Empirical validation of a usability inspection method for model-driven Web development

Web applica t ions should be usable in order t o be accepted by users and to improve th e ir success probability. Despite the fact tha t th is requirem ent has promoted th e em ergence of severa l usability eva lua t ion methods, there is a need for empir ica lly valida ted methods that provide evidence about their effect iveness and tha t can be proper ly in tegra ted in to ea r ly stages of Web development processes . Model-dr iven Web development processes have grown in popula r ity over the la st few years, and offer a su itable context in which to perform ear ly usability eva lua tions due to their in t r insic t raceability mechanisms . These issues have mot iva ted us to propose a Web Usability Eva lua tion Process (WUEP) which can be integra t ed in to model-dr iven Web development processes. This paper presen ts a family of exper iments tha t we have ca rr ied ou t to empir ica lly va lida te WUEP. The family of exper iments was ca rr ied ou t by 64 par t icipan ts, including PhD and Master ‟s computer science students. The object ive of the exper iment s was to eva lua te the par t icipan ts‟ effect iveness, efficiency, perceived ease of use and perceived sa t isfact ion when using WUEP in com par ison to an indust r ia l widely-used inspect ion method: Heur ist ic Eva lua t ion (HE). The sta t ist ica l analysis and meta -ana lysis of the da ta obta ined separa tely from each exper iment indica ted tha t WUEP is more effect ive and efficien t than HE in the detect ion of usability problems. The eva lua tors were a lso more sa t isfied when applying WUEP , and found it easier to use than HE. Alth ough fur ther exper iments must be ca rr ied ou t to st rength en these resu lt s, WUEP has proved to be a promising usability inspect ion method for Web applica t ions which have been developed by using model-dr iven developm ent processes. Ke yw ords: Usability inspect ion , Web applica t ions, Model-dr iven development , Family of exper iments 1 Corresponding author: Tel: +34 96 387 73 50 (Ext: 83525); Fax: +34 96 387 73 59 Email addresses: [email protected] (Adrian Fernandez), [email protected] (Silvia Abrahão), [email protected] (Emilio Insfran). *Manuscript Click here to view linked References