[publication] Seeing the System through the End Users’ Eyes: Shadow Expert Technique for Evaluating the Consistency of a Learning Management System

Our publication at this year USAB Conference “Usability & HCI Learning from the Extreme” about “Seeing the System through the End Users’ Eyes: Shadow Expert Technique for Evaluating the Conistency of a Learning Management System” is now online available.
Abstract:

Interface consistency is an important basic concept in web design and has an effect on performance and satisfaction of end users. Consistency also has significant effects on the learning performance of both expert and novice end users. Consequently, the evaluation of consistency within a e-learning system and the ensuing eradication of irritating discrepancies in the user interface redesign is a big issue. In this paper, we report of our experiences with the Shadow Expert Technique (SET) during the evaluation of the consistency of the user interface of a large university learning management system. The main objective of this new usability evaluation method is to understand the interaction processes of end users with a specific system interface. Two teams of usability experts worked independently from each other in order to maximize the objectivity of the results. The outcome of this SET method is a list of recommended changes to improve the user interaction processes, hence to facilitate high consistency.

Reference: Holzinger, A.; Stickel, C.; Fassold, M.; Ebner, M.: Seeing the System through the End Users’ Eyes: Shadow Expert Technique for Evaluating the Consistency of a Learning Management System. – in: HCI and Usability for eInclusion. 5th Symposium of of the Austrian Computer Society, USAB 2009, Lecture Notes in Computer Science LNCS 5889. (2009), S. 178 – 192