Management Today: Principles and Practice - Assignment Example

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EVALUATION ASSIGNMENT SUBMITTED TO- SUBMITTED BY- Contents EVALUATION ASSIGNMENT 6 INTRODUCTION 6 ANALYSIS OF http www.cksp.com.hk/ 7 USER ANALYSIS AND THE PROFILING 7 THE USER BASED FEATURES OF http://www.cksp.com.hk/ 8 SPECIFICATION OF THE GOALS FOR http://www.cksp.com.hk 9 EASE OF THE NAVIGATION 9 THE LEVEL OF UTILITY OF THE WEBSITE 10 THE RECOVERY FROM THE ERRORS 10 THE LEARNING ABILITY OF THE WEBSITE 10 EASE OF THE REMEMBRANCE 10 EASE OF UNDERSTANDING OF THE WEBSITES 10 THE EASE OF INFORMATION FROM THE WEBSITE 11 THE EASE IN THE COMPLETION OF TASK 11 THE EASE IN THE PAYMENT 11 THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF THE WEBSITE 11 EVALUATION OF THE WEBSITE 11 METHOD OF ASCERTAINING THE RESPONSES 12 THE EASE OF THE NAVIGATION IN THE WEBSITE 14 THE UTILITY OF THE WEBSITE 14 LEARNABILITY OF THE WEBSITE 14 REMEMBERING THE DETAILS OF THE WEBSITE 14 THE LEVEL OF UNDERSTANDING IS EASY 15 THE EASE OF GETTING THE INFORMATION 15 THE EASE OF COMPLETION OF THE TASK 15 THE MAKING OF PAYMENTS 16 THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF THE WEBSITE 16 THE EVALUATION OF THE WEBSITE IN RELATION TO THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF WEBSITE DESIGN 16 ACCESSIBILITY 16 THE IDENTITY OF THE WEBSITE 17 NAVIGATION OF THE WEBSITE 17 THE CONTENT OF THE WEBSITE 18 THE TECHNIQUE OF PROTOTYPE FOR THE WEBSITE 18 A VERY HIGH FIDELITY KIND OF PROTOTYPE 18 CUSTOMIZATION FOR THE USERS 20 THE REASONS FOR MODIFICATION 20 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE WEBSITE 21 REFERENCES 23 APPENDIX 25 QUESTIONNAIRE 25 2.What is the level of ease of navigation in the website http://www.cksp.com.hk/? 25 8.Is it easy to get information from the website http://www.cksp.com.hk/? 27 11.Is the website http://www.cksp.com.hk/ attractive? 27 EVALUATION ASSIGNMENT INTRODUCTION The analysis of usability of a website is of the greatest importance for the organization running. Nowadays, most of the business is conducted by websites across the world. So, the website plays a vital part in understanding the value offering of the organization. The website would be considered as a good, generally based on two factors. They are the degree of usability and the level of visual appeal. There are a host of factors that affect the usability of the website ranging from the information about the architecture, the navigation facilities, the jargon, the kind of terminology being used in the design, the designing aspect of the forms of a user and the layout of the page. However, the usability may differ from time to time based on the needs of the business. The first part of the writing presentenced the need for a user centred approach in detail. The CBA (Cost Benefit Analysis) was done for the website, and the incorporation of an approach based on the user would present larger revenues for the company. So, this research is dedicated towards the steps for integration of a user based approach in the development of the website of http://www.cksp.com.hk/, after winning the contract. The paper would be divided into a number of sections. The first part of the sections would be used for the specification of the usability goals. This would serve as the benchmark for evaluation of the website. These are the parameters, which would guide the eventual design of the website, by serving as the template. The next part of the paper would focus on the usability criteria by the application of questionnaires. The obtained data would help in the analysis by using the human factors which are of significance. The last part of the paper would build a prototype for this application, which would take all the factors into consideration. The last part would present the recommendations for the website and the overall changes that have to be incorporated into the design for an increased interaction with the user. ANALYSIS OF http://www.cksp.com.hk/ USER ANALYSIS AND THE PROFILING For the presentation of a complete kind of the usability in the logical manner, there is a need for the conduct of certain kinds of tests. These tests are necessary, because they play a part in the attainment of the usability goals for the user groups and the usability traits exhibited by them. Any system with the adequate usability characteristics would have the users as the central point for the activity designs. The profiling of the users is very important for a number of reasons. They are as follows- The main user groups can be identified by perfect profiling of the users. The analysis of the user groups also help in the division of the users. Some of the users may be primary in nature (as they are the main users of the system). Some of the other users may be secondary in nature (as they are dependent for the usage on the primary users). Also, some of the users are power users, who use all the applications in the system, while the other users may be basic users. The patterns of the system use can be defined by the proper analysis. This can play a part in making the system more responsive to the requirements of the customer or end user. The analysis of the user profile can divulge the CSF (Critical Success Factors), which define the success of any of the websites. THE USER BASED FEATURES OF http://www.cksp.com.hk/ The design of any of the systems has the basic requirement of consideration being given to the skills sets of all the primary users. This defines the level of ease exhibited by the system. So, a vital part is played by the mechanism of profiling, which is also aimed at obtaining of precious information regarding the functionalities of all the users. The strengths and the weaknesses of all the users have to be taken into the perspective before making the necessary changes in the system. This also makes all the facilities available to the