Automating the Evaluation of Web Site User Experience: Collecting Both Qualitative and Quantitative
Welcome to the first Part in the "Automation the Evaluation of Web Site User Experience: Collection both Qualitative and Quantitative User Experience Data" article series. In this series, we are going to talk about best practices, methodology & modeling and more importantly, about both balancing quantity and quality of usability data.
Web site user experience is a key component to any e-business performance management strategy. The challenge is applying an empirical approach that assesses the user experience as part of the effectiveness of any Web site, including e-business sites.
Understanding user response cannot be understood merely by measuring response time and speeds and feeds, but requires the collection and analysis of data that truly represents user experience. In addition, you need a standardized, repeatable methodology to track user interaction with the Web site to determine where users go, what they look for, what they respond to, and generally what works and what doesn't.
This document will profile a new methodology that balances quantity of data with quality of data and provides a means to gather empirical usability and user experience data. Using this methodology will assist you in refining your Web site and increasing overall performance from a customer's perspective
Balancing Quantity and Quality of Usability Data
When assessing Web user experience, two major questions arise: what group of users will be studied, and what kind of data will be collected? The answers to these questions are nterdependent, as well as dependent on the resources available to the researcher. This interdependence usually results in a trade-off between the quantity of data collected and the quality of that data.
New technologies are emerging to assist researchers with data gathering and to help them balance data quantity versus data quality. Before considering some of those technologies and discussing methodologies, you have to make some initial decisions and set the ground rules to gather useful usability data.
The first step is to consider the required data properties, which will shape the criteria for the sample group. Generally, the users selected for a Web usability study should meet several criteria:
Conclusion: In the first we introduced the Evaluation of Web Site User Experience. In the next post, I will explain the above mentioned points in detail. Stay tuned!
Web site user experience is a key component to any e-business performance management strategy. The challenge is applying an empirical approach that assesses the user experience as part of the effectiveness of any Web site, including e-business sites.
Understanding user response cannot be understood merely by measuring response time and speeds and feeds, but requires the collection and analysis of data that truly represents user experience. In addition, you need a standardized, repeatable methodology to track user interaction with the Web site to determine where users go, what they look for, what they respond to, and generally what works and what doesn't.
This document will profile a new methodology that balances quantity of data with quality of data and provides a means to gather empirical usability and user experience data. Using this methodology will assist you in refining your Web site and increasing overall performance from a customer's perspective
Balancing Quantity and Quality of Usability Data
When assessing Web user experience, two major questions arise: what group of users will be studied, and what kind of data will be collected? The answers to these questions are nterdependent, as well as dependent on the resources available to the researcher. This interdependence usually results in a trade-off between the quantity of data collected and the quality of that data.
New technologies are emerging to assist researchers with data gathering and to help them balance data quantity versus data quality. Before considering some of those technologies and discussing methodologies, you have to make some initial decisions and set the ground rules to gather useful usability data.
The first step is to consider the required data properties, which will shape the criteria for the sample group. Generally, the users selected for a Web usability study should meet several criteria:
- They should be representative of the population of interest
- There should be no selection bias
- There needs to be a large enough sampling to deliver meaningful conclusions
- There should be no measurement effects
- What did users think?
Conclusion: In the first we introduced the Evaluation of Web Site User Experience. In the next post, I will explain the above mentioned points in detail. Stay tuned!
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