Chapter 9 Website Evaluation and Usability Testing

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Chapter 9Website Evaluation and Usability
Testing
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OBJECTIVES

• Anatomy of A Site
• What Makes A Website Usable?
• Role of Web Administrator

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ANATOMY OF A SITE

• Use of Colors
• Site Evaluation Criteria
• Web Personalization

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USE OF COLORS
Color Psychological Effects
Red Power, energy, passion, danger
Blue Trust, conservation, security
Yellow Optimism, hope
White Purity, precision, innocence
Black Sophistication, mystery, elegance
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SITE EVALUATION CRITERIA

• Color
• Type and Shapes of Icons
• Page Content
• Service Offered
• Primary Focus
• Ancillaries
• Site Classification

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SITE EVALUATION CRITERIA (Contd)

• Professionalism
• Speed
• Consistency
• Personalization
• Security
• Scalability

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WEB PERSONALIZATION

• Cookies
• Collaborative-filtering Software
• Check Boxes
• User-based Personalization

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WHATS THE BIG FUSS OVER SOME COOKIES?

• Deleting and Rejecting Cookies
• Privacy Concerns

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WHAT MAKES A WEB SITE USABLE?
Sources What Users Are Seeking
Forrester Research High-quality Content Ease of Use Quick to Download Frequent Site Update
Spools Study Information
Kahles Study Specific Information
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USABILITY TESTING GUIDELINES

• Decide on a writing style and 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

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USABILITY TESTING GUIDELINES (Contd)

• Make your text scanable
• Be careful about flashy marketing language
• Encourage visitor feedback
• Test, test and test!

Remember Conciseness, Scanability Objectivity
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RELIABILITY TESTING

• Provide system backup
• Install a disk-mirroring feature
• Ensure that the system hardware is
  fault-tolerant

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MANAGING IMAGES COLOR

• Readability Testing
• GIFs vs. JPEGs
• Use of Cache
• Use of Links
• Role of the Web Server

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ROLE OF WEB ADMINISTRATOR

• Database Server
• Application Server
• Web Server
• Special-purpose Servers for Security
• Internet Bandwidth
• Internet Performance Status

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Chapter 9Website Evaluation and Usability
Testing