A Web Usability Assessment Model and Automated Toolset

Abstract

Many organizations are taking advantage of World Wide Web market opportunities through the development of electronic commerce (E-Commerce) web sites. The implementation of an E-Commerce web site, however, doesn’t guarantee marketing and financial success. In fact, it could adversely impact the organization when the site is viewed as consumer “unfriendly” or “unusable.” An E-Commerce site will be most successful when consumer usability attributes (e.g., performance, design layout, navigation) drive its development. This chapter describes a web usability assessment tool that is being developed to provide usability feedback on a particular web site. The tool incorporates a set of usability attributes with user profile data and organizational goals for ongoing assessment of the effectiveness of a web site.