Quick and Easy Web Usability : How Web Designers see Usability and what kind of Tools they use to Improve it
Nissinen, Joonas (2014)
Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu
2014
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201405158059
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201405158059
Tiivistelmä
The purpose of the thesis was to find out what web designers think about usability and what kind of tools they use to improve it in their everyday work. For the background, the terms of web design and usability were clarified and set. Web design was written open by using W3C's and WaSP's material as a background. Usability was approached in wider manner. The theoretical background of the thesis relies mainly on theories of Nielsen, Lazar and Garrett. Combining these authors, term usability was divided in smaller entities of user needs, task orientation, web usability (site usability, page usability, interactions, content usability, loading times, accessibility and responsivity) and user testing. The theories were complemented and supported researching multiple well acknowledged sources and authors.
After the theory was constructed, eight different web designers were interviewed for the thesis. The main research questions were 1) what are the general thoughts about usability, 2) what usability related challenges web designers face in their work, 3) what tools they use to improve usability, 4) do they perform testing, and 5) how do they ensure universal usability and accessibility. The interviews used method of open ended questions and they were mainly performed unsynchronized by email.
The interviews were transcribed, coded and categorized many times by using research questions and interview questions as themes. They were analyzed by using theming and qualification methods. The results suggest that web designers consider usability aspects and have set of tools that they use in their everyday work. The answers differ depending on what kind of tasks web designers have in the team. In general the themes of the findings resemble the theoretical frames used in this study. Similar words and terms such as intuitive, understanding the user needs were mentioned often. Web designers related related usability with navigation, interactions and content. The tools they used were interviewing users, sketching and prototyping. Light human evaluation was considered common way to test a site. Accessibility tools and techniques were used less. However, most of the interviewees brought up terms and keywords that indicate that they understand what the topic ment.
After the theory was constructed, eight different web designers were interviewed for the thesis. The main research questions were 1) what are the general thoughts about usability, 2) what usability related challenges web designers face in their work, 3) what tools they use to improve usability, 4) do they perform testing, and 5) how do they ensure universal usability and accessibility. The interviews used method of open ended questions and they were mainly performed unsynchronized by email.
The interviews were transcribed, coded and categorized many times by using research questions and interview questions as themes. They were analyzed by using theming and qualification methods. The results suggest that web designers consider usability aspects and have set of tools that they use in their everyday work. The answers differ depending on what kind of tasks web designers have in the team. In general the themes of the findings resemble the theoretical frames used in this study. Similar words and terms such as intuitive, understanding the user needs were mentioned often. Web designers related related usability with navigation, interactions and content. The tools they used were interviewing users, sketching and prototyping. Light human evaluation was considered common way to test a site. Accessibility tools and techniques were used less. However, most of the interviewees brought up terms and keywords that indicate that they understand what the topic ment.