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Chapter

16

:

Evaluation: Inspections, Analytics, and Models

Web Resources

The websites in this section provide additional information about some of the analytical methods discussed in chapter 16, and examples of their application; particularly in the design of mobile technologies such as cell phones. usableweb.com


Heuristic evaluation

This site contains links to sites that deal specifically with heuristic evaluation for the web. For example, usableweb.com/topics/000606-0-0.html offers useful guidance on how to apply Nielsen's heuristics to website evaluation. www.useit.com/papers/heuristic is the website for the Nielsen/Norman Group. Not surprisingly the site has a large section on heuristic evaluation, including Jakob Nielsen's own papers and those of his colleagues, 'how to' information and a list of references to studies that compare the efficacy of heuristic evaluation with other evaluation methods; particularly user testing and walkthroughs. Other potentially useful sites include: https://www.google.com/search?q=heuristic+evaluation&oq=Heuristic+evaluation&aqs=chrome.0.0i433i512j0i512l6j69i60.6383j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 and https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/heuristic-evaluation.html. The latter is no longer updated but much of the information is still useful.


Fitts’ Law

There are also videos that describe some of the work Scott MacKenzie's home page - www.yorku.ca/mack/ - contains links to his many papers on Fitts' Law and there is also a section with links to introductory material. This link www.yorku.ca/mack/phd.html to Scott MacKenzie's (1991) Doctoral Thesis provides a lot of information for those who want to study Fitts' Law in depth.

dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2647364 This paper by researchers at Georgia Tech, USA describes touchscreen interaction for working dogs in domestic settings. They explore how dogs trained to use touchscreens could provide a way for the dogs to communicate critical information to humans. Fitts' law is used to test the efficacy of different design solutions. The Interaction Design Organization also has examples and articles about Fitts’ Law. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/fitts-law#:~:text=Fitts'%20law%20is%20widely%20applied,time%2Dconsuming)%20to%20click


Analytics

There are many free web analytics tools available, and reviews are constantly being posted and updated. The following site tells you about the 10 free content analytics tools contently.com/2016/08/02/the-top-10-free-content-analytics-tools/ (for free tools) and this site tells you about a tool called Mouseflow that shows how people are using a website www.computerworlduk.com/galleries/data/best-web-analytics-tools-alternatives-google-analytics-3628473/. You can also try out Google Analytics at www.google.com/analytics. This site contains lots of information about how to use Google analytics. There are also many Youtube tutorials, some of which are available at: www.lynda.com/Analytics-tutorials/Google-Analytics-Tips-Tricks-Tutorials/135364-2.html by Corey Koberg.

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