SARMA.ORG%acs.ist.psu.edu/ist331/...6ofDiamonds_FinalProject.pdf · Team 6 SARMA.ORG WEBSITE...

RUNNING HEAD: SARMA.ORG WEBSITE RECOMMENDATIONS

TEAM 6 DIAMONDS

SARMA.ORG Website Analysis and Recommendations

5/1/2012

Team 6 SARMA.ORG WEBSITE RECOMMENDATIONS 5/1/2012

1 | P a g e

Contents Synopsis ........................................................................................................................................................ 2

About SARMA and the Site ........................................................................................................................... 3

Goal ............................................................................................................................................................... 4

System Users ................................................................................................................................................. 4

Recommendation 1 -‐ ............................................................... 5

Recommendation 2 -‐ Increased Calendar Transparency .............................................................................. 6

Research Methods .................................................................................................................................... 8

Results ....................................................................................................................................................... 9

Analysis ................................................................................................................................................... 10

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 12

Recommendation 3 Redesigned Site Layout and Reduction in Non-‐Functional White Space ................ 12

Research Methods .................................................................................................................................. 13

Results ..................................................................................................................................................... 18

Analysis ................................................................................................................................................... 19

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 21

........................................................................................................ 22

Closing ......................................................................................................................................................... 23

Works Cited ................................................................................................................................................. 25

Appendices .................................................................................................................................................. 27

Appendix A .............................................................................................................................................. 27

Appendix B .............................................................................................................................................. 27

Appendix C .............................................................................................................................................. 28


2 | P a g e

Synopsis After conducting a thorough analysis of the Security Risk Management Association website, our

IST 331 team has outlined several aspects of the interface that should be addressed to better promote

the use of the site and represent this professional organization. Our team conducted various

experiments to determine the usability of the SARMA website and how the current designers can take

cognitive, perceptual, and information seeking aspects into the design of the system as well as provided

recommendations to the organization to improve the design of the current interface for users.

The main recommendations that the team proposes to improve usability include:

1. Repositioning of site navigational elements 2. Moving calendar of events to a higher navigational element 3. Increasing the calendar visibility 4. 5. Changing the site s color scheme

The recommendations are validated with a plethora of existing research and live usability

experiments that were carried out to better understand the needs of the users and the existing design

elements. With these recommendations, our team proposes that the SARMA organization take

concepts.


3 | P a g e

About SARMA and the Site The Security and Risk Management Association (SARMA) is a professional organization open to

registered members interested in the security and risk management field. SARMA.org is the

-‐presence. Through a multi-‐dimensional analysis Team 6

will identify key usability problems with the SARMA.org site. By correcting these research supported

usability errors SARMA can increase user satisfaction of the site which may lead to increased user

satisfaction, increased site usage, and increased membership.

A successful website requires a great amount of planning and research to develop design

elements that will be tailored to a user-‐centered design approach that takes into consideration usability,

features, functionality, and content. Fully comprehending the user is a vital part to website design. User

experience is result that should be attained. The SARMA website must create a positive user experience;

therefore, in order for SARMA to properly brand its organization as a professional society for security

experts in both the corporate and government sector, it is imperative that a multitude of elements are

taken into consideration to foster proper branding of the organization. Usability is a prime characteristic

recommendations.

Our team encourages a purposeful interaction design that specifically addresses the needs of

SARMA members and prospective members. A purposeful design that takes advantage of our

recommendations for design, will aid in constructing a more effective website site solution for the

organization. The overarching theme that our team would like to emphasize is that design aesthetics

and utility are inter-‐

features and design elements that are both usable and aesthetically pleasing is the design balance that

designers should weigh. Close attention to website components such as the effect of color, balance, and


4 | P a g e

Goal

usability issues. After identifying potential problems, our team seeks to offer technical and design

solutions which will increase the site's overall usability render the site more effective in respect to its

intended usage scenarios. Problems will be identified and logically supported through empirical testing

or with the support of peer-‐reviewed and relevant research. By the end of this evaluation our team will

have established 4 recommendations: repositioning

System Users ds individuals interested further development,

professionalization, and standardization of security analysis and risk management. The majority of the

investigational users. For registered members, the site serves as a hub, centralizing information. In

addition to providing basic information about the organization and current events, the site serves as a

forum for security analysis and risk management professionals to share information and ideas. It also

provides a medium for collaborating to improve the development and application of the profession and

promote the professional development of members through voluntary participation in minimum

education and certification and professional standards.

