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WEBUSABILITY:ANEWINTERNATIONALSTANDARD

Introduction

According to David Travis (2008) that the International Standards Organization

(ISO) is developing a new standard for web usability
titled ISO/AWI 23973 "Software
ergonomicsfor World WideWeb userinterfaces"
. Thenew standard willbe ofinterest
to anyone who designs, evaluates or commissions web sites anditis likely to have a
significantimpactinimprovingtheoverallusabilityoftheweb.

WhatisWebUsability?

Usability is aquality attribute thatassesses howeasy userinterfacesaretouse.

Theword "usability" alsorefersto methods forimprovingeaseofuseduringthedesign
process.
Usabilityisdefinedby5qualitycomponents:
Learnability
: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time
theyencounterthedesign?
Efficiency
: Once users have learned the design, howquicklycan theyperform
tasks?
Memorability
: When users returntothedesignaftera periodofnotusingit,how
easilycantheyreestablishproficiency?
Errors
: How many
errors do users make,how severe are these errors,andhow
easilycantheyrecoverfromtheerrors?
Satisfaction
:Howpleasantisittousethedesign?

WhyWeNeedaStandardforWebUsability?

Standards promote best practice. This is important in an area such as web

usability that is still relatively young and contains many conflicting opinions on
whatmakesawebsiteusable.
Standards are independent. The guidance in standards does not represent the
opinion of one company or one usability guru but presents a balanced,
authoritativeview.

 Standards encourageconsistency.Consistencyis an importantfactorincreating

websitesthataresimpletouse.
Standards mean business. Companies can ignore your research findings but
they cant ignore standards since compliance is a mandatory requirement in
manycontracts.

WhatsintheNewStandard?

The process domain. This domain describes the design process used by the
organisation, such as the one described in
ISO 13407
:1999 Humancentred
designprocessesforinteractivesystems.
The evaluationdomain.This domaincontains the toolsandtechniquesusedto
assessthefinaldesign,suchas
usabilitytesting
.
The design domain. Thisis the domainwithinwhichthedesigner develops the
website.

Theemergingstandardaddressesthedesigndomainonly,sothisisntthe placetogoif
you are interested inusability evaluation ordesignprocess(although it does containa
handy list of references to these other areas). Where it will help is when you are
involvedinthenittygrittyofdesigndecisionsandneedsomeauthoritativeguidance.

Thestandardcontainsdetailedguidanceinfourmainareas:
1. Purpose and strategy.
What is the purpose of the site and how is this
madecleartoitsusers?
2. Content and functionality.
What is the sites conceptual model? How is
content organisedand howshould the site dealwithissuessuchasprivacy
andpersonalisation?
3. Navigation and interaction. How shouldthecontent be organised so that
users cannavigate thesiteeasily? How willuserssearchthecontentofthe
site?
4. Presentation and media design.
How should individual pages be
designed so that people can make use of the information? How should
multimediabeused?

Giventhe currentemphasis on disability issues, you might be surprisedto find thatthe

emerging standard does not havemuchto say about accessibility.Butthisis because
ISO is developing another standard specifically on this issue (ISO/AWI 16071
"ErgonomicsofhumansysteminteractionGuidanceonsoftwareaccessibility").

WebUsabilityTesting

Web Usability testing is often used to evaluate a websites user interface (UI),
this method is also invaluable for discovering the best way to present information on
your website. By paying attention to
how people read
, interpret, and access content,
you gain a greater understanding of how to communicate, structure, and format
information.

Thereare
3maincategories
ofusabilitytesting:

Explorative
:Used earlyin productdevelopmentto assesstheeffectivenessand
usabilityofapreliminarydesignorprototype,aswellasusersthoughtprocesses
andconceptualunderstanding.
Assessment
: Used midway in product development or as an overall usability
test for technology evaluation. Evaluates realtime trials of the technology to
determinethesatisfaction,effectiveness,andoverallusability.
Comparative
: Compares two or more instructional technology products or
designsanddistinguishesthestrengthsandweaknessesofeach.

ExampleofUsabilityTestingMethod:KeystrokeLevelModeling

KeystrokeLevel Model (KLM) is a quantitative modeling tool for predictinghow

long it will take expert users tocompletea specific
task withno errors.Itpredictstask
times based on a simple set of physical and mental operators including keystrokes,
button clicks, pointer movement, keyboard to mouse movement, and thinking time.
Each KLM operator is assigned a time based on empirical research. To obtain the
predicted time for a task, you add the times for individual operators. This approach
provides estimates of tasktimestowithinanaccuracyof10%.Itisbestusedforgetting
measures ofefficiency whencomparing designs orcompeting products. Livecodeisnt
needed,onlysketchesorscreenshotscangenerateestimatedtimes.

HowtoUseKeystrokeLevelModeling

The following is a stepbystep description of how toapply the KLM to estimate

theexecutiontimerequiredbyaspecifiedinterfacedesign:

1. Chooseoneormorerepresentativetaskscenarios.
2. Have the design specified to the point thatkeystrokelevelactions can belisted
forthespecifictaskscenarios.
3. For each task scenario, figure out the best way to do the task, ortheway that
youassumeuserswilldoit.
4. List the keystrokelevel actions and the corresponding physical operators
involvedindoingthetask.
5. If necessary, include operators for when the user must wait for the system to
respond
6. Insertmentaloperatorsforwhenuserhastostopandthink.
7. Lookupthestandardexecutiontimetoeachoperator.
8. Adduptheexecutiontimesfortheoperators.
9. Thetotaloftheoperatortimesistheestimatedtimetocompletethetask

WhatToDoAfterWebsiteUsabilityTestingisComplete

After you have receivedthe results of yourwebsiteusabilitytests,the firstthing

youshould dois compile theinformationand takenoteofanyissuesthattestershadin
common. Look at the amount of time it took them or their test subjects to complete
varioustasksandthink about what you canchange so thatusers are able tocomplete
these tasks faster. Also note any feedback you have been given by the testers and
wherethis is not clear,docontactthemtoclearoutanyambiguities.Makeanychanges

you can to improve the usability of your site as soonaspossible.Aswith anyformof

website testing,usabilitytestingis an ongoing process so besureto run usability tests
again after you havemadechanges.Thisnot only ensures that thechangesyoumade
wereappropriatebutwilladditionallyhelpyoudiscovernewusabilityproblems.
Conclusion
When conducting usability studies to evaluate content on websites, you may
need to make adjustments totraditional research techniquesto get deeplevel insights
on how to improve your content and to ensure valid results. Take extra care to give
participants tasks that are realistic and match peoples current situation and learn to
givesubtlereassurancestodissipateawkwardstretchesofsilence.

References:

http://www.websitestandards.org/websiteusability.html
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability101introductiontousability/
https://blog.crazyegg.com/2013/03/26/principleswebsiteusability/
https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/usable
http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/ISO23973.html
http://usabilitygeek.com/anintroductiontowebsiteusabilitytesting/
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/testingcontentwebsites/
http://www.measuringu.com/predictedtimes.php
http://www.measuringu.com/blog/10uxmethods.php
http://www.usabilitybok.org/klmgoms
http://www.cs.loyola.edu/~lawrie/CS774/S06/homework/klm.pdf
http://www.slideshare.net/WorldUsabilityDayWroclaw/howtousethekeys
trokelevelmodeltocomparetheefficiencyofuserinterfaces