user, rather than a fixed set of the abilities for different users. The characteristic of the user group has to be identified. They are as follows- The age of the user (The gender of the user has also to be identified)- There is a need for the usage of a colour combination , which is in accordance with the sex of the user. The preferences of the colour among the genders vary, so this feature has to be taken into the consideration. The level of education (whether the user is a candidate with the primary education or post graduate education) - The website has to user friendly, with an interface that is easy to understand, and simple language is used. The physical abilities of the users- The physical abilities of the users have to be taken into the perspective. The fonts, colour, size of the icon and all the other features have to be optimized for the ease of users. The language has to be very easy so that it is easily understood by all the users. The computer and the IT (Information Technology) of the users have to be taken into perspective, as the users may have little knowledge of computers. The use of e-commerce jargon and other complicated technical terms should be avoided. The recovery from errors and the ease of use should be very high for the website to draw audience. SPECIFICATION OF THE GOALS FOR http://www.cksp.com.hk The adoption of any kind of user centred design would require employment of a number of measures, which help in the development of the methodology. The design of the usability criteria is accomplished in a manner that is determinant of use of the system and the adherence to the benchmarks used in design process. The setting of goals would define the parameters for the success of the website, and this would define the characteristics of the website (Gamma et al., 1995). This shall ascertain the satisfaction level and the ideal conditions for the functioning. The information that is gathered as a part of the study would be use for making changes in the current characteristics. EASE OF THE NAVIGATION The current ease of the navigation has been measures in terms of the remarks that have been put forward by the users. The people interviewed for the questionnaire included everyone other than a web developer. They found that the ease of navigation was satisfactory. This answer was common to most of the control group. THE LEVEL OF UTILITY OF THE WEBSITE The utility of the website was checked among the respondents. It was found to have a very high level of utility among the users. It can be partially attributed to the direct nature of the content being present on the website. THE RECOVERY FROM THE ERRORS The recovery from the errors was found to be satisfactory among the people who had been asked this question. The nature of the website plays a pivotal part in avoiding the occurrence of any kind of error among the users. THE LEARNING ABILITY OF THE WEBSITE The degree of learning ability of the website is also very good. This is due to the fact of the nature of the website. There is also avoidance from any kind of unnecessary material on the website, which prevents the user from taking time in learning the functionality of the website. EASE OF THE REMEMBRANCE The website was seen to have a moderate value of recall among the customers. This is due to the lesser appeal of the website among the consumers. The visual appeal was also seen to be less for the website. EASE OF UNDERSTANDING OF THE WEBSITES There was a very high ease of understanding of the website among the users. This would mean that the website has been written in a very easy language. THE EASE OF INFORMATION FROM THE WEBSITE The ease of getting information from the website is very high among the users. This defines the high approval from the respondents regarding the information. THE EASE IN THE COMPLETION OF TASK The ease in the completion of tasks is also quite high, given the nature and ease of the website. THE EASE IN THE PAYMENT The ease of making payments has to be improved. This has to be done for ensuring the proper functionality in the systems. THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF THE WEBSITE The attractiveness of the website is seen to be very low among the users. This is due to the combination of colours in the website. The contrast also seems to be low. This has led to the lower level of attraction towards the website. EVALUATION OF THE WEBSITE The criterion for the evaluation has already been designed by the group. This has led to the formation of specific criteria for looking at the relevant points of the websites. The research being followed for the evaluation of the websites follows a set of criteria. The characteristics of the questionnaire and the target population is seen as follows- The population that has been set for the questionnaires has been decided after looking at the dynamics of the possible audience for the website. The evaluation of the website has been done by using a set of questionnaires for the research. The characteristics of the population are as follows- The age is between the 21- 60 The genders are male as well as female. The education is varied, ranging from the secondary school to the degrees in post graduation. The questionnaires have also been given to the business community, as the website would cater to a large population of them. The use of the website would be ranging from a very low to a high one, with the usage being distributed evenly over a certain period of time (Burton and Thakur, 1995). The proficiency of the computers range from low level to high level. However, most of the users have a normal level of proficiency over the use of computers. The questionnaire has been chosen as the most appropriate form of the evaluation. This is due to a number of reasons. The flexibility in answering the questions is very high. The users can answer the questions in their own time. The amount