Potential members can use this site for similar purposes. They can also learn more about the

organization and leaders, its vision, mission, goals and policies, and upcoming events. Most importantly,

the site serves as a means to contact the organization and learn more membership opportunities. The

final groups of leaders, investigational users, mainly use the site to gather information about security

analysis and risk management. The site provides a standardized and professional lexicon and generally

accepted principles for the benefit and use of all security professionals. It also provides information to


5 | P a g e

educate and assist both external and internal decision makers and promote more efficient and effective

use of techniques to improve security. Despite their different goals, each of these user groups is

interested in easily navigating the site in order to find information. In order to do this, SARMA should

strive to communicate clearly across a simple and consistent design with clear navigation and

information architecture.

Recommendation 1 -‐ Repositioning Navigation Bar Current research shows that males prefer sites with a symmetrical layout while women show no

preference for symmetry or asymmetry as demonstrated by A. Tuch et al. (2010). Creating a symmetric

website not only helps with the aesthetics, but together they affect usability, impression, and user

is now. In

order to achieve such a layout, Team 6 first recommends that SARMA.org reposition its navigation bar

closer to the top of the website, just below the SARMA logo, with a centralized position.


6 | P a g e

Figure 1: Figure one shows the Navigation Pane and Upcoming Events section of the SARMA website. We recommend repositioning the navigational elements to encourage better information seeking.

Having the navigation bar centralized at the top allows for a more symmetrical feel as all of the

information found on the website is cen

the centered area which users are looking at for important information. Another reason the navigation

bar should be moved to our recommended location deals with the drop down menus some of the links

have. As it stands now, the drop down menus appear to the right of the link and then drop down. Not

only does this break up the flow of the links and their respective menus, it also adds more time in

locating the wanted link and then clicking on it. Switching the navigation bar to the top will make the

menus appear cleaner as they go only in one direction: down. All of this will also help in giving the

Finally, changing the location of the navigation bar will allow more breathing room for the following

recommendations of redistributing information and how the overall layout of the website looks. The

following recommendations also aim to create a symmetrical look to the website to appease all

audiences.

Recommendation 2 -‐ Increased Calendar Transparency Team 6 suggests that SARMA.org take into consideration changing the positioning of

navigational elements which lead to the SARMA Calendar of Events. Results from our Task Analysis Lab

show that the access time for the calendar of events is too great, this creates an information seeking

inefficiency. Supporting evidence can be found in the Task Analysis Lab where the action of accessing

the calendar for information was analyzed through the KLM method and participant trials. We suggest

moving the Calendar of Event to a higher level navigational element so its location is more obvious to

users which will increase navigation efficiency.


7 | P a g e

Task analysis is the study of the way people perform their jobs, and specifically targets what

they do, what things they use, and what they must know. It is imperative to conduct task analysis is

computer-‐based environments, which will result in knowledge of procedures that users perform to

achieve a goal. Websites should be designed to allow users to navigate efficiently and accomplish

desired goals, such as retrieving specific information. Declarative and procedural knowledge are

gathered during task analysis. Declarative knowledge encompasses objects and relationships, while

procedural knowledge focuses on task sequence, goals, and sub goals of the task (Aspinall, 2007). The

purpose of the task analysis experiment was to better inform the Security and Risk Management

Association (SARMA) website designer of the level of functionality offered by the website as well as the

proper organization of site elements such as layout, grouping, and navigation. These recommendations

are based on the efficiency of each task being completed. Results from the task analysis should be

-‐centric design will be based off of

observable behavior from uses and existing tasks on the website.

