In this study two common methods for usability evaluation was compared through a testing of the methods on Umeå University’s digital library search service. First, three expert evaluators gathered usability problems in the interface using the well known and widely used Nielsens 10 usability heuristics. Then a second evaluation was done with a user testing method called think aloud. In this, three student users performed representative tasks in the search service while verbalizing their thoughts and feelings about using the interface. This process was observed through an online communication tool with which sound and screen activity was recorded. Through an analysis of the recorded data another set of usabilty problems was gathered. Both sets of problems were then compiled and rated on a severity scale of 0-4 by the expert evaluators. This was followed by a comparative analysis of the results. The purpose of the study was to compare the results of two popular usablity evaluation methods to get a clearer picture of what kinds of result they produce. This was interesting partly because it is not clear to what degree the cheaper and less time consuming heuristic evaluation can be used to find the same kind of problems as is done with think aloud, a method considered better for finding ”real problems” (that real users struggle with). The study showed that expert evaluators found more problems than what was found through user testing but also that many of these were of low severity. The study also showed that there was an overlap in what kinds of specific problems that the two methods found but that heuristic evaluation only found 30% of the problems found by think aloud. When looking at what heuristic criteria the methods ”violated” the heuristic evaluators found problems concerning a wider range of aspects compared to think aloud. These findings suggest that while there are some overlap in the results, they differ in a way and to an extent that suggests that if possible both methods should be used to complement each other when evaluating usability.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-192752 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Sundquist, Anton |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Sociologiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
Page generated in 0.002 seconds