Developing a Usability Testing System Using Web Standards

Objective: The aim of this study is to design and develop a UI evaluation system for smart phones using web standards. Background: The variety of past usability evaluations are based on WIMP user interfaces. However, the emergence of smart phones brought forth numerous types of operating systems and mobile browsers to the users. To evaluate interfaces on this wide array of devices, a new approach is needed in designing and developing UI evaluation systems. Method: Using web standards consisting of HTML 5, CSS 3 and ECMA Script (JavaScript), a 2-tier architecture consisting of a web/e-mail server and the application was designed to ensure interoperability between devices. To minimize data transaction and acquire safety in terms of data integrity, the application requires a single download of all required resources. The application runs on the client-side only, writes the output data into an e-mail and uses the phone’s e-mail application to send the data to the server – again requiring only one upload transaction. Case Study: A smart phone user interface evaluation experiment was developed. A single URL was given to subjects to access, download and execute the web application. Experiment data were successfully collected via e-mail. Conclusion: Web standards have proved to be capable of implementing usability evaluation systems tailored for smart phones, providing to a certain limit the qualities required for valid academic experiments in the field of Us bility Engineering. Application: The design and development of the proposed system will help Usability experts perform UI evaluations with flexibility and help subject recruiting by improved interoperability and availability.