The Keystroke Level Analysis Model (KLM) and the GOMS model were used for analyzing what

the user must know and do to complete the given tasks. The keystroke-‐level model is an approach to

human-‐computer interaction, which is comprised of an 11-‐step process that is often used by

organizations and individuals that are seeking to identify an efficient way to complete a task (Kieras,

1993). The corresponding GOMs analysis was also provided in Appendix C. This breakdown provides

functions that can be utilized to achieve both high-‐level goals as well as sub goals for each particular

he designer with a

description of the process, rather than simply a time estimate (Hochstein, 2002)

To conduct a Keystroke Level Analysis, the two tasks were broken down into consecutive steps

that could be executed by the chosen subjects. The KLM analysis process allowed for a comprehensive

breakdown of each task that would be completed, so that a comparison could be made between the


8 | P a g e

predicted time and the actual time that it took for task completion during the testing phase of the

experiment (see Appendix A and B). Subsequently, our team could then analyze the functionality and

task. The goal of our task analysis experiment was to provide recommendations on how to improve the

overall functionality and usability of the SARMA website.

By using KLM, our team broke each task into steps that can be reference in Appendix A and B. The results were compared and analyzed against the following KLM predictions as shown below:

Predicted time for Identifying Meeting Details (in seconds): 9.3 seconds

Predicted time for Registering for SARMA Membership (in seconds): 22.9 seconds

Research Methods For this experiment subjects were asked to complete the two tasks as previously described

through the KLM, which included finding the time and location of a meeting, and creating an account to

begin the SARMA membership process. Participating subjects were told what information they were

trying to find, and what their goal was in the case of creating a new account. They were then shown the

SARMA.org homepage at which point the time to task completion was measured using a digital

stopwatch.

The experiment consisted of 10 subjects running one trial each; running additional trials on each

subject would skew the data as they became familiar with the SARMA.org site. The ten subjects were

university students between the ages of 19 and 21. The subjects were also all current majors in Security

and Risk Analysis at The Pennsylvania State University. This specific subset of college students was

chosen because they are all assumed to have had equivalent education because they are part of

Risk Analysis field.

The process of data collection was carried out by having each participant sit at an IST desktop

computer with a laser mouse and mouse pad. The mouse was placed to the right of the keyboard and


9 | P a g e

centered on the mouse pad. Each subject was asked to start from the position in which their palms

were flat on the desktop surface and placed in front of the keyboard. This would allow for a controlled

starting position that could be replicated for each subject. After the first task was completed, the

subjects were given new instructions and began from the initial start position to execute the second

task. After each trial was completed, the user was asked to give feedback on their experience. The

feedback was qualitatively observed, but not re

information and completing the desired tasks.

Results The results from the task analysis experiment (Table 1) show that, in general, it took the subjects

longer than the predicted amount of time that was based on KLM to complete the assigned tasks. Users

reported having difficulty navigating to targeted areas within the site due to inadequate information

scent from poor site navigation and site layout. The functionality of the SARMA website hinders the

information seeking process and does not foster a user-‐oriented environment. Our team observed that

many users encountered challenges when trying to locate the necessary links for task completion. A

more organized navigation scheme along with a site layout that eases the task of information seeking

would have decreased the amount of time that it took for users to complete each task.

Table 2: The time that it took for each participant to complete the requested task as measured in seconds. Results were gathered from 10 participants.

Participant Identifying Meeting Details (in seconds)

Registering for SARMA Membership (in seconds)

P1 27.2 19.8

P2 70.3 24.9

P3 38.1 19.1

P4 105 90


10 | P a g e

P5 60 30.8

P6 54.2 25.4

P7 42.3 25.6

P8 50.6 34.2

P9 45 27.8

P10 61.8 25.4

Average 55.6 32.3

Analysis Using the KLM Model, expected completion times were 9.3 seconds for finding information

about SARMA officers and committee meetings and 22.9 seconds for finding and filling out a

registration. However, actual times were consistently higher than predictions. This discrepancy can

mainly be attributed to mental tasks and search times. Furthermore, the information and link location

was not clearly defined within the instructions. For example, the directions did not indicate exactly

this was frustrating and lead to process delays.

