Basic points about web usability, and will be content too a small comparative study in two web sites to explain in a practical way who to measure the usability of a site.

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A Web Usability Study (Apr 2008)
First M. Albalá López, Student, NEWI
On my point of view the best way to look for a usable
Abstract—In this document will be exposed the basic points web site is to know how the users deal with the environment.
about web usability, and will be content too a small But to test it is important the people who are chosen to be
comparative study in two web sites to explain in a practical way used as a user tester, because the background in acknowledge
who to measure the usability of a site. of these tester must be in the average of the most of the
possible users of the site. If this condition is not taken in
Index: Web Usability, Web Accesibility, internet, e-business. account, the study of the usability of the site could be
compromised.
I.INTRODUCTION II.USABILITY TESTING
N OW, when internet has become one daily thing for a
great amount of people around the world, and the
computer networks are around us everywhere you look, is
Battleson et al. claim that usability testing is the most
effective way to asses a site's usability. They go on to specify
three categories of usability testing: inquiry, inspection, and
when something so crucial as the way the people formal usability testing [5].
understanding and the way they deal with the web sites is In performing quantitative usability testing, Ivory, et al.
becoming a crucial issue for all the web sites developer. suggest the following Web page metrics as the most
"Twenty-eight percent of Web site transactions result in important in evaluating usability [6]:
consumer failure and frustration.... Six percent of users who • Word Count--Total words on a page
leave a Web site in frustration say they won't return to the
• Body Text %--Percentage of words that are body vs.
site or patronize the company” [1].
display text (i.e., headers)
The previous statement gives us a clue about why is the
usability a crucial matter for the web sites designers. But, • Emphasized Body Text %--Portion of body text that
is emphasized (e.g., bold, capitalized or near !'s)
what is the meaning of usability? Usability is a quality
attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use. • Text Positioning Count--Changes in text position
from flush left
The word "usability" also refers to methods for improving
ease-of-use during the design process [3]. For web usability • Text Cluster Count --Text areas highlighted with
color, bordered regions, rules or lists
ISO give us their definition: "the extent to which a site can
be used by a specified group of users to achieve specified • Link Count--Total links on a page
goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a • Page Size--Total bytes for the page as well as
specified context of use" [2]. elements graphics and stylesheets
Jacob Nielsen speaking About Usability said that there are • Graphic %--Percentage of page bytes that are for
five main points that will help to define and quantify it: graphics
Learnability, Efficiency, Memorability, Errors, Satisfaction • Graphics Count--Total graphics on a page (not
[3]. These five points are a simple path to follow if you want including graphics specified in scripts, applets and
to know if some environment is usable. But maybe these objects)
characteristics are a bit abstract to quantify the usability of a • Colour Count--Total colours employed
site, because they depend in the appreciations of the users, • Font Count--Total fonts employed (i.e., face + size
and in their experience dealing with web environments. + bold + italic)
Nakamichi et al in the paper Detecting Low Usability These are metrics based in the appearance of the web
Web Pages using Quantitative Data of Users' Behavior give used to quantify the usability of the site. But Nakamichi et al
a look at some concrete way to measure the usability of a propose metric based in the behaviour of the user when uses
web site. They experimented to investigate the relation a web site to measure the usability of it. These measures are
between quantitative data viewing users' behavior and web [4]:
usability evaluation by subjects for detecting low usability • Browsing time (sec): Time since the user begins to
Web pages [4]. This method, is based in the behavior of the see a certain page, until it changes to another page
users when deal with a determinates environment, but once • Moving distance of mouse (pixel): Moving distance
again it depend in the familiarity of the users have with the of the mouse cursor on a screen
navigation through the internet. • Moving speed of mouse (pixel/sec) = Moving
Ivory et al prefer basing the measures of the usability in distance of mouse / Browsing time
metrics based in the way the web is designed, not in the way • Wheel rolling (Delta): the amount of wheel rolling
the user perceive it. of a mouse
• Moving distance of gazing points (pixel): Moving
Manuscript received May 2, 2008.

