Enhanced Publications An enhanced experience? Bas Diender DIC 2010/2011

Contents Problem statement Current state of research Method Results Discussion

Problem Statement Usability is important whenever people work with an interface More complex environments need better usability ◦ Enhanced publications are more complex than pdf publications ◦ More interactivity Is the usability of current EP’s sufficient? Do the conventional rules apply? Do users enjoy the added content of EP’s?

Problem Statement “Do the ten heursitics by Nielsen also apply to Enhanced Publications?” “Do users prefer the added information from Enhanced Publications over the clarity of pdf files?”

Current State of Research Loads of literature on usability, mainly based on the heuristics by Nielsen (1994). Little to no literature on the usability of EP’s specifically Possibly because they are quite similar to websites. Differences do exist, mainly because of the limited goal of EP’s

Method Hypothesis: “regular heuristics apply, but vary in importance” Hypothesis: “users prefer the enhanced publication over pdf files” ◦ even if there are some usability problems Heuristic evaluation on two Enhanced Publications by one expert. Heuristic evaluation on one Enhanced Publication by two experts.

Method Usertesting on one Enhanced Publication  6 users ◦ Questions to guide participants based on problems found during the heuristic evaluation. ◦ Think-aloud protocol. ◦ Post-test questionnaire.

Results Big differences between the different EP’s All heuristics apply (but not in every EP) Most Important ◦ Consistency and Standards ◦ Flexibility and efficiency of use ◦ Visibility of system status Users liked the added content of EP’s. ◦ They even liked the very hard to use dynamic figure ◦ Some pointed out that they missed some of the functionalities of pdf-files.

Conclusion/Discussion Creators should not reinvent the wheel. ◦ Treat the publication as a website and use existing standards Users prefer EP’s over static text, even if they get frustrated using it. ◦ Might be because they like the idea and see potential