The ambiguity within the instructions led to greater variances within our data. Some users had

an easy time finding the information and completed the process under the expected time, whereas

other users took longer searching and consequently took much longer. Furthermore, it is difficult to

attribute a standard typing time to such a wide range of users. The time attributed to typing, .2 seconds

per keystroke, is based on a moderate skill level. Advanced typists took less time, while basic typists

took more time.

Overall, the process time and functionality could be improved by increasing the presence and

visibility

perspective, we were able to view the bottlenecks within the process. These steps that constrained the


11 | P a g e

process were generally at the verifying and locating levels. These levels are mainly cognitive; therefore,

by changing the identification process, would

required to complete tasks.

Figure 2: Graph visualizing the time it took for each participant to complete the task of Identifying Meeting Details (in seconds) on the SARMA website. The horizontal line indicates the predicted time of 9.3s based on the KLM model created for the first task.

Figure 3: Graph visualizing the time it took for each participant to complete the task of Registering for SARMA Membership (in seconds) on the SARMA website. The horizontal line indicates the predicted time of 22.9s based on the KLM model created for the second task.


12 | P a g e

Conclusion The overall conclusion we reached from performing a task analysis experiment is that the

predicted times for completing a specific information seeking goal was much lower than the actual times

it took the participants to finish two different tasks assigned to users. There are many reasons as to why

the actual times did not match the predicted times. As touched upon before, one of the main reasons as

to why this may have happened is due to the way the SARMA website elements are arranged. The

website itself is not efficient and information is difficult to find. The best way to fix this issue would be to

mportant content, such as making more evident where to go

and how to sign up for an account. Removing excess information that is irrelevant to the page the user is

on will also help keep the user focused on the task at hand instead of absorbing additional information

throughout the site and pages. The process of task analysis using KLM and GOMS has provided our

team with a better perspective on how users interact with the SARMA website to complete specific

tasks. Our team has also learned that the site design must accommodate users and optimize usability,

so that they can efficiently locate information and accomplish their information seeking goals.

Recommendation 3 Redesigned Site Layout and Reduction in Non-‐Functional White Space

Team 6 recommends that SARMA.org modifies their current content layout technique and

and its use of non-‐functional whitespace, along with its non-‐standard scaling which aggravates the

whitespace problem, increases the information seeking time for users. Data from our perception lab

supports our suggestion that SARMA.org switched to a static scaling method where the page will remain

the same at different resolutions and that by doing so they can decrease the amount of non-‐functional

whitespace.

In its website design, SARMA.org makes extensive use of tables. SARMA scales its website based

1%). This


13 | P a g e

causes the website to scale-‐up to the available resolution, meaning that at higher resolutions

The study took into account the basic bottom-‐up process that is affected by external stimuli. The

human fovea, for example, focuses on small areas at one time with patterns of sporadic eye

movements. Humans concentrate on one location of a site for only a moment and then continue on to a

different area of fixation. The top-‐down process of visual processing comes into play with a certain

amount of knowledge and expectation that was possessed by the user. The task given to each user

influenced their information seeking process. With these physiological aspects taken into consideration,

our team hypothesizes that a wider, unorganized distribution of content on a website will be less

efficient when locating desired information, while a single column layout that does not scale to full-‐size

screen resolution will group information. This non-‐scaling layout takes into account visual perception

processes and allows the site to emit a strong information scent (Jacko 2011).

Research Methods To evaluate the effect website

group generated two sample websites which served as a basis for testing different layout formats. The

first website was based off the table scaling technique currently used on SARMA.org. This website scales

content to spread out when viewed at higher resolutions and compact when viewed in a smaller

browser window. The second website tested utilizes Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and Division Tags

placing a background to fill the excess space on the left and right creating a non-‐functional white space

while maintaining centered and functional content.