of the error can also be reduced by using this approach (Boling and Frick, 1997). The different kinds of errors that creep into study also disappear by using the method. The constraint of time is one of the other factors that make a lot of change to the settings. This ensures that the different parts of the questions are answered, without any kind of delay or lag in time. METHOD OF ASCERTAINING THE RESPONSES The answers from the questionnaires were evaluated after a thorough consideration of the different elements building it. One of the primary factors which ensure the analysis of the answers is the kind of answers being given. If more than five answers are seen to be blank, the questionnaire is discarded. So, after the answer has been given, it is checked for the levels of consistency. The fundamental as aspects of the questions being asked are based on the focus being given to the questions. The answers are also designed in a manner, to ensure the maximum level of reliability. The complete purpose of the exercise is to get an accurate picture of the different elements in the questionnaire, leading to analysis of the plausible answers. There are a number of assumptions, which have been taken during the design of the questionnaire. They are as follows- All the respondents are of legal age, with a reasonable knowledge of the computer systems. The respondents have been given informed consent before ensuing on this questionnaire. The questions have not been duplicated in any of the parts of the questionnaire. All the respondents are unique, and have only filled up one of the questionnaire. All the factors have been given equal weight in the marking scheme. The sampling of the population has been random, with the target audience being selected for a representation of a complete audience. These are the assumptions that have been adopted for all the questionnaires. THE EASE OF THE NAVIGATION IN THE WEBSITE The navigation in any website plays a vital role in the success of it. The question was asked regarding the ease of navigation in the website. It was found that the majority of the respondents found the navigation to be easy. It scored very high on their satisfaction level. This can be partly attributed to the simplistic design layout of the website. It makes the website very easy to navigate. THE UTILITY OF THE WEBSITE The utility of the website is a singular reason for business on a website. It plays an important part in the business generation of the website. When asked about the question of utility of the website, a majority of the respondents agreed to the idea of website utility. Again, the very simple layout and the lack of any kind of digressing features enhance the utility of the website greatly. LEARNABILITY OF THE WEBSITE The respondents were asked about the learn ability of the website. Due to the simplistic nature of the website, most of the respondents found the learn ability of the website to be very high. This was one of the points that shaped the ease of use of the website. All of these have raised the levels of credibility of the website. REMEMBERING THE DETAILS OF THE WEBSITE The details of the website had a moderate level of remembrance among the users. The design of the website is very simplistic, leading to the lesser value of recall among the users. This has been one of the definitive features of the website. Also, the users have to contend with the colour schemes of the website. The colour of the website needs to be more attractive in nature, which would lead to a better traffic among the users. THE LEVEL OF UNDERSTANDING IS EASY The respondents were asked the question about the ease in understanding the website. It has been seen that most of the respondents agree with the fact that the website is easy to understand. It is seen that the easy layout of the website makes it easier for the respondents to understand the website. THE EASE OF GETTING THE INFORMATION The website has been assessed by the respondents on the ease of doing business. Most of the respondents agree with the fact that it is easy. The website has very few buttons, making the information easier to trace. This makes the extraction of information very easy, making the ease of use as optimum. This also ensures that technical proficiency does not play a part in the operation of the website. THE EASE OF COMPLETION OF THE TASK The completion of the tasks is very easy on this website. All the information has been put in specific places, making the operation very easy. All the users can have a look at the website and decide the information that is needed. This is one of the features that expedite the completion of tasks. It also decreases the time required for any job to be done on the website. THE MAKING OF PAYMENTS The site does not have any advanced features. The lack of any kind of additional security on the website also reduces the ease of making the payments. Overall, it increases the complexity of making payments. The integration of new processes has to be done on the website, like a secure payment gateway; for the payments to be processed. THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF THE WEBSITE The attractiveness of the website has to be increased .The combination of colours on the website needs to be changed according to the needs of the business. This also means that the website has to adapt to the local conditions. This would make the website easier to work with and more attractive. Also, the international business would be boosted by changing the colour and other features of the website. THE EVALUATION OF THE WEBSITE IN RELATION TO THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF WEBSITE DESIGN The website has been evaluated from a number of angles. The main points of the investigation have been the following factors- The accessibility. The identity. The navigation of the features. The content being placed