Measuring the Usability of Web Sites

User-based satisfaction questionnaires have so far been little used in the evaluation of web sites. A 60-item questionnaire was developed following a factor model used with success for conventional software evaluation. This questionnaire was shown to have high reliabilities and a large database of expected values was gathered for it. It was employed in a study evaluating chamber of commerce web sites in two European cities, together with metrics which measured aspects of user performance and heuristic analysis. It was shown that the questionnaire results agreed with and amplified the other data. The results indicate that questionnaire data can be both reliable and valid for the assessment of user satisfaction with web sites. Some future directions for research are discussed.