The importance of evaluating the usability of e-commerce websites is well recognised and this area has attracted research attention for more than a decade. Nearly all the studies that evaluated the usability of e-commerce websites employed either user-based (i.e. user testing) or evaluator-based (i.e. heuristic evaluation) usability evaluation methods; but no research has employed softwarebased (i.e. Google Analytics software) in the evaluation of such sites. Furthermore, the studies which employed user testing and/or heuristic evaluation methods in the evaluation of the usability of e-commerce websites did not offer detail about the benefits and drawbacks of these methods with respect to the identification of specific types of usability problems. This research developed a methodological framework for the usability evaluation of e-commerce websites which involved user testing and heuristic evaluation methods together with Google Analytics software. The framework was developed by comparing the benefits and drawbacks of these methods in terms of the specific areas of usability problems that they could or could not identify on ecommerce websites. The framework involves Google Analytics software as a preliminary step to provide a quick, easy and cheap indication of general potential usability problem areas on an e-commerce website and its specific pages. Then, the framework enables evaluators to choose other methods to provide in-depth detail about specific iv problems on the site. For instance, the framework suggests that user testing is good for identifying specific major usability problems related to four areas: navigation, design, the purchasing process and accessibility and customer service, while the heuristic evaluation is good for identifying a large number of specific minor usability problems related to eight areas including: navigation, internal search, the site architecture, the content, the design, accessibility and customer service, inconsistency and missing capabilities. The framework also suggests that the heuristic evaluation is good at identifying major security and privacy problems. The framework was developed based on an extensive evaluation of the effectiveness of the three methods in identifying specific usability problems in three case studies (e-commerce websites) in Jordan. This highlighted the usefulness of the methods and therefore helps e-commerce retailers to determine the usability method that best matches their needs. The framework was tested and the results indicated the usefulness of the suggested framework in raising awareness of usability and usability evaluation methods among e-commerce retailers in Jordan. This will help them address usability in the design of their websites, thus helping them to survive, grow and achieve success.

A VR car-driving simulator for evaluating the user experience of new drivers by helping them to learn driving rules and regulations. The Classic VR Driver helps new drivers to learn driving rules and regulations using various audio and visual feedback. The simulator helps them to get acquainted with the risks and mistakes associated with real life driving. In addition, the users have to play the game in an immersive environment using a Virtual Reality system. This project attempts to fulfill two important goals. The major goal is to evaluate whether the user can learn driving rules and regulations of the road. The game allows the users to take a road test. The road test determines the type of mistakes the user makes and it also determines if they passed or failed in it. I have conducted A/B testing and let the testers participate in user-interviews and user-survey. The testing procedure allowed me to analyze the effectiveness of learning driving rules from the simulator as compared to learning rules from the RMV (Registry of Motor Vehicles) manual. Secondly, the user experience was evaluated by allowing users to participate in user-interviews and user-surveys. It helped me to understand the positives and drawbacks of the game. These feedback are taken into consideration for future improvement. All these factors were considered to make the game as enjoyable and useful in terms of skill training.

