Ergonomic evaluation of websites focusing on the human-computer interface so as to improve access to the web especially by people with visual disabilities

  • Authors:

  • André R. Melo;Marcelo Márcio Soares;Fabio Campos;Walter Correia

  • Affiliations:

  • Center of Arts and Communication, Departament of Design, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil;Center of Arts and Communication, Departament of Design, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil;Center of Arts and Communication, Departament of Design, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil;Center of Arts and Communication, Departament of Design, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil

  • Venue:
  • DUXU'13 Proceedings of the Second international conference on Design, User Experience, and Usability: web, mobile, and product design - Volume Part IV
  • Year:
  • 2013

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Abstract

This study sets out to contribute to making web pages more accessible especially with reference to people with visual impairments. Ways of evaluating of the interfaces of web sites and systems were investigated resulting in new, interim proposals which make use of W3C and Electronic Government tools combined with heuristics and. Thus, an assessment with greater emphasis on ergonomic criteria in terms of the human-computer interface is provided. A case study was used to evaluate three interfaces using the W3C validation tools HTML/ CSS validator and DaSilva. Thereafter, Jakob Nielsen's heuristcs were applied using a screen reader. The outcome was comparative charts and tables that illustrate the possibility of outside experts applying the methods together to achieve a substantially higher level of detailed information on errors. This would provide improvements in correcting errors on interfaces with a view to minimizing ergonomic problems and usability. These are problems that hinder the visually impaired from having full access to websites and systems.