Towards Remote Empirical Evaluation of Web Pages’ Usability
Juan Miguel López1
, Inmaculada Fajardo2
and Julio Abascal1 
| (1) |
Laboratory of Human-Computer Interaction for Special Needs (LHCISN), Computer Science Faculty. University of the Basque Country,
Manuel Lardizabal 1; Donostia - San Sebastian, |
| (2) |
Cognitive Ergonomics Group, Department of Experimental Psychology. University of Granada, Cartuja Campus; Granada, |
Abstract
The functional description of EWEB, a tool for automatic empirical evaluation of web navigation, is presented in this document.
EWEB supports naïve evaluators for designing experiments which contain experiment type (within-subject, factorial, etc.),
web logs to be captured (time, visited pages, etc.), task models (search task, free navigation) and surveys (questionnaires,
card sorting) to be performed by experimental participants. EWEB stores navigational data preserving the experiment structure
and supports data analysis and interpretation, with the possibility of generating usability metrics. Requiring minimal installation
on client computer, EWEB can be used for both lab evaluation and remote evaluation in multiple browsers. One empirical web
study, designed and performed by means of EWEB, is described in order to illustrate its validity as a research tool.
Keywords web usability experiments - log capturing and analyzing - web navigation metrics
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