Sep 5 - Cooper, USABILITY EVALUATION OF AN ONLINE COTTON MEDIA RESOURCE GUIDE

USABILITY EVALUATION OF AN ONLINE COTTON MEDIA RESOURCE GUIDE
KIMBERLY MACHELLE COOPER, B.S.
A THESIS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE.

December, 2006

ABSTRACT
This study used a survey research design to evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, credibility, and therefore, the overall usability of the CottonLink media resource Web site as determined by members of the Texas Plains region associated press medium. The response rate reached 54.2% with a total of 39 completed online surveys. The researcher-designed instrument achieved acceptable reliability scores for each portion of usability: effectiveness, .95; efficiency, .98; satisfaction, .92; credibility, .92; and overall usability, .97.
Respondents found the Web site to be effective, efficient, satisfying, credible, and usable. Researchers also looked at Internet use, perceptions of agriculture, newsgathering techniques, and demographics to determine if there were significant relationships with usability. Consistent with Internet use trends, younger audiences found the site more effective, efficient, and usable. Significant relationships were also found with five statements related to agriculture.
Findings were relevant for both researchers and practitioners. Future research should: (a) evaluate terminology related to usability, (b) test actual agriculture knowledge and experience, (c) analyze usability qualitatively, and (d) replicate this study with a larger population. Recommended practices for practitioners include: (a) continually developing usable educational resources for media members, (b) extending the media resource guides for additional commodities and states, (c) holding training workshops for both media and industry representatives.

Purpose and Objectives

The purpose of this study was to determine the usability of the CottonLink Web site for members of the Texas print media. The following objectives were developed to carry out the purpose of this study:
1. Determine the effectiveness of the CottonLink Web site for members of the Texas print media in the Plains region.
2. Determine the efficiency of the CottonLink Web site for members of the Texas print media in the Plains region.
3. Describe the Plains region members’ of the Texas print media satisfaction with the CottonLink Web site.
4. Describe the credibility of the CottonLink Web site perceived by members of the Texas print media in the Plains region.
5. Determine the relationship between demographic variables and the overall usability rating of the CottonLink Web site.

Definition of Terms

Effectiveness – The user effort required to achieve the user and domain goal (Cato, 2001).
Efficiency – The accuracy and completeness the user achieves with respect to the goals (Cato, 2001).
Heuristic Evaluation – An evaluation based on a collection of guidelines, principles or rules of thumb (Cato, 2001).
Interface – To act together or affect each other or to make things or people interact.
Satisfaction – the measure of user satisfaction on a number of attributes (Cato, 2001).
Usability – "the degree to which something, i.e. software, hardware, or anything else, is easy to use and a good fit for the people who use it; a quality or characteristic of a product; it is whether a product is efficient, effective, and satisfying for those who use it" (Usability Professionals’ Association, 2005). Measures of efficiency, effectiveness, satisfaction and usefulness (Cato, 2001).
Usefulness – The measure of the value the user places on the product (Cato, 2001).

LITERATURE REVIEW

Credibility

Credibility remains a concern for all communication channels. The more likely the channel is viewed as credible, the more likely it will be used as a news gathering source. Kiousis (2001) found that newspapers have higher credibility ratings than other media forms, followed by online news and then television news. Medium credibility focuses on the channel that delivers the content rather than the source of the content; however, there is a direct correlation with source credibility (Kiousis, 2001). Therefore, credibility goes back to the information source and the media’s news gathering techniques.
Five dimensions of source credibility have been established through a series of factor analyses: safety, qualifications, dynamism, competency, and objectivity (Kiousis, 2001; Berlo, Lemert, & Mertz, 1970; Whitehead, 1968).
Wright (2001) found government and educational sites have established a reputation of being highly credible. Commercial and organizational sites have received more scrutiny and are generally viewed as biased; however, these sites are frequently used to gather opinion information.
Current technological trends lead toward the use of the Internet and online news gathering techniques to provide the media with the most informative, accessible, and customizable information (Callison, 2003; Hein, 2005). The literature review also found Internet credibility is growing as both a source and a medium.

The results of this study will determine if the CottonLink Web site is useful to Texas print media as a news gathering source for credible cotton information.

Usability

While it is no mystery good usability is critical to the success of any Web site, determining what usability is and how to evaluate it in Web sites has been.

Nielsen (1993) defines usability as a combination of the following attributes: satisfaction, errors, memorability, efficiency, and learnability.

Then in 1999, Lee paraphrased the International Standards Organization (ISO) definition by stating, "Web usability is the efficient, effective and satisfying completion of a specified task by any given web user" (p. 38).

For the Web owner to be successful and users to be satisfied, Web sites need to consider usability and other design criteria such as user-centered navigability (Palmer, 2002; Nielsen, 2000).

Nielson (2000) has extended basic usability principles into the Web environment to include navigation, response time, credibility, and content.

