Interdependence between technical web accessibility and usability: its influence on web quality models
by Myriam Arrue, Inmaculada Fajardo, Juan Miguel Lopez, Markel Vigo
International Journal of Web Engineering and Technology (IJWET), Vol. 3, No. 3, 2007

Abstract: Quality assurance is one of the most significant issues web engineering has to deal with. It is crucial to define adequate quality models in order to determine the most significant properties for quality evaluation of websites. Usability should be one of those properties as it bears on efficiency, effectiveness and user satisfaction. Moreover, it has been demonstrated to be a key property for users in recent European Commission's benchmark studies on quality and usage of public e-services. Web accessibility is also a significant property that websites have to fulfil in order to ensure equal access for all people in the Information Society. Therefore, both accessibility and usability should be included in such quality models. This paper presents an empirical study carried out with the aim of analysing the relationship between these two properties. The results show that the provision of technical web accessibility does not intrinsically guarantee web usability. Actually, other non-accessibility metrics such as the number of images, links and words of the web home page were better predictors of the users' effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction.

Online publication date: Tue, 16-Jan-2007

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