in the website. ACCESSIBILITY There are a number of factors that have been studied under the terms of accessibility. They are as follows- The load time of the website is reasonable in quality, but it can be improved by a considerable extent. The contrast between the texts to the background needs to be improved, as it is not adequate in nature. The sizing of the fonts is not proper. The spacing of the words needs to be improved to get a proper idea about the design aspects of the website. The usage of the flash and also the add-ons is not proper in the website. It needs to be used in a better manner, for ensuring the development of the website. The website needs to have custom made not found or the 404 page, which would increase the user attractiveness of the website. THE IDENTITY OF THE WEBSITE There are a number of factors that have been studied under the identity of the website. The points are as follows- The logo of the company is not prominent in its form. The tagline of the company is not clear from the website. The homepage cannot be understood completely in a short span of time. The information regarding the company needs to be more prominent. The contact information needs to be clearer. NAVIGATION OF THE WEBSITE The navigation of the website has been studied in detail. The points that have been observed are as follows- The navigation path can be identified easily. The label of navigation is not clear. The number of buttons has to be increased. There is a lack of consistency in the links. The searching of the site is not easy to access. THE CONTENT OF THE WEBSITE The content of the website has been studied. The features have been analysed as follows- The main headings are neither clear nor descriptive in nature. The content which is critical is not placed above the fold. The styles and the pattern of colours are not consistent in nature. The emphasis has been used very rarely in the website. The copy, which is the main part of the website, is not explanatory. These are the points that have been studied under the analysis of the website from a critical perspective. It would help in the creation of an understanding of the website in a better manner. THE TECHNIQUE OF PROTOTYPE FOR THE WEBSITE A VERY HIGH FIDELITY KIND OF PROTOTYPE The design level application takes a lot of effort, as it has to take a very high level of understanding for following the implementation. The prototype is mainly the follow up of the psychological analysis being done as a part of the study. The points are as follows- THE USERS VIEW THE THINGS THAT THEY EXPECT TO VIEW The layout of the webpage is guided by this principle. There is a general structure that is based on the overall experiences of the user and their expectation from the website. The implementation of the website tries to follow the consistency that is seen in all the different kinds of the globally accepted positions (Pane, 1998). This would mean that the generic features like log-in, the log-out, the translation of the language, the window for the quick help are included as a part of the prototype structure. This is done in a way, which is similar to the expectancy of the users in a real life scenario. The experience of the users previously in this area would play a major role in the creation of the current type of website. This would increase the level of understanding of the users towards the website. THERE IS A DIFFICULTY AMONG THE USERS TO MULTI TASK The website may not enjoy the undivided attention of all the users. This means that the interface has take the position of the users into perspective. This would require a very high level of understanding of the dynamics of website. There are two principles that have to be followed here. One is the principle of organization in a perceptual manner; the groups in the similar category are grouped together, without having any kind of direct influence on other parameters. This feature can be used in the creation of a system, which has a box with the required specifications an also tends to group all the similar categories together. This avoids the unnecessary burden of searching in the spaces that are not required. It also makes the system behave in better manner, by guiding the users in a proper manner. HAVING A MORE STRUCTURED KIND OF LAYOUT People tend to organize the information in the virtual world, in a manner similar to the real world. Any design, that has a high fidelity to the real world, has more relevance to the user in terms of the structure and use. The arrangement of the tabs was done in a manner, which would help in the realization of all the systems. There is an alignment of the tabs on the top and the description is given under them. The alignment of the images and the other features is done in a manner, so that the uses have maximum convenience for usage. This would be done in congruence with similar kinds of available websites. INCREASING THE RECOGNISABILITY OF THE WEBSITE The value of recognizing something is better than the value of recall. All the features have been designed for an optimum level of recognition. Also, the degree of redundancy for the website has been reduced, so that the users can see only the required kind of information. CUSTOMIZATION FOR THE USERS The characteristic of all the users are varied in nature. This would mean that the human factors have to be incorporated for the design of the website. This would ensure that the local sensibilities are maintained. The aspects of internalization, the local variables, the globalization and adjustments for the elderly would be maintained. The aspects of culture and localized customs would also play a major part in the process. THE REASONS FOR MODIFICATION The average responses from the users showcase the point that the overall functionality of the website is very high. The website seems to have a pleasant view generically, and all the jobs are