"Usability includes consistency and the ease of getting the Web site to do what the user intends it to do, clarity of interaction, ease of reading, arrangement of information, speed, and layout," (Palmer, 2002, p. 153).

Palmer’s (2002) research applied media richness, design, and usability principles to identify key site characteristics, performance, and usability metrics used to discover elements of successful Web site design. His results suggested focusing on download delay, organization, and navigation, which heavily reflected earlier work in usability (Palmer, 2002; Nielsen, 2000). Other factors identified relevant to successful sites included: (1) sequencing, layout, and arrangement affects navigability; (2) content includes the amount and variety of information; (3) customization and interactivity for the site user; (4) provide opportunity for feedback (Palmer, 2002).

McMahon (2005) claimed "good usability can both save money and make money for a business" (p. 23) by affecting the customer’s intention to buy, boosting sales conversion, and increasing customer loyalty. ...Good usability would affect the customer’s intention to buy into what is being said; visitors would turn into customers who leave the site with their needs met; and a loyal return user would be established.

Errors, satisfaction, memorability, efficiency, and learnability were depicted as contributing factors to general usability in Nielsen’s 1993 model.

In reference to Web sites, errors are most typically associated with links: bad links, broken links, misleading links, disguised links, or disconnected links. However, errors with inconsistency and insecurity also create a loss of trust.

Web site memorability deals directly with the user’s previous experiences with the individual site. It should be easy to remember so that the casual user does not have to relearn the site upon reentrance after a period of time. The site should be "self-evident, obvious, and self-explanatory" (Krug, 2000, p. 11).
Consistency is the key to successful web design and usability. Consistent design and navigation assist the user in learning the site efficiently by making it easy for the user to remember.

Learnability in Web sites is quite different than other forms of communication. Krug (2000) asserts his first law of usability is not to make the user think; therefore, learnability should be kept to a minimum. Unless the intended goal of the site is learning the content, the user does not need to learn and retain the information (Zibell, 2000).

Testing

Nielsen (1993) proposed applying established usability rules or guidelines as a method of evaluation, called a heuristic evaluation. A heuristic evaluation is researcher conducted and based on features of the Web site such as navigation, page layout, interactivity, accessibility, and use of information.

In the evaluation of 191 Web sites related to the agricultural sector, Parlinska and Parlinski (2003) classified criteria into three categories: user-friendliness, technical, and relation management.

Options that make surfing on the Web site easier for the user such as the domain name, the three click rule, navigation options, and length of the pages were classified as user-friendly characteristics.

Errors, broken links, logical design, and updating information fell into the technical issues category.

The final category, relation management, dealt with criteria important for maintaining good relations with existing or potential customers, including company details, contact information, and downloading and printing options.

The study found user-friendliness characteristics were the most important of the three categories.

The review of literature on Web site usability identified four components of usability- effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, and credibility- to consider when evaluating sites. Research also recommended two methods of evaluation: performance task and attitude scales.

My Comments: Conclusion was drawn based on the 5 Objectives. Conclusion was deliberated about the Effectiveness, Efficiency, Satisfaction and Credibility of the web site studied. The researcher had defined the 4 parameters of Usability as Effectiveness, Efficiency, Satisfaction and Credibility.

My Action: To read this Theses in detail as this could be a useful benchmark for one of my Research Questions/Objectives.

References that I may want to read further in future:

Axtell, S. (2006). Usability analysis of the USDA-ARS Ogallala Initiative Web site. Unpublished master’s thesis, Texas Tech University, Lubbock.
Donahue, G.M., Weinschenk, S., & Nowicki, J. (1999). Usability is good business. Retrieved September 25, 2006 from http://www.compuware.com/ .
Krug, S. (2000). Don’t make me think. Indianapolis, Indiana: New Riders Publishing.
Lee, A.T. (1999). Web usability: A review of the research. SIGCHI Bulletin.
McMahon, K. (2005). An exploration of the importance of Web site usability from a business perspective. Robert Gordon University.
Nielsen, J., Coyne, K.P., & Tahir, M. (2001). Make it usable. Retrieved February 24, 2006, from http://www.psmag.com/print-article2/0,1217,a+2556,00.asp .
Nielsen, J. (2000). Designing Web usability. Indianapolis, Indiana: New Riders Publishing.
Olsson, C. (n.d.). To measure or not to measure: Why Web usability is different from traditional usability. Department of Informatics, UMEA University, Sweden.
Palmer, J.W. (2002). Web site usability, design, and performance metrics. Information Systems Research 3(2), pp. 151-167.
Parlinski, M. & Parlinski, I.S. (2003). The Internet in the agricultural sector tips and tricks to design a Web page for companies in the agri-food sector. Paper presented at the EFITA 2004 Conference, pp. 851-859, Debrecen, Hungary.