Virtual reality is a concept that has existed for some time but the recent advances in the performance of commercial computers has led the development of different commercial head mounted displays, for example the Oculus Rift. With this growing interest in virtual reality, it is important to evaluate existing techniques used when designing user interfaces. In addition, it is also important to develop new techniques to be able to give the user the best experience when using virtual reality applications. This thesis investigates the design of a user interface for a virtual reality using Oculus Rift combined with the Razer Hydra and Leap Motion as input devices. A set of different graphical user interface components were developed and, together with the different input devices, evaluated with a user test to try to determine their advantages. During the implementation of the project the importance of giving the user feedback was shown. Adding both visual and aural feedback when interacting with the GUI increases the usability of the system. According to the conducted user test, people preferred using the Leap Motion even if it was not the easiest input device to use. It also showed that the current implementation of input devices was not precise enough to be able to draw conclusions about the different user interface components.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Psychology / John J. Uhlarik / Usability practitioners need effective usability assessment techniques in order to facilitate development of usable consumer products. Many usability evaluation methods have been promoted as the ideal. Few, however, fulfill expectations concerning effectiveness. Additionally, lack of empirical data forces usability practitioners to rely on personal judgments and/or anecdotal statements when deciding upon which usability method best suits their needs. Therefore the present study had two principal objectives: (1) to validate a hybrid usability technique that identifies important and ignores inconsequential usability problems, and (2) to provide empirical performance data for several usability protocols on a variety of contemporary comparative metrics. The User-Centered Hybrid Assessment Tool (User-CHAT) was developed to maximize efficient diagnosis of usability issues from a behaviorally-based perspective while minimizing time and resource limitations typically associated with usability assessment environments. Several characteristics of user-testing, the heuristic evaluation, and the cognitive walkthrough were combined to create the User-CHAT. Prior research has demonstrated that the User-CHAT supports an evaluation within 3-4 hrs, can be used by individuals with limited human factors / usability background, and requires little training to be used competently, even for complex systems. A state-of-the-art suite of avionics displays and a series of benchmark tasks provided the context where the User-CHAT’s performance was measured relative to its parent usability methods. Two techniques generated comparison lists of usability problems – user-testing data and various inclusion criteria for usability problems identified by the User-CHAT, heuristic evaluation, and cognitive walkthrough. Overall the results demonstrated that the User-CHAT attained higher effectiveness scores than the heuristic evaluation and cognitive walkthrough, suggesting that it helped evaluators identify many usability problems that actually impact users, i.e., higher thoroughness, while attenuating time and effort on issues that were not important, i.e., higher validity. Furthermore, the User-CHAT had the greatest proportion of usability problems that were rated as serious, i.e., usability issues that hinder performance and compromise safety. The User-CHAT’s performance suggests that it is an appropriate usability technique to implement into the product development lifecycle. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.

This Master's Thesis addresses the topic of usability testing of web-based systems. It reviews existing testing methodologies and recommends a collection of test tools and approaches suitable for usability testing. This thesis introduces a new methodology called Tabie for scoring web system under test. The methodology combines both the ease of use of the user interface (syntactic testing) as as well as its content (semantical testing). This approach is well suited for workflows in marketing agencies where content tweaks and its evaluation is done on an ongoing basis in order to attract more viewers and potential customers. The Tabie methodology provides a quantitative and repeatable process, automating the tweak-evaluate iteration.

The aim of the thesis is to analyse the influence of websites usability on the conversion rate and assessment of the effects of the changes in the usability of the specific e-commerce. Well-designed website is a very hot topic as more and more even smaller companies are using the Internet environment to trade their goods or to present their company. This thesis explains the concept of usability of a website and analyses the usability of a specific website. The thesis also explains the influence of usability on visitors behaviour. It gives readers an insight into some methods and analysis of websites that can be both of quantitative and qualitative nature. The main practical focus of the thesis is traffic and usability analysis of particular small company website. Usability analysis is performed by the amateur usability testing, and there are changes implemented to the web. Traffic analysis data are obtained from the analysis tools of websites, such as Google Analytics, Piwik and Mouseflow. Information about the conversion rate and the effect of changes in usability is also obtained from these data.

This thesis describes process of designing mobile user interface with regard to the context of use. In this context the discipline of prototyping and its utilization for designing is further examined. Next focus is on the principles of user testing of usability in mobile applications. Building on theoretical knowledge the solution for usability testing of prototypes in real environment is proposed. It aims to more effective process of designing mobile applications. The solution is presented on real case with evaluation of its success.

In the last few years there has been a great development of e-shops and their usage. More and more customers are searching for the opportunity to buy products and services through the internet shops. This is related to the fact that more and more emphasis is placed on their applicability. This thesis deals with the quality of the site and the needs of the application and descibes the use of interactive elements. All the mentioned options are applied in this thesis and compared to the specific e-shop. As a part of the user usability testing there is also a suggestion for corrective actions of discovered deficiencies.

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Digital marketing is becoming more influential for businesses and along with it so does digital marketing tools. To make digital marketing tools useful for new users and businesses, they should be easy to use and allow for a good user experience. By analysing the digital marketing tool ‘Digital Plattform’ by Digital Marknadsplan, this study examines how to make design suggestions to improve user experience by using theories in interaction design and insights from user tests that highlights common issues. It turns out there are common issues that has been highlighted trough a heuristic analysis and a thematic analysis. Some issues include a lack of feedback and information along with general inconsistencies. By providing design suggestions to these issues, they could be targeted directly and therefore improving the user experience for new potential users. The results of this study could also be argued to be applicable to other digital marketing tools in improving their user experience for new users.