Human Factors in System Design

This assignment highlights the human factors that are important to be considered in system design of a website. A justification, why the client would pay the mentioned amount is highlighted in this assignment. An evaluation of the usability specification of the chosen website “www.best-electronics-ca.com” has been discussed in details. Moreover, a critical evaluation of the site is also evaluated. The physical as well as the psychological factors are also addressed.

Justification of the cost incurred

The cost incurred for the evaluation of the website is £650 per day. In order to evaluate the website, the easy of navigation needs to be evaluated. Moreover, the attractiveness of the design needs to be considered. The ease of use as well as the efficiency of the interface is also to be measured. The attractiveness of the interface has to be evaluated as well. Thus the cost estimated is justified (Ashraf and Thongpapanl 2015). Moreover, the usability goals of the website have to be measured along with the planning of the website. Thus, the usability specification needs to be evaluated using high or low fidelity prototyping techniques such as storyboard. The interface design principles are to be evaluated. Hence the incurred cost is well justified. Moreover, the website needs to be reconsidered and the design and ease of use needs to be revised. Hence, this project is an essential one (Bilgihan and Bujisic 2015). The maintenance cost and the labor costs are also considered. This would increase the productivity of the company and in the long run would reduce the maintenance cost and save time, with the ease of use.

Critical analysis and evaluation of the website

The given website is evaluated against the various aspects of an ideal website. These are as follows:

Navigation: The navigation of a website is an important factor. In the chosen website, the navigation is very poor (Ashraf and Thongpapanl 2015). The contents of the website overcrowd the navigation buttons and the user would find it difficult to navigate easily from one functionality to the other.

Attractiveness of the design: The design of the website is very poor and low graded. The website is not visually soothing to the user, as there are not images or pictorial representations. The design is not at all attractive, since the users do not find it easy to use the website (Bilgihan and Bujisic 2015).

Ease of use: The ease of use of the website is not good, since the users would get confused with the contents and the navigations. Moreover, the navigation buttons are lost inside the contents of the website. Thus, the ease of use is very poor.

Efficiency of the interface: The interface is not at all easy to use. There is no specific panel for the navigation buttons. Moreover, no pictorial representation and no user assistance button is available.

Clarity of the interface: The interface is not clear. The text is not formatted well, and hence is not visually appealing. Moreover the interface lacks clarity. Users would take a lot of time to locate the navigation buttons, among the contents of the website.

Content: The content is relevant and useful. However, the font size and style are not consistent.

Call to action: Call to action refers to the words or set of words that helps the visitors to take immediate actions. This feature is unavailable in the evaluated website. The users do not have any scope to opt for the call to action (Ashraf and Thongpapanl 2015).

Usability goals

These include the expectations of a user while using a website. The specifications of the usability goals are as follows:

Accessibility: This refers to the evaluation of a website on the basis of how well the navigation options are separated from the content of the website. Moreover, the structural setting of the website also determines the accessibility of the website (Hood et al. 2015). This website is not easily assessable, since the navigation options are not separated from the contents of the website.

Security: The security of the website is an essential feature. The security of the website is not strong since it could be easily hacked.

Now level: With the wide use of mobile phones, the websites require to be easily accessible using mobile phones. Since, the website itself is very clumsy in the desktop version; hence, using its mobile site would be clumber some for the users (Johnson 2013).

The planned and minimum levels of acceptance: The minimum level of acceptance is quiet low for the evaluated website.

Other conditions to be taken into account: The users need to be well versed in the computer since the website is not easy to use and the users need to be an expert in order to use the website.

