Computer Sciences and Information Technology. User Experience - Essay Example

?Essay Computer Sciences and Information Technology User Experience Introduction and Background 1. Introduction The document presents the factors affecting users’ experiences with Graphical User Interface (GUI) while using the website URL http://www.phones4u.co.uk/contact-us/help_terms.asp. The ultimate goal of developing this document is to evaluate the website in such a way that the performance and usability of the website can be enhanced, optimizing the users’ experiences by providing special functionality and features. In this regards, the paper contains description and purpose of website development, the intended audience of the website along with weaknesses and strengths of the website in respect of their usage by diverse users. Some users may not agree that this website is easy to use and users have difficult experiences with its interface, this study looks at every element of interaction and usability factors (Cornell University Library, 2012). In order to get information regarding their experiences of using the website, the users are given a website usability form to be filled so that the website of the Phone4u can be evaluated. The paper presents the recommendations to the company for improving several aspects of the website to reach the targeted audience, trust development on the visitors and customers, moreover, guidance to increase the web traffic (Dumas, 2008, p37). The usability test is one of the essential steps in the evaluation of the user’s likeness and dislike-ness while using the Phone4u’s website. This will require acquisition of user opinions and to present analysis of the information to guide the decision on the areas of improvement. Since most of the features are observable qualitative attributes, this study will have to convert them into quantitative variables for ease of data analysis. 1.2. Background In the evaluation of the website, the focus is how to improve the usability by adding features that are more relevant and functional keeping in view the targeted audience of the website. This can be done by evaluating the website and improving the weaknesses indicating by the analysis. The amendments to the website of the Phone4u should be made as per the recommendations of the users (Valacich, Joey & Hoffer, 2009, p67). At the same time, it is important to consider the fact that some users do not welcome changes so easily and may prefer to remain in the previous version of the website rather than the new one with improved features (Kendall & Kendall 2011, p58). The evaluation will lead to the decision making for the new version of the website based on the information from user response. The statistics will be gathered as comments from various participants. The participants’ views reflect the present trend and the actual real world events that are of interest to this website. The study uses the structure of information flow as shown in the figure below, with the system the user and the feedback mechanism. Figure 1: Information Flow between System, Users and Feedback mechanism 1.3. Study Problem/Question This study seeks to answer one (1) major question having various sub parts. The first question is “Whether the website of the Phones4u is easy to use for the targeted audience of the website?” In order to have the answer of the first question of this study, the users have to answer the various questions as described by the Jokab Neilsen. The sub questions (parts) include: “the visibility of the system, Match between system and the real world, User control and freedom, Consistency and standards, Error prevention, Recognition rather than recall, Flexibility and efficiency of use, Aesthetic and minimalist design, Help users recognize, Help and documentation, diagnose and recover from errors. Basically, these are the guidelines provided by the Jakob Neilson for evaluating the usability of the website” (Selvaraj, 2011). All these questions will be answered by the selected participants. 2. Aims The aim of this study is to explore the usability issues in the website of the Phines4u based on the selected participants’ responses against the above given questions. Moreover, the responses of the participants would be analyzed and evaluated in such a way that trends can be developed for improving the usability of the website. After the analysis, the subsequent aim is to implement various methods of improving the usability of the website by adding relevant features that are lacking currently in the website of the Phones4u (Preece et al, 2002, p87). In essence, the new version should be an enhancement of the previous version. There has to be consistency between the problem statement and the actual implementation of the actions to improve the usability quality. 3. Analysis 3.1. Personas The data analysis distinguishes the personal opinions of the users regarding the website of the Phone4u. The users were provided a list of questions having scale of the usability attached as an Annexure. The users have to rate (from 1 to 5 means usability issue) the website against the questions. In this regards, ten (10) experts were contacted to test the website and provide their feedback accordingly. 3.2. Objects This involves the classification of graphical user interface objects according to their user preferences. It determines the roles of the objects in the improvement of the usability of the website. The objects include the colour usage, the use of visual controls such as buttons, tables, Textboxes, pictures and animations (Myers 1998, p59). From the respondents, the users were of the opinion of inclusion of various features, user controls and other objects as follows: Objects Voting Tables 6 Form Objects 2 Multimedia Objects 1 Animation 3 Colour Mixture 3 Images 6 Table 1: Users Preference For Usability Features Figure 3: Users Preference For Usability Features 3.3. Discussion of Analysis This is about the summary of the analysis of the usability features and the system and the plans to improve it. The decision will be made depending on the opinions of the majority of experts. Since the analysis indicates the users’ experiences and the users’ feelings about the