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On the World Wide Web, a companys web site is the only point of contact that a company has with anyone who is interested in it. Thus, companies entirely rely on their web presence in order to achieve their online goals, be they commercial or otherwise. This scenario, viewed from an alternative perspective means that the user of a companys web site will formulate a judgement about that company that is strongly correlated with the way they perceive its web site. If a companys web site is usable, then it is very likely that a user will achieve his or her goal for using it. This, in turn, will be an active contribution that will help that company towards achieving its own goals. Now, take this successful scenario in view of the circa 2,100 million internet users [1], and well, you can realize why web site usability is essential for any company with a web presence. A company typically sets its usability goals through a combination of user profiling, analysis of the main tasks and general business goals. These may be coupled with additional information such as marketing information, competitive analysis, technical support groups and informed opinions [2]. Due to the diversity of such sources, a substantial list of goals is produced. The company then needs to qualitatively and quantitatively specify these goals and then prioritize them so as to determine its usability goals. The latter is the the minimum set of high priority goals that need to be implemented in order for the company to reach the required user performance and satisfaction criteria [2]. The degree to which the companys web site is successful then depends on whether its user interface balances between the companys usability goals and those of its users [3]. Not surprisingly, this may sometimes be a very tough endeavor, especially since some marketing practices (such as the definition of the groups that a web site is targeting as well as the companys goals themselves), may be in conflict with usability aspects of that same web site [4].
typically results in an obscure and overloaded navigation as designers try to make everything reachable within three clicks, often causing more trouble in choosing which link to click than having the users go through an extra, yet more intuitive click [8]. According to Nielsen and Loranger [8], the three most important characteristics that distinguish a usable web site are simplicity, naturalness and ease of use. When good usability is implemented in conjunction with good web design characteristics, especially visual attractiveness, it results in a web site that positively affects user behaviour and the trust that a user has in the company to whom the web site belongs [9]. This trust is also affected by the users perceived usability, that is, the perception that the user has about the usability of a web site before he/she actually makes use of it, although this measure has been found to be strongly correlated with actual web site usability [9].
Referenced Work
1. Internet World Stats, 2011. World Internet Usage and Population Statistics.[Online] Available at: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm 2. Breuer, H., 2003. Website usability or the WWW as practice. In First Latin American Web Congress LA-WEB03. Santiago, Chile, 2003. 3. Blanger, F. et al., 2006. Web site success metrics: addressing the duality of goals. Communications of the ACM, 49(12), pp.114-16. 4. Tiedtke, T., Mrtin, C. & Gerth, N., 2002. AWUSA a tool for automated website usability analysis. In PreProceedings of the 9th International Workshop on Design, Specification, and Verification of Interactive Systems DSV-IS2002., 2002. 5. Matera, M., Rizzo, F. & Toffetti Carughi, G., 2006. Web usability: principles and evaluation methods. In E. Mendes & N. Mosley, eds. Web Engineering. Berlin, Germany: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. pp.14380. 6. Palmer, J., 2001. Designing for web site usability. In Proc. 7th Annual Consortium for Computing in Small Colleges Central Plains Conference on The Journal of Computing in Small Colleges. Branson, Missouri, United States, 2001. 7. Zeldman, J., 2001. Taking your talent to the web. Indianapolis, Indiana, United States: New Riders. 8. Nielsen, J. & Loranger, H., 2006. Prioritizing web usability. Berkeley, CA, United States: New Riders Press. 9. Swaak, M., De Jong, M. & De Vries, P., 2009. Effects of information usefulness, visual attractiveness, and usability on web visitorstrust and behavioral intentions. In IEEE International Professional Communication Conf. Waikiki, HI, United States, 2009. 10. Safavi, R., 2009. Interface design issues to enhance usability of e-commerce websites and systems. In 2009 International Conference on Computer Technology and Development. Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, 2009. 11. Montero, F., Gonzles, P., Lozano, M. & Vanderdonckt, J., 2005. Quality models for automated evaluation of web sites usability and accessibility. In International COST294 Workshop on User Interface Quality Model. Rome, Italy, 2005.
12. Scapin, D. et al., 2000. A framework for organising web usability guidelines. In Proc. 6th Conference on Human Factors and the Web. Austin, Texas, United States, 2000. 13. Nielsen, J., 1999b. User interface directions for the web. Communications of the ACM, March. pp.6572. 14. Ruiz-Rodrguez, R., 2006. An auxiliary tool for usability and design guidelines validation of web sites. In Proc. 15th International Conference on Computing CIC06. Mexico City, Mexico, 2006.