Remote evaluation of an interface usability using asynchronous auto-logging methodology

Abstract

The need of developing more usable web applications has motivated the development of a number of techniques, methods and tools to address web application usability issues.In recent years many automated remote usability evaluation methods have been employed. Despite the advantages offered by these methods, automated remote usability evaluation is still a difficult and a time consuming task to a developer partly to due to complexity of the tools used and partly due to expertise required. This thesis presents an automated remote usability evaluation application which employs the use of dialogue designs to determine usability of a web application. Sate transition network was preferred in this work because they are the most intuitive among dialogue designs. A sequence of system states for carrying out a specific task in a web application can be identified and subsequently, clickstream path for this task can be developed. The format of information presentation on a dashboard is also important as it should be easily read and understood by developers. Graphical and tabular presentation were identified as suitable formats. Localhost of the developed application was evaluated for usability using the pre-defined paths and the results observed. The level of usability of the developed application was determined using metrics of usability elements. A task completion rate of 81.67 % and errors percentage of 80 % were realized, these indicates a relatively effective system. Time-based efficiency of 0.04 goals/min with an overall relative efficiency of 60.67 % was achieved. On satisfaction level, NASA-TLX indices suggest that the total workload experienced was lower and a good SUS score of 70/100 was also achieved.Analysing data obtained from proxy server logs file can reveal usage pattern of users and this gives a highly improved understanding of users’ behaviour. This information can then be utilized in improving a web application interface. Keywords: Asynchronous, Auto-logging, Click-stream, Dialogue design, Paths, Usability, Violations.