an analysis performed on the record of user accesses to the application pages, collected in a Web server log. After Web applications are deployed, Web usage analysis can be employed to analyze how users exploit and browse the information provided by the Web site. For instance, it can help discovering those navigation patterns which correspond to high Web usage, or those which correspond to early leaving.
Published in Chapter:
The Usability Dimension in the Development of Web Applications
Maristella Matera (Politecnico di Milano, Italy), Francesca Rizzo (Politecnico di Milano, Italy), Rebeca Cortázar (University of Deusto, Spain), and Asier Perallos (University of Deusto, Spain)
Copyright: © 2008
|Pages: 16
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-847-5.ch014
Abstract
Given the emergent need for usability, during last year’s traditional development processes have been extended for enabling the fulfillment of usability requirements. Usability Evaluation Methods (UEMs) have been therefore proposed at any stage of the development process, to verify the usability of incremental design artifacts, as well as of the final product. This chapter surveys the most emergent UEMs, to be adopted during the whole lifecycle of Web information systems for promoting usability. For each evaluation method, the main features, as well as the emerging advantages and drawbacks are illustrated. Some future trends, related to the need of evaluating the usability of UEMs are also discussed.