Design Considerations for Usability Testing Complex Electronic Commerce Websites: A Perspective from the Literature
Julie Fisher · 2010
Electronic commerce (e-commerce) for transacting business has become increasingly important for small and large organizations alike. With this comes a rise in the complexity of e-commerce systems enabling everything from consumers buying goods or services online to the management of internal business transactions. The need to ensure such systems are usable is without question a priority. Those undertaking usability testing in industry and research contribute to our understanding of how to build effective, usable systems. The literature reports a wide variety of approaches to CONTENTS Introduction ......................................................................................................... 158 Usability and Complex E-Commerce Websites .............................................. 158 Website Usability Testing .......................................................................... 159 Reliability and Validity in Usability Testing Research ................................... 160 Research Approach ............................................................................................. 160 Designing a Reliable and Valid Usability Test ................................................ 162 Selecting Websites ...................................................................................... 162 Design of the Scenario and/or Task ........................................................ 164 Identifying and Recruiting Participants ................................................. 165 Number of Participants ................................................................. 165 Selecting Participants .................................................................... 166 Research Instrument .................................................................................. 171 Conducting the Usability Test and the Setting ...................................... 171 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 172 Reader Take-Aways ............................................................................................ 174 References ............................................................................................................. 175 website usability testing and raises issues on designing reliable and valid usability tests. This chapter explores usability testing of complex e-commerce websites. A review of current research involving laboratory-based testing identified the key design considerations important for ensuring reliable and valid results. The chapter provides guidelines for researchers and technical communicators for the design and conduct of usability testing, particularly in the context of complex systems.