M. Albalá López student at NEWI (e-mail: maalbala@ gmail.com). distance of gazing points on a screen

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• Moving speed of gazing points (pixel/sec) = Moving is not evident the profundity of the contents tree. In the site
distance of gazing points / Browsing time are no references about the depth of the sections, and some
times, in the drop down menus looks like the profundity will
III.BENEFITS be minor than in fact is. Then the user does not know in any
The benefits derived of improving the usability of a moment what is the depth of the contents tree.
particular web sites are based in the easiness that the users D.Are the names of the links clearly identifying the
of the site experiment when deal with it. The more contents of each section?
comfortable way to deal with the site, could for example,
In the Ferrovial case the names identifying perfectly the
derives in a increase of the sales though this web site, or it
could transform a intranet environment from an unused contents, and permit to find the information needed in a
and obsolete one in great path of communication between small amount of time. All the names are well chosen, this
the employers and the company, or among the departments makes the navigation very intuitive. When a concrete data is
of it, deriving in benefits of time and money. looking for, the users do not commit significant amount of
errors in their seek. On the other hand, in the Astroc case the
IV.CASE OF STUDY names do not identify clearly what is the information in each
section, it makes that looking for a concrete data will be a
In this section will be analyzed two web sites Astroc and tedious search. This repels on difficult very much the
Ferrovial. These web sites are from two companies in the navigation of the users.
building business. The choose of these examples to explain
the usability of a web site is because the two of them are E.Are there enough helps to the navigation?
oriented to the same kind of public, the two of them are in In the Ferrovial web site could be found different services
the same business field too, and is obvious that one of them that help in the navigation. This services are: the contents
are a lot more usable than the other one. tree in the left margin of the site, that help the user jump
For the study of the usability of these two web sites we though the sections in the site without has to return to the
will go through ten questions. These are simple questions that main page. The position on the contents tree where the user
give us an overview about the usability of the site. These is, indicated by the bar in the top of the centre of the site,
questions are based in the way the users could perceive the helping the user to be allocated in the contents tree. The
environment, and the facilities that the sites give to the finder situated in the right of the bar in the centre section of
navigation trough them. Maybe, these ten questions, could be the site that help the user to seek key words. In the press
adapted to make studies with a small groups of users of the release section has an advanced finder to seek trough all the
web sites that are designed in order to test the usability of the information in this section. On the contrary in Astroc site
sites before the development end. From my point of view, there are no big things that simplify the navigation, and the
this is a very interesting thing, because if the usability of the drop down menus, without all the sections displayed in it
site is tested before his develop ends, all the usability errors difficult the labour to find concrete data in the site.
could be solve saving money and time for the company [7].
F.When dealing with different web browsers. Are the
A.From my point of view, is he legibility of the information appearance and the functionality similar in all of them?
adapted? Yes, with different browsers the appearance and
Yes, in general, both of them have the information adapted functionality are similar. I use to this question three different
to the usual users of the pages, and the choose of the colours web browsers, Safari, Internet Explorer, and FireFox, I did
of the fonts are well adapted to help the read of it. Perhaps not found any difference in the navigation and in the aspect
the Astroc case, the colour of the font in some of the sections of the sites.
of the web difficult the read of it, but this don’t happen in the
whole site. G.Are there any elements that difficult the navigation?
Possible a good choose of the font and background colour In the Ferrovial one there are no elements that difficult the
is the Ferrovial one, grey over white, it helps to make the site navigation. The way to navigate though this site is very
more accessible and usable. intuitive, and there are no need to make a lot of steps when
you are jumping among the different sections of the site. But
B.Are well defined, the sections of the web? in the Astroc one, the drop-down menus of this page, difficult
Yes, in general, all the sections are well defined. But in the the navigation trough the web because the excessive
Astroc case, some times, the names of the sections induce to animation when these menus are displayed. In addition, the
an error. This makes that though the navigation in this site, great amount of pictures displayed as background on some of
when the user is looking for a concrete data, he inquires in a the sections turn aside the attention from the data contented
lot of error before reach his goal. in it.
