Abstract
Michael D. Levi and Frederick G. Conrad
(1996) "Usability
Testing of World Wide Web Sites."
Methodologies for building usable software systems have
been introduced and refined over the past fifteen or so years
under the discipline of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).
Much effort has been put into exploring cognitive models of
human behavior as it relates to computer usage, and
developing guidelines for screen layout and system dialogues.
These are predictive endeavors whose purpose is to assist the
software developer in the initial task analysis and system
design. But, just as comprehensive functional requirements
and a detailed design document do not by themselves guarantee
that a programmer's final code will be correct, so up-front
usability guidelines do not by themselves guarantee a usable
end product. In both cases a distinct validation process is
required. Usability testing is the process by which the
human-computer interaction characteristics of a system are
measured, and weaknesses are identified for correction. This
article gives an overview of the usability testing process
and describes a set of testing techniques the authors have
used to evaluate the Bureau of Labor Statistics public access
Web site and a joint BLS-Bureau of the Census Web site for
the Current Population Survey. This work has been conducted
largely for release over the Internet, but the techniques
described are equally relevant to intranet testing.
Last Modified Date: July 19, 2008
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