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Exploring Usability Guidelines for Rich Internet Applications

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Exploring Usability Guidelines for Rich Internet Applications Department of Informatics Exploring Usability Guidelines for Rich Internet Applications Master thesis, 10 credits, Department of Informatics Presented: June 2007 Authors: Lukas Gwardak Linus Påhlstorp Supervisor: Konrad Tollmar LUND UNIVERSITY Informatics Exploring Usability Guidelines for Rich Internet Applications Master thesis, presented June, 2007 Supervisor: Konrad Tollmar Size: 80 pages Abstract: Usability guidelines are commonly considered a useful tool for developers to enhance the usability of interactive systems. They represent distilled knowledge from many disciplines related to usability and provide developers with solutions and best practices to achieve usability goals. However, the newly developing field of highly interactive web applications (Rich Internet Applications) still lacks appropriate usability guidelines. This work takes desktop usability guidelines and web usability guidelines as a basis to create an outline of Rich Internet Application usability guidelines. Three professional developers are being interviewed in order to get an insight into their work with guidelines and get their ideas of how possible Rich Internet Application guidelines should be structured. Keywords: Usability, accessibility, guidelines, user interface, web design, Rich Internet Applications, Web 2.0 Contents 2 Contents Contents...................................................................................................................... 2 Index of Figures.......................................................................................................... 4 List of Abbreviations .................................................................................................. 5 1 Background........................................................................................................... 6 1.1 Introduction.......................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Problem Description ............................................................................................ 6 1.3 Research Question .............................................................................................. 7 1.4 Delimitations ........................................................................................................ 7 2 Methodology ......................................................................................................... 8 2.1 Research Strategy ............................................................................................... 8 2.2 Research Methods............................................................................................... 8 2.2.1 Literature Review....................................................................................... 8 2.2.2 Case Study / Interviews ............................................................................. 9 2.2.3 Usability Guidelines Discussion ................................................................10 2.3 Research Quality ................................................................................................10 2.3.1 Validity......................................................................................................11 2.3.2 Ethics........................................................................................................11 3 Literature Review.................................................................................................13 3.1 Web Navigation ..................................................................................................13 3.2 The Advent of Web Applications .........................................................................14 3.3 Rich Internet Applications ...................................................................................15 3.3.1 Web 2.0 ....................................................................................................20 3.4 Web Usability......................................................................................................24 3.5 Accessibility ........................................................................................................27 3.5.1 Computer Accessibility..............................................................................27 3.5.2 Web Accessibility......................................................................................27 3.5.3 Problems With Web Accessibility..............................................................28 3.6 Guidelines...........................................................................................................29 3.6.1 Classification of Guidelines .......................................................................30 3.6.2 Desktop User Interface Guidelines............................................................31 3.6.3 Web Guidelines ........................................................................................32 3.6.4 Differences Between Web Guidelines And Desktop Guidelines ................35 Contents 3 3.6.5 Other Types of Guidelines ........................................................................37 3.6.6 Developing Guidelines ..............................................................................38 3.7 Cognitive Perspective .........................................................................................41 3.7.1 Mental Models ..........................................................................................41 4 Case Studies ........................................................................................................44 4.1 Introduction to the Case Studies .........................................................................44 4.2 Finding Interview Questions................................................................................44 4.3 Netvibes..............................................................................................................45 4.3.1 Background on the Company....................................................................45 4.3.2 Interview With UX Developer ....................................................................46 4.3.3 Netvibes Interview Discussion ..................................................................48 4.4 sTeam ................................................................................................................48 4.4.1 Background on the Project........................................................................48 4.4.2 Interview With the Chief Web Developer of sTeam ...................................49 4.4.3 sTeam Interview Discussion .....................................................................52 4.5 MindLab..............................................................................................................53 4.5.1 Background On The Company..................................................................53 4.5.2 Interview With An IT Consultant / Interface Designer For Mindlab.............53 4.5.3 Mindlab Interview Discussion....................................................................56 5 Discussion ...........................................................................................................58 5.1 Web Usability vs. Desktop Usability ....................................................................59 5.2 Perception Of Guidelines By Developers ............................................................59 5.3 Accessibility of Rich Internet Applications ...........................................................60 5.4 Distinctive Features of Web vs. Desktop Guidelines ...........................................60 5.5 Guideline Development Methodologies...............................................................62 5.6 Users’ Mental Models .........................................................................................63 6 Conclusion and Future Work ..............................................................................65 6.1 Conclusion..........................................................................................................65 6.2 Future Work........................................................................................................68 References .................................................................................................................69 Appendix ....................................................................................................................75 Index of Figures 4 Index of Figures Fig. 1: Web browser User Interfaces, 15 years apart ........................................................... 13 Fig. 2: sTeam web interface................................................................................................. 18 Fig. 3: sTeam on the Rich Client Platform............................................................................ 18 Fig. 4: FirstClass client application....................................................................................... 19 Fig. 5: FirstClass web interface............................................................................................ 20 Fig. 6: Del.icio.us tag cloud.................................................................................................. 21 Fig. 7: Google maps interface.............................................................................................. 22 Fig. 8: Frappr! as an example web 2.0 mashup application ................................................. 23 Fig. 9: Level of guideline expressiveness (Scapin, 2000)....................................................
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