C.Is it evident the profundity of the contents tree? H.Are there elements that distract me from the navigation?
In the Ferrovial case yes, it is evident the profundity of the In the Ferrovial case I do not think that there are any
contents tree, because in the left margin of the page there are elements which difficult the navigation. As said previously,
a menu that indicates the tree of contents, and you know in the navigation is very intuitive and the site has a lot of helps
each moment where you are, and the depth in the contest tree to the navigation. In the Astroc case the drop-down menus, as
here is the section in what you are. But in the Astroc case it in the previous question is said, distract from the navigation.

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The excessive animation of the page turns aside the attention academic library Web site: A case study. Journal of Academic
of the user and difficult the navigation. Librarianship, 27, 3, 2001, 188-198.
[6] Ivory, M. Y., Sinha, R. R., & Hearst, M. A. Empirically
I.Do I have to make a lot of steps to reach the information Validated Web Page Design Metrics. ACM SIGCHI'01, 2001.
that I am looking for? [7] Moratilla, A. (2006, May). Ayuda para el test de usabilidad y
accesibilidad. Notes from the module Diseño de Aplicaciones Web from
In Ferrovial site there are no need to make a lot of steps to the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares. Available:
reach concrete data because of the menu in the left side http://www.multimedia.uah.es/encuestausabilidad/faq.html
makes the navigation agile. It has direct access to every
section on the web. On the other hand in the Astroc site you
need to realize a lot of steps to reach one concrete section
because, as said previously the names aren’t very identify,
and there are no way to go directly to the information
searched.
J.Do I think that the usability of the web is good?
As a conclusion for this study, in my opinion, the Ferrovial
site has, in general, a notable grade of usability. I do not find
anything that makes this site unusable. But the one of Astroc,
despite the fact that it has a very good presentation due to the
animations in the whole site, as could be deduced from the
previous questions, is not very usable at all. It has a great
amount of design deficiencies that make it has a bad grade of
usability.
V.CONCLUSION
Test the usability of a site is very easy when you know a
little about the matter. Perhaps if you have not a lot of
acknowledge in the issue you could not make a depth test
of the site usability, but the basic points of this subject are
derived from common sense. It is very important take the
usability matter in consideration when a web site is
developed, because this issue will be of great importance
in the exit or the failure of the site. If a site is not usable
the users will look for another one more usable and the site
will become a failure. Now that the e-business is an
important factor in the business market, make the web
sites as usable as possible will extend the horizons of a
company. Because if one site is not usable, it is sure that
another site in the same business field will be usable, and
the best usable one will be the one that will reach the
market expectations, and in consequence the one that will
make more money. Some big companies is now, when
they see that their competitors earn more money though
their sites, when they start to look about the usability of
their sites. If a company improve the usability of his site, it
will derive in economic benefits, not only through the
possibility of selling his services though internet, as also in
make new customers though the web site.
REFERENCES
[1] Shacklett, M. Gauging Web site performance. Credit Union Magazine,
67, 6, 2001, 60-62.
[2] Powell, T. A. Web Design: The Complete Reference. Berkeley, CA:
Osborne/McGraw-Hill, 2000.
[3] J. Nielsen. (2005, Aug). Usability 101: Introduction to Usability.
Useit.com [Online]. Available:
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html
[4] Nakamichi, N., Shima, K., Sakai, M., and Matsumoto, K. (2006, May).
Detecting low usability web pages using quantitative data of users'
behavior. In Proceedings of the 28th international Conference on
Software Engineering (Shanghai, China). ICSE '06. ACM, New York,
NY, 569-576. Available: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1134285.1134365
[5] Battleson, B., Booth, A., & Weintrop, J. Usability testing of an