14 | P a g e

To test the readability of the different formats 10 participants were asked to find a specific word

which related to an overall paragraph theme. The page contained 4 selections of text about varying

animals with related but nonspecific titles above. The participants were asked to find a specific keyword

within the paragraph such as tongue, stripes, or fin. The time it took from when they looked at the page

to when they found the prompted word was recorded.

Each of the participants viewed three different sites. The first was the SARMA.org website

scaled to 1920x1200 pixels, the second was the SARMA.org site scaled to 850x1200. These two display

resolutions were chosen because the larger resolution was found on the display of a commonly used

(1920x1200); however, because of its design the content would have been centered displayed either full

or half screen, just with differing amounts of non-‐functional whitespace. The text displayed on each

sample was of similar formatting and content; however, it was changed between trials in order to

prevent users from becoming familiar with the exact content.


15 | P a g e

Figure 4: The full scale SARMA website at 1920x1200 resolution. The content is spread far apart.


16 | P a g e

Figure 5: The SARMA website at half resolution, the content is compacted close together


17 | P a g e

Figure 6: The single column CSS based site, content positioning remains static due to use of non-‐functional whitespace (the brown background).

The participants were given brief instruction before using each site. They were told that they

would see a webpage with various content articles about animals, each of which were labeled with a

related but non-‐explicit title. They were asked to find a specific word related to a certain animal and


18 | P a g e

verbally signal when they had found it. To provide an example for the participants, we said that they

under which content about bats might be found -‐

SARMA.org

-‐

Our participants were taken from a convenience sample of 10, 19-‐21 year old males and females

who are current university students. Each of these participants was identified as having equal

information processing abilities because of their similar education and backgrounds.

Results The results from our experiment (Table 1) show that, in general, it took readers more

time to find key words in the large (1080px) SARMA site. Additionally, there was significant

time reduction between the small SARMA site and the second website which utilized CSS and

Division Tags. As with any experiment, there were a few anomalies within the results. For

example, Subject 2 took only 6 seconds to find the word on the large SARMA site, while it took

them 11.9 seconds to find the word on the smaller SARMA site. These inconsistencies can be

Table 3: The time that it took for each participant to identify the requested term from each site layout as measured in seconds.

Participant

Number

Large SARMA

(1080px)

Small SARMA

(540px)

CSS Site

(one column)

Subject1 15.0 9.0 7.0

Subject2 6.0 11.9 5.3

Subject3 18.4 18.9 3.9

Subject4 15.8 6.9 5.0


19 | P a g e

Subject5 23.9 7.5 4.3

Subject6 16.4 8.3 6.2

Subject7 15.4 10.6 4.9

Subject8 14.8 9.7 8.0

Subject9 21.8 12.7 3.9

Subject10 20.0 7.2 1.5

Average 16.75 10.3 5.0

Users searched the content by skimming the left-‐hand column from top to bottom and

then followed the same procedure on the right-‐hand column. However, some users simply

jumped around the page which, in some situations, helped them find the words faster, and in

other situations added additional time to their search. There may have also been a few

external factors that affected search time. For example, the differing color schemes between

the SARMA site and the CSS site. However, the theme remained consistent between the full-‐

scale and small-‐scale SARMA sites, and there were still significant time variances.

Analysis Since the length of time for searching information took longer for the SARMA website, which

scaled to the full size of the screen, an association can be made between the readability of scalable and

static websites. Human visual perception is clearly connected to the fundamental aspects of layout

choice when designing a website. The layout of a website is related the two factors of spacing and

alignment. While other aspects, such as color and font types play a role in understanding information,

our study took into account the necessity for understanding the visual perception of locating

information and what web layout would make information seeking more convenient for the user.


