Modeling web quality using a probabilistic approach: An empirical validation

  • Authors:

  • Ghazwa Malak;Houari Sahraoui;Linda Badri;Mourad Badri

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Montreal;University of Montreal;University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières;University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières

  • Venue:
  • ACM Transactions on the Web (TWEB)
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

Web-based applications are software systems that continuously evolve to meet users' needs and to adapt to new technologies. Assuring their quality is then a difficult, but essential task. In fact, a large number of factors can affect their quality. Considering these factors and their interaction involves managing uncertainty and subjectivity inherent to this kind of applications. In this article, we present a probabilistic approach for building Web quality models and the associated assessment method. The proposed approach is based on Bayesian Networks. A model is built following a four-step process consisting in collecting quality characteristics, refining them, building a model structure, and deriving the model parameters. The feasibility of the approach is illustrated on the important quality characteristic of Navigability design. To validate the produced model, we conducted an experimental study with 20 subjects and 40 web pages. The results obtained show that the scores given by the used model are strongly correlated with navigability as perceived and experienced by the users.