World Wide Web (Web) site usability – for better or worse – affects millions of users on a daily basis. As the capabilities of the Web continue to expand through HTML extensions, VRML, Java, and ActiveX, site designers are becoming overwhelmed by a proliferation of viable development techniques. Just because a technology is possible, however, does not mean it is desirable, nor that it is being incorporated in a productive manner. Many Web sites, both those connected to the Internet and those available through an institutional intranet, have become cluttered with useless and confusing, albeit cool, new features.
Although usability engineering has come to play an increasingly important role in conventional software development, it is rarely part of Web site development. Some good Web style guides have begun to appear, which can aid the site designer. The adherence to up-front usability guidelines by itself, however, does not guarantee a usable end product. A distinct evaluation process is required. This workshop shall address that process: usability testing. The goal of the workshop is to promote and facilitate such testing by creating a compendium of methods for evaluating the usability of Web sites, along with some suggested approaches for addressing institutional barriers to usability testing.
The participants' position papers will provide the group with an initial set of methods that have been successfully used by members prior to Atlanta. During the workshop we shall explore three major themes:
We intend for the group interaction during the workshop to yield novel methods and adaptations of existing methods that are tailored specifically to testing Web site usability.
Each theme shall be approached in essentially the same way: generating a large list of ideas through brainstorming; clarifying, grouping, and prioritizing this list; and then breaking into small groups to discuss, develop, and refine the significant items.
Why this workshop topic is appropriate at this time
Web sites are proliferating. By every indication this growth will only continue to explode. Given the unparalleled size of the user community and the dearth of usability evaluation that has accompanied the technology's growth, the potential for frustration, misery and lost revenue from hard to use Web sites is unprecedented. By producing a coherent compendium of successfully used and specially developed methods, this workshop can help institute good practices before bad ones become too entrenched.
Format and Organization
The workshop will last two days, and include 15 - 20 participants. Participants are being solicited through the CHI'97 advance program, existing mailing lists and Web sites, and the organizers' personal contacts.
Pre-Workshop Activities
All applicants for the workshop are required to write a position paper briefly describing their background, and summarizing the methods they have used for usability testing Web sites, their evaluation of each method, and the type of usability problems these methods tend to uncover.
Participants will be chosen from among the applicants by the organizers. We will be looking for concrete experience running usability tests on Web sites; a mix of academic, industry, and government backgrounds; and a mix of experience with different methods, ranging from inspection methods to empirical end-user based evaluations, and discount methods to sophisticated laboratory studies. The objective in selecting participants is to bring together as diverse a group as is practical, with the expectation that a variety of experiences and backgrounds will provide a fertile medium for joint exploration.
The position papers will be distributed in advance of the workshop, along with the workshop agenda and a list of questions to be answered in the course of the session.
Post-Workshop Activities
Immediately after the workshop the organizers shall prepare a poster for the CHI'97 poster session and help moderate a Special Interest Group on "HCI and the Web" to allow broader conference participation on this topic. A more detailed summary of the discussions will be prepared for the SIGCHI Bulletin. The full compendium ("How to Conduct Usability Testing for the World Wide Web") shall be developed for broad distribution, possibly in book form. Finally, it is the organizers hope that a network of participants will be formed who will continue to share their successes and failures with one another long after the conference has concluded.
