Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
3 Web Usability Evaluation Process
The Web Usability Evaluation Process (WUEP) has been defined by extending and
refining the quality evaluation process that is proposed in the ISO 25000 standard
[16]. The aim is to integrate usability evaluations into model-driven Web develop-
ment processes by employing a Web Usability Model as the principal input artifact.
This model decomposes the usability concept into sub-characteristics and measurable
attributes, which are then associated with metrics in order to quantify them. These
metrics provide a generic definition, which should be operationalized in order to be
applicable to artifacts from different abstraction levels (PIMs, PSMs, and, CMs) in
different MDWD processes (e.g., OO-H, WebML, UWE).
Figure 1 shows an overview of the main stages of WUEP. Three roles are in-
volved: evaluation designer, evaluator, and Web developer. The
evaluation designer
performs the first three stages: 1) Establishing the requirements of the evaluation, 2)
Specification of the evaluation, and 3) Design of the evaluation. The
evaluator
per-
forms the fourth stage: 4) Execution of the evaluation. Finally, the
Web developer
performs the last stage: 5) Analysis of changes. The following sub-sections describe
each of the main stages by including the activities into which they are decomposed.
Fig. 1.
An overview of the Web Usability Evaluation Process
3.1 Establishment of Evaluation Requirements
The aim of this stage is to establish the requirements of the evaluation to delimit the
scope of the evaluation. The activities involved in this stage are described below.
1. Establish the Purpose of Evaluation.
This activity determines the aim of the
usability evaluation, i.e., whether the evaluation will be performed in a Web applica-
tion in order to provide feedback during the Web development process, or whether
different Web applications, belonging to the same Web application family, are com-
pared in order to establish a ranking among them.
2. Specify Profiles.
The different factors that will condition the evaluation are deter-
mined. These factors are: the
type of Web application
, since each family of Web
applications has different goals that make an impact on the selection of usability at-
tributes, i.e., navigability might be more relevant to Intranets whereas attractiveness
might be more relevant to social networks; the
Web development method
, since
knowledge about its process and artifacts is needed in order to properly integrate the