20 | P a g e

Figure 7: Graph visualizing the time it took for each participant to find the prompted word for each sample site

There are several key elements that attribute to good website design and take visual perception

into consideration when designing websites. Our team identified that white space in website design

plays a critical role in the information seeking process. It sets the tone of the website and affects the

usability of a site. The large, full-‐scale SARMA website eliminated the necessary negative space between

the elements of the web page. Users had difficulty taking in all of the elements and fixating on a certain

areas of the page to locate the desired information. The large scaling of the table was too much

information for the user to digest (Bernard, Chaparro, & Thomasson 2000). The scaled down version of

the SARMA website generally resulted in a quicker time for identifying information. This was most likely

related to the fact that areas of fixation could be more easily honed in on by the fovea.

Both the full-‐scale and small-‐scale SARMA site layout raised the amount of time for locating

information. Also, users often skimmed through the left column from top to bottom, looking at heading

titles, and then continued seeking their term on the right column. It can be inferred that the balance,

unity, and contrast of a web page layout affected the speed of users seeking specific information.


21 | P a g e

Without these elements working harmoniously site designs like SARMA create a challenging

environment for following an information scent.

The single table, dynamic website constructed through the use of Cascading Style Sheets shows

that negative space surrounding major site content allows for more efficient visual perception

processes. The overall site design made the information easier to digest and participants generally

located their specific term at a faster rate. While other design variables may have come into play, such

as color and heading font-‐type, the overall site layout was a key factor in searching for information more

efficiently. Since the website did not scale to the full size of the screen, content was displayed in a way

that allowed for users to move more quickly between fixations.

Conclusion e has an overall challenging environment for users who are seeking information.

Our analysis of our study shows that the SARMA website needs to undergo some changes in order for

users to be able to use it effectively. One of the main key changes that will need to be implemented is

the use of a non-‐scaling website since our subjects were able to pinpoint the phrase much faster than on

the scaling version. Along with a non-‐scaling website, our study also shows that SARMA needs much

more white space. Whitespace plays a key part in the information seeking process as it sets the tone of

the website and affects usability (Gilmore, Churchill & Ritter 2000). If SARMA had utilized more white

on the large or small scaled

website. In order to complete the visual look for the website, we will have to look more into the

balance, unity, and contrast of the website. It is vital that all of these aspects synchronize as they affect

the speed of users seeking information on the website. All of these factors have been made apparent


22 | P a g e

Changing olor Scheme At this level of analysis, our final recommendation is a revisi

(Figure 8), 24 if which are

noticeable different to the human eye when taking into consideration their Just Noticeable Difference

(jnd) values. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the standards body which is responsible for

standardization regarding the World Wide Web and it ensures compatibility and agreement among

internet industry members in the adoption of new standards and helps to create a core set of principles

Accessibility Evaluation and Repair Tools (World Wide Web Consortium 2000) is the de facto standard

for determining if colors are noticeably different and contrasted in regards to website design, and takes

into consideration research done by Forrest Dimmick on color specification based on just noticeable

differences of hue (Dimmick 1965).

Figure 8 e, not including the color palette of individual photographs.

Jonathan Snook, a web design and development critic who has spoken at conferences including

the CSS Summit, the Atlanta Web Design Group, and Fronteers, has released a software tool which

checks the contrast between two colors to determine if they meet the W3C working standard for color

jnd (Snook 2009). By comparing colors within a similar RBG color range we can determine that 2 pairs of

colors are similar and relatively indistinguishable resulting in a 24 color palette for the home page.


23 | P a g e

Figure 9: The image on the left shows a non-‐W3C compliant comparison of colors (FFFFFF and F2F2F2), the image on the right shows a compliant coupling of colors (FFFFFF and 1D3EA1). The compliant coupling is considered best practice for website design.

Our recommendation is that SARMA considers adopting a less variable color scheme which not

only utilizes fewer colors, but also those which are more complementary. Current research by Cyr,

Head, and Larios (2010) and supporting research by Adams and Osgood (1973) shows that websites with

multiple and contrasting colors decrease user satisfaction. Our team recommends that SARMA.org

switch to a color scheme with a smaller and more complimentary color palette. Changing the color

scheme will increase user satisfaction which is generally thought to increase the probability of purchase

(e.g. membership purchases), trust, and e-‐loyalty.

or palette, Team 6

suggests limiting the colors used to a simple contrast of a blue background, with a white foreground and

black text. These colors are compatible with existing W3C standards for both usability and accessibility.

