortaya konularak, alanda en sık kullanılan değerlendirme yöntemlerinin özellikleri hem sağladıkları katkılar hem de kullanımlarında var olan bazı güçlükler açısından ele alınmıştır.