Requirements for a Tool to Support Evaluation of Web Site Qualitybased on the 2QCV3Q Model.
Luisa Mich, Mariangela Franch · ICWI · 2002
ABSTRACT In this paper we describe the set of requirements for a tool to support the evaluation of the quality of Web sites. At a theoretical level, the tool provides a model to identify the characteristics that determine the overall quality of a Web site; such model is called 2QCV3Q, developed by ou r research group and first applied in 1997. The experience gained in these five years —through direct application of the model in diverse contexts with different objectives —has made it possible to identify the most critical elements in the process of evalua ting the quality criteria for a Web site. Moreover, to more easily identify the requirements for the tool, we have developed an explorative prototype. This paper is part of a process of getting feedback on the set of requirements and validating it. KEYWORDS Quality of Web sites, 2QCV3Q framework, Quality evaluation support tool, Requirements 1. INTRODUCTION The widespread diffusion and strategic role of Web sites has served to highlight the importance of quality, as well as the challenges arising when attempting to measure quality. This difficulty stems essentially from three elements: • A Web site has several diverse components, thus requiring different competencies—technological and non-technological—for its design; in fact, the field of Web Engineering has emerged in response to this need (see, for example, Deshpande et al., 2000), aiming to integrate the seemingly divergent skills that go into designing a Web site. • A Web site must satisfy the needs of many actors. Sites must respond to the needs of customers/users; consideration must also be given to the owners of the site, as well as to the professionals and technicians involved in designing and maintaining the Web site. • A systematic approach to evaluating Web site quality that aims to take into account these two points (the diverse components coming together at a Web site and the importance of satisfying the needs of all actors) implies a process that is intrinsically qualitative and subjective. Emerging from these considerations are some requirements that our research group determined to be fundamental for a model to evaluate quality. First and foremost, the model must take into account the communicative and interactive nature of a Web site; in addition it should be domain independent, robust, user friendly an d general purpose. There are several models in the literature that can be classified in three principal categories (an extensive bibliography is available at: http://www.cs.unitn.it/WebSiteQuality): 1) models adapted from those introduced for software (for example, ISO or IEEE models); 2) models that focus on usability and which are