being performed in a generic manner. All the factors that are control the perception of the system seem to be in control. But, after an analysis of the systems, there are certain factors that have been found to be in contradiction with the systems. They are as follows- The maps for the sites are the tools that help in the tracking of the different elements on the website. All of the sites attempted at this, but had a certain level of inconsistency in achieving it. The home page does not look synchronous and lacks all of these cohesive features completely. There is a need for the highlight of all the links. Whenever, there is navigation over any of the links, the colour of the ink should change. The various features of the system should be differentiated clearly. This would help in the creation of system, which is very user friendly in nature. The user should know his position at the site at all the points. There is a definitive lack of consistency among the different elements of the website. Some of the pages in the website seem to have been prepared keeping the needs of the user in mind, while the others do not seem to have done the same. The facility for searching is not available on the website. The user would not be able to search for any of the items. In case of needing any specific information they have to navigate through the complete site. English language is sparse on the website. This would stop a large majority of the users from using this particular website. It would also tend to limit the scope of the website. It will not allow the internalization of the website, also limiting the scope of growth in the international community. Most of the content in the website is not in English, which also limits the scope of the international users from finding the facilities. The characteristic of all the users is not taken into the perspective. This would mean that all features of the product have not been optimized. The website has been built with the assumption that all the users have similar kinds of needs. All of these factors have to be taken into the consideration for design of the new prototype. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE WEBSITE The recommendations for the website are as follows. They have been given after a through analysis of different facets of the website. The systems for the navigation should undergo a sizeable amount of improvement by the usage of methods like the Breadcrumb path, the websites having the quick links and also a highlight of all the active menus. There is a need for the addition of sitemaps, which shall lead to the improvement of usability. This would give map of all the different kinds of links in website and also the URL’s. The strength and weaknesses of the different groups of users has to be taken into the consideration before forming the final website. Some of the users have an increased exposure to the functionalities, while the other users have a decreased level of exposure to all the functionalities. The facility for the help or support in the website is very necessary. The multi language features should be adopted in the website. This would address the needs of the people who do not have any kind of exposure to English. The incorporation of the feedback as an option should be used. The facility for the secure transaction can be added, so that the users can have an increased confidence in the functionality of the system. Given the nature of the business, a number of applications like the Google maps, Google translation and other features can be added in the system for increasing the usability. It can also help in targeting a larger international audience. The colour combinations being used in the website have to changes, so that it looks a more appealing. It would also help in taking the market realities into consideration. These are the recommendations for increasing the usability of the current website of: //www.cksp.com.hk. REFERENCES Burton, G., & Thakur, M., 1995. Management today – principles and practice. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill. Boling, E., and T. Frick., 1997. 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The Qualitative Report. Pane, J. F.,1998. Designing a programming system for children with a focus on usability. CHI '98: CHI 98 conference summary on Human factors in computing systems, Los Angeles, California. United States. ACM Press. Pane, J. F. and B. A. Myers., 2000, Improving user performance on Boolean queries. CHI '00: CHI '00 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems. The Hague: ACM Press. Pane, J. F. and B. A. Myers.,2002. The impact of human-centered features on the usability of a programming system for children. CHI '02: CHI '02 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, Minneapolis. Minnesota: ACM Press. Rubin, J.1994. The Handbook of Usability Testing. New York: Wiley. Yin, R. K., 2003., Case study research – design and methods. 3rd Ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. CKS. 2013. Chu Kong Passenger Transport Company Limited. (ONLINE)Available at http://www.cksp.com.hk/.(Accessed 02 May 13). APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE NAME- AGE- SEX- OCCUPATION- HIGHEST EDUCATION- 1. Do you often use the internet? Yes No 2. What is the level of ease of navigation in the website http://www.cksp.com.hk/? Good Bad 3. How is the utility of the website? Good Bad 4. How is the regime of recovery from errors in the website? Good Bad 5. Do you think it is easy to learn about the website fast? Yes No 6. Do you remember the website easily? Yes No 7. Do you understand the website easily? Yes No 8. Is it easy to get information from the website http://www.cksp.com.hk/? Yes No 9. Is it easy to complete specified tasks on the website? Yes No 10. How is the payment gateway? Good Bad 11. Is the website http://www.cksp.com.hk/ attractive? Yes No Read More