system, they are the foundation of the recommendations for actions to be implemented. As per the feedback of the ten (10) experts and their analysis, it has been observed that the forty two percent (42 %) of the usability issues are pertaining to the help and documentation, flexibility and efficiency of using the website (Redmond-Pyle And Moore 1995, p52). However, in the analysis of objects, the leading features were the use of images supported by six (6) experts and tables, supported by seven (7) participants. Tables were found to be efficient in the design of the webpage layout, while images made the pages more elegant and attractive to impress the users. In the study of the effects of usability features and properties, the reliability of the system was the leading with forty seven percent (47 %) while relevance of the interface took the second score with twenty seven percent (27 %). The least desirable usability feature was satisfaction with three percent (3 %) (Pruitt and Adlin, 2006, p69). 4. Study Method 4.1. Rationale and The Decision Made This study applies a quantitative analysis in analysing qualitative factors of User Interface design. It converts qualitative data items into quantitative (measurable) data for the sake of analysis and presentation. The rationale of the method is to apply measures of the effects of the usability elements to the solution of usability issues, which are of qualitative nature. The quantitative method provides the measurement of the ease with which the users use the interfaces and provides necessary opportunity for improvement of the interface to satisfy the users. It guides the decisions made because the decisions are based on information from the real world environment. 4.2. Experimental Design This study uses various test cases to arrive at a holistic decision. First, it compared alternative approached on usability tests. This involved the division of the usability features in different classes such as objects, personas and other usability aspects. It also involved conducting repeated tests of the ease of use of the system. 4.3. Participants The study involves ten (10) usability experts who access the website from various locations. The participants provide necessary information about their experiences with the system. Their responses determine where the interface makes the website easy to use, difficult to use or does not have any effect on the usability of the system. 4.4. Tasks The tasks in this study involve the study of the present system (website Version), data collection, analysis, decision-making, implementation and feedback. 4.5. Metrics All variables have to be converted into quantitative measures to aid in the data analysis and presentation (Whitten & Bentley 2007, p29). For instance, each of the usability question in the questionnaire has been rated from one (1) to five (5). In this regard, one (1) means there is no usability issue at all, whereas, the five (5) rating means that there is highly treacherous usability issue and to be fixed urgently. 4.6. Materials The study uses computer systems with software applications and hardware such as PCs or Laptops, internet access and web browsers, web development tools, database applications, spreadsheet and presentation applications (Tullis & Albert 2008, p27). The statistical materials required include questionnaire and the information collection sheets from the participants. 4.7. Procedure The procedure for testing the usability of the Phones4u website is very straight forward in which initially a plan has been developed along with the questionnaire to be presented to the usability experts. The usability experts would test the website of the Phones4u as per the criteria given in the questionnaire. Based on their feedback, an analysis and evaluation of the website’s usability would be assessed. Various tasks have to be performed during the analysis phase for identifying the usability issues properly. The analysis leads to the design of an interface that articulates the need to solve the problems in a higher version than the present system (Sarah et al, 2996). The implementation is the beginning of usage of the new version of the system. The System test is the evaluation of the usability quality of the developed version. 5. Evaluation Results 5.1. Usability Issues As the aim of this study is to identify the usability issues in the website of the Phones4u, therefore, it is expected that the selected experts would recognize the issues in the website related to the usability. From the analysis made in this document, it has been observed that the website has several issues related to the flexibility, efficiency of use, help and documentation. There are certain issues that require transformation in order to increase the usability of the system (Sullivan 1996, p38). The usability issues can be improved as suggested, by including pictures (images) and tables. Tables used on the web pages can develop a good layout and for the arrangement of other multimedia objects (Rubin 1994, p52). The remaining usability issues pertain to the visibility of the website (web linkages), inconsistency, non-standard and the use of inappropriate text in a way that the user get confused. There is a risk of neglecting the usability issues, which scored low indices in the usability tests, e.g. forms, multimedia objects and animations. Based on the feedback of the experts, following chart has been developed. Figure 2: Ratings of the Experts 5.2. Possible Biases There is a possibility of errors in the assessment of the expected results, owing to rounding-off of values during the analysis. This can either understate the analysis results or exaggerate it. This is mitigated by indicating the error corresponding to each of the usability issues and the observations of every test of statistical significance. 