Closing Through research and the labs that we have conducted, we were able to formulate a few

recommendations which would greatly increase the user experience of the SARMA.org website. One of

the key aspects of web design is to not only have the website be aesthetically pleasing, but to have an

overall feel of symmetry. For this reason, we concluded that the navigation bar would have better use


24 | P a g e

located underneath the SARMA.org logo at the top of the page. This will allow for the website

background to match on both sides, creating a symmetric border and help users stay focused on the

important information and wanted links. Along with changing the location of the navigation bar, we

recommend that the hierarchical ordering of some of the links be changed; specifically the SARMA

Calendar of Events. The calendar is one of the highly looked for pieces of information for users of the

website, and allowing the calendar to be accessed more readily will increase navigation efficiency and

user experience. As well as changing the navigational hierarchy, we also recommend that SARMA.org

implement an easier layout for users to seek and gather information. This can be done by using CSS

instead of tables to keep the information centered and scaled. CSS also helps in keeping the website

symmetrical. Using CSS will also remove the need for non-‐functional white space which will help users

find the information they need quicker. Finally, the aesthetics of the website could use a little

reworking, mainly in color scheme and choices. As found, the current SARMA.org website utilizes

twenty-‐six colors. Using a less variable color scheme with colors that are also complementary is proven

to improve user satisfaction. Implementing these recommendations is bound to please the audiences of

the SARMA.org website by creating an aesthetically pleasing symmetrical website where information

seeking is quick and uninterrupted.


25 | P a g e

Works Cited

Adams, F. M., & Osgood, C. E. (1973, June 1). A cross-‐culture study of the affective meanings of color. Journal of Cross-‐Cultural Psychology, 4(135). doi:10.1177/002202217300400201

Aspinall, D. (2007, October 5). In Task Analysis: HCI Lecture 5. Retrieved April 2, 2012, from http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/hci/0708/lecs/tasks.pdf Bernard, Michael, Barbara Chaparro, and R Thomasson. "Finding Information on the Web: Does the Amount of Whitespace Really Matter." Usability News 2.1 Jan. (2000): n.p. Web. 25 Feb. 2012. http://surl.org/usabilitynews/21/pdf/Usability%20News%2021%20-‐%20Bernard%203.pdf

Cyr, D., Head, M., & Larios, H. (2010, January). Colour appeal in website design within and acrross cultures: A multi-‐method evaluation. International Journal of Human-‐Computer Studies, 68(1-‐2), 1-‐21. doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2009.08.005

Dimmick, Forrest L. "Color specification based on just noticeable differences of hue." Vision Research 5.12 Dec. (1965): 679-‐94. Web. 1 May 2012. doi: 10.1016/0042-‐6989(65)90040-‐4

Gilmore, David, Elizabeth Churchill, and Frank E. Ritter. Introduction to Human Factors, the ABCS. N.p.: n.p., 2000.

Hochstein, L. (2002, October 18). In University of Maryland. Retrieved April 2, 2012, from http://www.cs.umd.edu/class/fall2002/cmsc838s/tichi/printer/goms.html#KLM Jacko, J. A. (2011). Human-‐Computer Interaction: Users and Applications. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer. http://books.google.com/books?id=uLrF9k7pwUoC&pg=PA628&lpg=PA628&dq=visual+perception+experiments+hci+web+layout&source=bl&ots=c4uGKwfuCA&sig=pyiS5GOWKTaWO-‐U1LimX_XqtzDo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=D-‐NKT7fNM4630AH-‐96SGDg&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

Kieras, D. (1996). A Guide to GOMS Model Usability Evaluation using NGOMSL. Retrieved April 1, 2003, from University of Michigan, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department FTP site: ftp://www.eecs.umich.edu/people/kieras/GOMS/NGOMSL_Guide.pdf

Kieras, D. (1993), Using the Keystroke-‐Level Model to Estimate Execution Times, http://courses.wccnet.edu/ ~jwithrow/docs/klm.pdf Malamed, C. (2009). Visual Language for Designers: Principles for Creating Graphics That People Understand (pp. 12-‐22). N.p.: Rockport Publishers.

