Chapter 6 Website Evaluation & Usability Testing

Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e © 2002 Prentice Hall 2 OBJECTIVES Anatomy of a Site What Makes a Website Usable? Role of Web Administrator Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: Objectives

Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e © 2002 Prentice Hall 3 ANATOMY OF A SITE Use of Colors Site Evaluation Criteria Web Personalization Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: Anatomy of A Site

Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e © 2002 Prentice Hall 4 USE OF COLORS Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: Anatomy of A Site ColorPsychological Effects RedPower, energy, passion, danger BlueTrust, conservative, security YellowOptimism, hope WhitePurity, precision, innocence BlackSophistication, mystery, elegance

Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e © 2002 Prentice Hall 5 SITE EVALUATION CRITERIA Color Type & Shapes of Icons Page Content Service Offered Primary Focus Ancillaries Site Classification Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: Anatomy of A Site

Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e © 2002 Prentice Hall 6 SITE EVALUATION CRITERIA (Cont’d) Professionalism Speed Consistency Personalization Security Scalability Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: Anatomy of A Site

Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e © 2002 Prentice Hall 7 WEB PERSONALIZATION Cookies Collaborative-filtering Software Check Boxes User-based Personalization Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: Anatomy of A Site

Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e © 2002 Prentice Hall 8 WHAT’S THE BIG FUSS OVER SOME COOKIES? Deleting & Rejecting Cookies Privacy Concerns Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: Anatomy of A Site

Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e © 2002 Prentice Hall 9 WHAT MAKES A WEBSITE USABLE? Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: What Makes a Website Usable? SourcesWhat Users Are Seeking Forrester ResearchHigh-quality Content Ease of Use Quick to Download Frequent Site Update Spool’s StudyInformation Kahle’s StudySpecific Information

Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e © 2002 Prentice Hall 10 USABILITY TESTING GUIDELINES Decide on a writing style & stick to it Give visitors what they are looking for Show class Keep the big picture in mind for usability Make the site easy to navigate Focus on content before graphics Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: What Makes a Website Usable?

Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e © 2002 Prentice Hall 11 USABILITY TESTING GUIDELINES (Cont’d) Make your text scannable Be careful about flashy marketing language Encourage visitor feedback Test, test & test! Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: What Makes a Website Usable? Remember: Conciseness, Scanability & Objectivity

Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e © 2002 Prentice Hall 12 RELIABILITY TESTING Provide system backup Install a disk-mirroring feature Ensure that the system hardware is ‘fault- tolerant’ Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: What Makes a Website Usable?

Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e © 2002 Prentice Hall 13 MANAGING IMAGES & COLOR Readability Testing GIFs vs. JPEGs Use of Cache Use of Links Role of the Web Server Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: What Makes a Website Usable?

Awad –Electronic Commerce 1/e © 2002 Prentice Hall 14 ROLE OF WEB ADMINISTRATOR Database Server Application Server Web Server Special-purpose Servers for Security Internet Bandwidth Internet Performance Status Website Evaluation & Traffic Management: Role of Web Administrator

Chapter 6 Website Evaluation & Usability Testing