WWWWWW

Chapter 6

Website Evaluation & Usability Testing

2WWWWWW Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e© 2002 Prentice Hall

OBJECTIVES

• Anatomy of a Site

• What Makes a Website Usable?

• Role of Web Administrator

Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: Objectives

3WWWWWW Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e© 2002 Prentice Hall

ANATOMY OF A SITE

• Use of Colors

• Site Evaluation Criteria

• Web Personalization

Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: Anatomy of A Site

4WWWWWW Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e© 2002 Prentice Hall

USE OF COLORS

Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: Anatomy of A Site

Color Psychological Effects

Red Power, energy, passion, danger

Blue Trust, conservative, security

Yellow Optimism, hope

White Purity, precision, innocence

Black Sophistication, mystery, elegance

5WWWWWW Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e© 2002 Prentice Hall

SITE EVALUATION CRITERIA

• Color

• Type & Shapes of Icons

• Page Content

• Service Offered

• Primary Focus

• Ancillaries

• Site Classification

Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: Anatomy of A Site

6WWWWWW Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e© 2002 Prentice Hall

SITE EVALUATION CRITERIA (Cont’d)

• Professionalism

• Speed

• Consistency

• Personalization

• Security

• Scalability

Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: Anatomy of A Site

7WWWWWW Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e© 2002 Prentice Hall

WEB PERSONALIZATION

• Cookies

• Collaborative-filtering Software

• Check Boxes

• User-based Personalization

Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: Anatomy of A Site

8WWWWWW Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e© 2002 Prentice Hall

WHAT’S THE BIG FUSS OVER SOME COOKIES?

• Deleting & Rejecting Cookies

• Privacy Concerns

Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: Anatomy of A Site

9WWWWWW Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e© 2002 Prentice Hall

WHAT MAKES A WEBSITE USABLE?

Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: What Makes a Website Usable?

Sources What Users Are Seeking

Forrester Research •High-quality Content•Ease of Use•Quick to Download•Frequent Site Update

Spool’s Study •Information

Kahle’s Study •Specific Information

10WWWWWW Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e© 2002 Prentice Hall

USABILITY TESTING GUIDELINES

• Decide on a writing style & stick to it

• Give visitors what they are looking for

• Show class

• Keep the big picture in mind for usability

• Make the site easy to navigate

• Focus on content before graphics

Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: What Makes a Website Usable?

11WWWWWW Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e© 2002 Prentice Hall

USABILITY TESTING GUIDELINES (Cont’d)

• Make your text scannable

• Be careful about flashy marketing language

• Encourage visitor feedback

• Test, test & test!

Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: What Makes a Website Usable?

Remember: Conciseness, Scanability & Objectivity

12WWWWWW Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e© 2002 Prentice Hall

RELIABILITY TESTING

• Provide system backup

• Install a disk-mirroring feature

• Ensure that the system hardware is ‘fault-tolerant’

Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: What Makes a Website Usable?

13WWWWWW Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e© 2002 Prentice Hall

MANAGING IMAGES & COLOR

• Readability Testing

• GIFs vs. JPEGs

• Use of Cache

• Use of Links

• Role of the Web Server

Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: What Makes a Website Usable?

14WWWWWW Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e© 2002 Prentice Hall

ROLE OF WEB ADMINISTRATOR

• Database Server

• Application Server

• Web Server

• Special-purpose Servers for Security

• Internet Bandwidth

• Internet Performance Status

Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: Role of Web Administrator

WWWWWW

Chapter 6

Website Evaluation & Usability Testing