SEKE 2012 Proceedings - Knowledge Systems Institute

There is a relationship between the UIM’s evaluated artifact
and the degree of automated process. UIMs evaluating HTML
code are being fully automated. Nevertheless, their evaluated
usability aspects are less than the usability aspects of UIMs
that make use of inspectors.
B. Meeting the needs of the Software Development Industry
We used the sub-questions from this systematic mapping
extension to suggest three features an emerging UIM should
possess in order to meet the actual needs of the software
development industry. We did not consider sub-question Q1
(Theoretical Basis Method) because its goal was to explore the
bases of new UIMs for Web applications, rather than
identifying research opportunities. We p resent three features
and their relationship to our research sub-questions as follows:
Feature 1 - Ability to find problems in early stages of
the development process: The results for sub-question Q2
indicated that there is a need for UIMs evaluating the usability
of artifacts related to the early stages of the development
process. Co nsequently, in order to reduce the cost of
correcting usability problems new UIMs should be able to
evaluate models or prototypes.
Feature 2 - Ability to find specific problems and suggest
solutions: Research sub-question Q3 indicated that most
Generic UIMs do not provide feedback on how to treat a
usability problem once it is found. Consequently, emerging
UIMs should be able to aid in both the identification and
solution of usability problems.
Feature 3 - Automation: Our results for sub-question Q4
indicated that there is a s hortage of automated UIMs.
Therefore, in order to enhance the performance of the
evaluation, new UIMs should be automated or provide
assistance by means of a to ol. Automated UIMs reduce the
cost of carrying out inspections. Nevertheless, not every UIM
can be automated. In this case, the UIM should provide means
to reduce the inspector’s effort.
V. USING FINDINGS TO DEFINE A NEW UIM
The Web Design Usability Evaluation (Web DUE)
technique is an inspection method that proposes to meet the
needs of the software development industry regarding UIMs
for Web applications. Therefore, the Web DUE technique was
crafted by adopting the suggested features obtained from this
systematic mapping extension. In this Section, we relate each
of the characteristics of the Web DUE technique to the
suggested features.
The Web DUE technique evaluates the usability of paper
based low-fidelity prototypes (or mock-ups). This means
that the evaluation can be carried out in the early stages of the
development process (Feature 1).
The Web DUE technique guides the evaluation through
Web page zones. Web page zones are pieces of Web pages
with specific types of contents [3]. Table III shows the Web
page zones used by the Web DUE technique and their
contents. For each of the Web page zones we crafted a set of
usability verification items based on the Heuristic Evaluation
[8] and the Web Design Perspectives-Based Usability
Evaluation – WDP [1] technique. The purpose of this usability
verification items is to address usable characteristics within
each of the Web page zones. Some of these verification items
are shown in Table IV. Readers must note that the usability
verification items also include examples in order to aid
inspectors in the identification and solution of the identified
problems. The complete list of the usability verification items
per Web page zone can be found in [13].
Once the inspector verifies which Web page zones are
contained within the paper based prototypes, he/she uses the
usability verification items to find specific problems affecting
the Web page zones that are related to the evaluated Web
application (Feature 2). Furthermore, the inclusion of the
violated usability verification items within the paper based
prototypes can aid in the correction of the encountered
usability problems.
TABLE III.
WEB PAGE ZONES USED BY THE WEB DUE TECHNIQUE BASED
ON [3].
Zone
Contents
Navigation Navigation Links
System’s State Information about the application's state and how we got
there.
Information Information from the application's data base.
Services Access to functionalities related to the information zone.
User Information Information about the logged user.
Institution Information about the institution that is responsible for
the Web application.
Direct Access Common Web functionalities (Login, Logout, Home).
Data Entry Provides a form to input data to execute certain
operations.
Custom Domain-independent content
Help
Information about how to use the application and how it
works.
A simplified version of the evaluation process of the Web
DUE technique can be seen in Fig. 2. Initially, inspectors must
divide the provided mock-ups into their respective Web zones
(Stage 1). For each Web page zone the inspector verifies if the
application meets usability rules by checking the technique’s
usability verification items (Stage 2). Finally, the non
conformity of any verification item implies in a usability
problem (Stage 3). In order to correct usability problems, the
Web application must consider including the violated items.
Figure 2. Simplified inspection process of the Web DUE technique.
Another important feature is that the Web DUE technique
makes use of tools to reduce inspectors’ effort. As it
involves inspectors’ judgment in order to identify usability
problems, the Web DUE is not fully automated. However, it
aids inspectors during the evaluation process by using a tool
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