Seeing the System through the End Users' Eyes: Shadow Expert Technique for Evaluating the Consistency of a Learning Management System

  • Authors:

  • Andreas Holzinger;Christian Stickel;Markus Fassold;Martin Ebner

  • Affiliations:

  • Institute for Medical Informatics (IMI), Research Unit HCI4MED, Medical University Graz, Graz, Austria A-8036 and Institute for Information Systems and Computer Media (IICM), Graz University of Te ...;CIS/Department of Social Media, Graz University of Technology, Graz A-8010;CIS/Department of Social Media, Graz University of Technology, Graz A-8010;CIS/Department of Social Media, Graz University of Technology, Graz A-8010

  • Venue:
  • USAB '09 Proceedings of the 5th Symposium of the Workgroup Human-Computer Interaction and Usability Engineering of the Austrian Computer Society on HCI and Usability for e-Inclusion
  • Year:
  • 2009

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

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.