Snook, Jonathan. 2009. Color contrast check. Ontario, Canada: Ottawa. Available from http://snook.ca/technical/colour_contrast/colour.html

http://courses.wccnet.edu/~jwithrow/docs/klm.pdf














26 | P a g e

Tuch, A. N., Bargas-‐Avila, J. A., & Opwis, K. (2010, November). Symmetry and aesthetics in website design: It's a man's busness. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(6), 1831-‐1837. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.07.016

World Wide Web Consortium. (2000). Techniques for accessibility evaluation and repair tools. Retrieved from http://www.w3.org/TR/AERT


27 | P a g e

Appendices

Appendix A Task 1: Find when the SARMA Officers & Committees Meeting is: KLM

M 1.35s Point to link P 1.1s

K 1.35s M 1.35s P 1.1s

K .20s M 1.35s

P 1.1s K .20s

M 1.35s

Predicted Time: 4M + 3P + 3K = (4*1.35) + (3*1.1) + (3 * .20s) = 9.3s

Appendix B Task 2: Find out where to register for SARMA and fill out registration form KLM

M 1.35s Point to Membership link P 1.1s

K .20s M 1.35s

Point to membership level P 1.1s Click membership level K .20s Find Login M 1.35s Point to Login P 1.1s Click on Login K .20s Type Login H + K*8 + H (average user name length) 0.4s + .20*8 + 0.4s Find Password M 1.35s Point to Password P 1.1s Click Password K .20s Type Password H + K*8 + H (average password length) 0.4s + .20*8 + 0.4 Find Confirm Password M 1.35s Point to Confirm Password P 1.1s Click Confirm Password K .20s Type Confirm Password H + K*8 + H (average password length) 0.4s + .20*8 + 0.4


28 | P a g e

M 1.35s P 1.1s C .20s

Predicted Time: 6M + 6P + 29*K + 6*H = (6*1.35) + (6*1.1) + (29*.20) + (6*0.4) = 22.9s

Appendix C GOMS

Finding Meeting Time and Date

Method for goal: find information Step 1: Recall information needed from working memory Step 2: Determine category on navigation bar with closest match to information requirements Step 3: Hover over category Step 4: Determine if the information needed would be in a subcategories link Step 5: If it would be there click link Step 6: If not, return to Step 2 Step 7: Hover over link Step 8: Click link Step 9: Determine if information is on the screen Step 10: Decide: If link was incorrect, if so then go to 1 Step 11: Accomplish goal: find information Registering for Membership

Method for goal: find information Step 1: Recall information needed from working memory Step 2: Determine category on navigation bar with closest match to information requirements Step 3: Hover over category Step 4: Determine if the information needed would be in a subcategories link Step 5: If it would be there click link Step 6: If not, return to Step 2 Step 7: Hover over link Step 8: Click link Step 9: Determine if information is on the screen Step 10: Decide: If link was incorrect, if so then go to 1 Step 11: Accomplish goal: find information Method for goal: register for membership


29 | P a g e

Step 1: Enter information Step 2: Decide membership type Step 3: Move to membership type Step 4: Select membership type Step 5: Move to user name Step 6: Decide username Step 7: Enter username Step 8: Move to password Step 9: Decide password Step 10: Enter password Step 11: Move to confirm password Step 12: Recall password from working memory Step 13: Enter password

SARMA.ORG%acs.ist.psu.edu/ist331/...6ofDiamonds_FinalProject.pdf · Team 6 SARMA.ORG WEBSITE...

Documents

Transcript of SARMA.ORG%acs.ist.psu.edu/ist331/...6ofDiamonds_FinalProject.pdf · Team 6 SARMA.ORG WEBSITE...