Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
% Unacceptable
% Acceptable
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90%
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Average Page Load Time (secs)
Figure 6.23 Data in which users rated the acceptability of various load times for an intranet homepage
presented in a random order. Ratings were on a five-point scale, and data shown here are for the bottom
two (Unacceptable) and top two (Acceptable) values only.
B. J. Fogg and associates at the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab conducted
a series of studies to learn more about what makes a website
credible
(Fogg et al.,
2001). For example, they used a 51-item questionnaire to assess how believable a
website is. Each item was a statement about some aspect of the site, such as “This
site makes it hard to distinguish ads from content,” and an associated seven-
point scale from “Much less believable” to “Much more believable,” on which
users rated the impact of that aspect on how believable the site is. They found that
data from the 51 items fell into seven scales, which they labeled as Real-World
Feel, Ease of Use, Expertise, Trustworthiness, Tailoring, Commercial Implications,
and Amateurism. For example, one of the 51 items that weighted strongly in the
“Real-World Feel” scale was “The site lists the organization's physical address.”
6.7.2 Assessing Specific Elements
In addition to assessing specific
aspects
of a product or website, you might be
interested in assessing specific
elements
of it, such as instructions, FAQs, or
online help; the homepage; the search function; or the site map. The techniques
for assessing subjective reactions to specific elements are basically the same as
for assessing specific aspects. You simply ask the user to focus on the specific ele-
ment and then present some appropriate rating scales.
The Nielsen Norman Group (Stover, Coyne, & Nielsen, 2002) conducted a
study that focused specifically on the site maps of 10 different websites. After
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