6. Evaluation Discussion 6.1. Summary of Overall Findings The overall finding shows responses of participants in different usability issues. The experiences of the users can thus be summarised as with the metrics in the following data. Usability Question Ratings* Visibility of the Website 3 Consistency and Standards 4 Recognition Rather than Recall 3 User Control and Freedom 4 Help and documentation 5 Flexibility and efficiency of use 5 Total Percentage 72 % Table 4: Measure of Usability Index It may be noted that the highest ranking (1 to 5) means severe usability issue. From the above table, it has been identified that there are around seventy two percent (72 %). The aspects of user experiences that were not satisfactory and require urgent development in the next version is reliability of the system ease of usage of the system and system relevance. 6.2. Presentation of the Performance Data The following graph shows the data gained after the feedback of the experts and the presents the system’s satisfaction, considering each of the user experiences with the website. Figure 6: Measure of Usability Index 6.3. Priorities For Redesign From the data presentation, the priority of re-design activities is given to the aspects of user experience that scored less (Foss 2013, p190). This includes the reliability of the web design, the system accessibility, satisfaction and beauty of the interface. As identified in the usability issues, there are certain items that have to be included in the next phase of the web site are: Tables Form Objects Pictures Animations Appropriate Colour Combination 6.4. Usability Issues / Problems The usability problems identified in this study are: Accessibility Simplicity Incomplete Information Web Linkages User Interface Design 6.4.1. Accessibility One of the major issues of the Phones4u website is the accessibility. The font size of the website is non-adjustable and moreover, there is not text to speech translating facility. 6.4.2. Simplicity and Readability As the user has to scroll down and up for reading the whole page that may create difficulties in reading the webpage. Therefore, it can be stated that the webpage of the Phones4u website has low readability and not simple enough to facilitate the user. 6.4.3. Incomplete Information Apart from the web interface design of the website has to satisfy certain requirements of the users. For instance, the objective of the terms and conditions webpage is to present the rules of the company and its stakeholders for defining a relationship (Rock et al 2012, p11). The clear objectives of the website should be presented over the webpage of the Phones4u website. 6.4.4. Web Linkages For instance, it has a link labelled “Delivery” which leads to the actual Delivery page according to the user’s expectation. In case it opens a different page then there is system inconsistency. 6.4.5. User Interface Design This version exhibits poor qualities of a graphical user interface but with improvements from the present version in figure 7. For example, Figure 7 has large and empty spaces, which are wasted (Denley et al 1993, p.350). The appearance is poor because it is white dominated, a poor combination of colours. The following screenshot highlights some of the usability issues discussed above. Figure 7: Present Version Highlighting Usability Issues 6.5. Recommendations For Redesign The initial sections of the document presents a proper analysis pertains the usability issues in the current version of the Phones4u website. Based on the above analysis, redesigning of the website is required for improving not only the usability of the website but also improving the usage efficiency of the users. Overall, as discussed before that the issues of the website are not only with the usability of the graphical user interface, however, the residing information may also be reviewed. It is recommended that clear and precise information should be available over the website, whereas, lengthy and vague data should be removed in the upcoming versions of the website. 7. Evaluation Discussion The evaluation took care of the representative samples that are relevant to this discussion. It did not consider the non-representative samples of the respondents (Hawryszkiewycz 2001, p170). This leads to the conclusion that the data contains immeasurable confounding parameters, raising possibility of biases (Carroll 2000, p18). It also creates opportunities for inconsistent and unreliable indicators. The possible errors in this evaluation are because of rounding offs, mistyping errors and errors in the application of calculation models. The new version will therefore have to fix the errors through application of many channels of data analysis and avoid depending on a single model. 8. Rationale of Redesign There is need to develop a prototype of the new version of the website. This is because the prototype will be able to identify errors in advance before the actual redesign begins. The prototype will be evidence that the redesign is actually possible. As seen in the new redesign web page, there are additional graphical user elements such as the search area. The first version does not have the essential search area, making it difficult for the user to have a dialog or interactive discussion with the website. In the graphical user interface in the proposed new version, the user easily understands the commands before using them. 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Annexure - I Usability Test Form Scale 1 = I don’t agree that this is a usability problem at all 2 = Cosmetic problem only: need not be fixed unless extra time is available on project 3 = Minor usability problem: fixing this should be given low priority 4 = Major usability problem: important to fix, so should be given high priority 5 = Usability catastrophe: imperative to fix this before product can be released Visibility of the Website Whether the website informs the users where they are (web directory path)? 1 2 3 4 5 Consistency and Standards Whether the web links, fonts, colours and size are consistent throughout the webpage / website? 1 2 3 4 5 Recognition Rather than Recall Whether the text, pictures and tags are easily understandable by the users? 1 2 3 4 5 User Control and Freedom Whether the structure of the website provides the users to access the website completely? 1 2 3 4 5 Help and documentation Whether the website provides the user helping material for using the website? 1 2 3 4 5 Flexibility and efficiency of use Whether the user has to put efforts for achieving their objectives from the website? 1 2 3 4 5 Read More