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Usability Assessments
Related Pages
Usability is the measure of the quality of a user's experience when interacting with a Web site. Two key methods to measure the usability of a Web site are to perform an “expert review” of the site and to conduct user testing, which involves monitoring users who “try out” the site.
During an expert review, one or more reviewers independently examine the Web site and judge its compliance with a series of broadly accepted usability principles relating to the site's accessibility, form and functionality, and content. The products of the expert review can be a written report and or a completed checklist.
In a typical usability test, participants (about five to seven per test session) perform a variety of tasks while observers record notes about what each participant does and says. Typical tests are conducted with each participant working independently on a computer or participants working together in pairs.
- the paths users take to do tasks
- the errors they make
- when and where they are confused or frustrated
- how fast they perform a task
- whether they succeed in doing the task, and
- how satisfied they are with the experience.
The goal of most usability testing is to uncover any problems that users may encounter in order to address or correct those problems. View usability assessments completed by EPA for the EE portal sites:
- Executive Summary [PDF, 132 KB, 5 pages, about PDF]
- Environmental Kids Club [PDF, 2.3 MB, 97 pages, about PDF]
- Students' Site [PDF, 2.2 MB, 89 pages, about PDF]
- Teachers' Site [PDF, 1.3 MB, 85 pages, about PDF]
