A novel clustering approach to select optimal usability principles for educational websites

A novel clustering approach to select optimal usability principles for educational websites Prafulla Bharat Bafna Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research (SICSR), Symbiosis International University (SIU), Atur Centre, Gokhale Cross Road, Model Colony, Pune –411 016, Maharashtra, INDIA. _________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: Usability is the quality measure of a user's interaction with a product. When this product is website its termed as web usability. It is the quality attribute that assesses how easily user interfaces. User interface contributes to improve the design process. Web usability is an approach to make website easy to use for an enduser, without the requirement that any specialized training be undertaken. Website design is the key issue, because how the end user experiences the design is the key to acceptance. On the Web, usability is a necessary condition for survival. If a website is difficult to use, the users will leave the site and the usability will be zero. There are several usability principles mentioned in the literature but all these principles depend upon the application domain. It means that usability principles for commercial websites may not be applicable to educational websites. Clustering based technique is proposed which extracts major usability principles amongst several by forward feature selection and experts’ knowledge. It reduces time, efforts and resources. Outcomes of cluster quality is used as decision support for the optimum usability principles and clustering on complete data set for effective decision support.. The data set used is related to top 35 educational websites with respect to its usability count.