Evaluation of the website

Specifications	Expected Outcome	Actual Outcome
Navigation	Easily navigable	Not easily navigable
Design	Appealing to the user	Notappealing to the user
User interface	Good and efficient	Poor and inefficient
Distinct	Yes	No
Consistent	Yes	No
Interactive	Highly interactive to the user’s responses	Not at all interactive
Structured	Well structured	Not well structured
Clickable	Easily redirected to the desirable pages, on click	Not easily redirected to the desired pages, on click
Visual effects	Attractive visual effects	No visual effects at all

Key human factors essential for website design

While designing a website, there are various human factors that needs to be considered are as follows:

1. Recognition not recall: The human brain is made to recognize various icons and features of a website and not recall. Hence, the website needs to be designed in a way that the human brain recognizes (Hood et al. 2015). The icons used in the website needs to be familiar, hence easily recognized. In the chosen website, the icons used are not easily recognized.

2. 7 seconds: It has been researched that a human brain needs seven seconds to see and make choices. Hence, the website should not provide a huge number of choices. This is fulfilled by the website, as there is hardly any choice available for the user.

3. Brain like patterns: There are certain kinds of patterns that helps the brain to work faster and response faster. Hence the website needs to be designed considering that (Hood et al. 2015). However, the chosen website is very clumsy and the user finds it difficult to recognize and respond (Bilgihan and Bujisic 2015).

4. Sounds or audio recognition: This is essential element of a website. Inclusion of sounds in a website might assist the user that he was unable to understand by simply reading the instructions (Lopatovska 2015).

5. Visual effects: Human brain tends to retain facts they see, for a longer time, than things they read. Hence, the navigation of the website and the users’ assistance could be provided using visual effects (Singh et al. 2016). These are some of the physical and psychological factors of human beings that need to be considered while designing a website.

However, none of the above mentioned features have been included in the considered website.

A storyboard is a graphic organizer that includes illustrations and images in a website. This is used for the purpose of pre-visualizing and motion pictures. This could be used efficiently by the website in order to incorporate visual effects in the website.

It is recommended that the website needs to be redesigned following the guidelines of an ideal website. The navigation buttons needs to be placed in such a way that they are easily traceable and identified by the user (Ashraf and Thongpapanl 2015). Moreover, the font of the content needs to be structured and formatted, in order to enhance the quality of the website. It is also recommended that the website includes visual assistance and attractive user interface. The contents need to be arranged in a systematic way such that the users find it easy to read the contents (Ashraf and Thongpapanl 2015). The clarity of facts and consistent of the contents have to be incorporated as well. The overall presentation of the website needs to be improved, along with enhancement of the technical consistency of the website. The ease of use of the website has to be considered as well. The key human factors those are essential for a good website has to be incorporated. Finally, the security issues needs to be incorporated such that the details of the users are kept confidential. Thus, to conclude it might be stated that, the chosen website needs a lot of improvements such that it is easily used by the users. The ease of use of the website would improve the cost per click as well. The addition of motion pictures using the storyboard is also recommended. This would definitely enhance the quality of the website and become appealing to the users.

References

Ashraf, A. and Thongpapanl, N.T., 2015. Is More Information Content Always Good? Investigating the Impact of Website Interface Features on E-Retailer’s Sales Performance. In Marketing Dynamism & Sustainability: Things Change, Things Stay the Same… (pp. 560-563). Springer International Publishing.

Bilgihan, A. and Bujisic, M., 2015. The effect of website features in online relationship marketing: A case of online hotel booking. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 14(4), pp.222-232.

Hood, K.M., Shanahan, K.J., Hopkins, C.D. and Lindsey, K.K., 2015. The influence of interactivity on visit and purchase frequency: the moderating role of website informational features. Journal of Internet Commerce, 14(3), pp.294-315.

Johnson, J., 2013. Designing with the mind in mind: simple guide to understanding user interface design guidelines. Elsevier.

Lopatovska, I., 2015. Museum website features, aesthetics, and visitors’ impressions: a case study of four museums. Museum Management and Curatorship, 30(3), pp.191-207.

Singh, T., Malik, S. and Sarkar, D., 2016, April. E-commerce website quality assessment based on usability. In Computing, Communication and Automation (ICCCA), 2016 International Conference on (pp. 101-105). IEEE.