Panel on Special Topics of Web Usability

Special web usability issues, like senior-centered design and cultural considerations when providing information on the web, are getting more and more attention from the design and academic community. Furthermore, new applications (especially e-learning) are gaining more and more popularity and create new opportunities but also new challenges for the design community. The objectives of this panel are: (1) To briefly introduce the general topic of web usability, (2) To present a selection of special issues related to the general topic of web usability (3) To become a forum for open discussion on these topics among the WebNet community. 1. Position of Panayiotis Zaphiris (Web Usability) Usability of a product or system – whether a web site, software application, mobile technology or any user-operated device can be defined as "a measure of the ease with which a system can be learned or used, its safety, effectiveness and efficiency, and attitude of its users towards it." (Preece et al., 1994) In other words Usability is a combination of factors that affect the user's experience with the product or system, including (http://www.usability.gov) : 1. Ease of learning: How fast can a user who has never seen the user interface before learn it sufficiently well to accomplish basic tasks? Once an experienced user has learned to use the system, how fast can he or she accomplish tasks? 2. Memorability: If a user has used the system before, can he or she remember enough to use it effectively the next time or does the user have to start over again learning everything? 3. Error frequency and severity: How often do users make errors while using the system, how serious are these errors and how do users recover from these errors? 4. Subjective satisfaction: How much does the user like using the system? Through out the years a series of methodologies have been developed for achieving a usercentered design that can achieve the design of usable, effective and efficient to use products. Also a series of methods and tools have been developed to qualitatively and quantitatively measure the usability of these products and services. Furthermore, these methodologies have recently been adopted or modified and applied to web usability studies. Focus groups, heuristics, log data analysis, questionnaires, formal usability tests have all been extensively adopted and used in usability evaluations of web sites. But, although usability advocates (like Jackob Nielsen) believe that “usability rules the web” (Nielsen, 2000) studies typically find a usability success rate of less than 50%. What needs to further be done? What new techniques and methods might be necessary to enhance the current usability testing methodologies? What about the non-traditional issues surrounding the web? Are cultural issues and issues of internationalization import ant when it comes to web design? What about seniors or people with disabilities that try to access information on the web? Is the web accessible to these groups of people? Are our e-learning methodologies and applications usable? What do we need to have in mind when we decide to move our course or training online? 2. Position by Jantawan Noiwan (The Impact of Culture in Designing Web-Based