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Abstract
Heuristic evaluation provides usability auditors with a structured flow of activities that enables them to obtain reliable, comparable and cost-effective usability evaluation results. Tools supporting heuristic evaluation are scarce in literature. Usevalia is an Internet-based tool that manages usability audits on the basis of heuristic evaluation. This article presents the main features of Usevalia, together with a validation of the software by following the Technology Acceptance Model, which verified the users’ perceptions of Usevalia as regards usefulness, ease of use, attitude and intention to use. A total of 22 students enrolled on a human–computer interaction course were involved in the validation. According to the results of the survey conducted with them, the proposed tool is easy to use (MD = 4.00 out of 5) and useful for conducting usability audits based on heuristic evaluation (MD = 4.00 out of 5). An expert-based validation was also carried out in order to thoroughly compare Usevalia’s features with those of a spreadsheet-based tool that performs usability audits in the traditional manner. This comparative analysis made it possible to conclude that the Usevalia tool has a higher perceived usefulness (M = 4.43) and perceived ease of use (M = 4.13) than a traditional audit tool, such as the Usability Datalogger spreadsheet (M = 2.43 and M = 3.03, respectively).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Accessible from https://olgacarreras.blogspot.com/2011/07/sirius-nueva-sistema-para-la-evaluacion.html.
2 Accessible from https://www.ikea.com/es/es/.
3 Accessible from https://www.asos.com/es/.
6 IDEA® Data Analysis Software is a comprehensive, powerful, and easy-to-use data analysis solution designed by audit experts.
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Notes on contributors
Raimel Sobrino-Duque
Raimel Sobrino-Duque received his MSc degree on New Technologies in Computer Science at the University of Murcia (Spain) in 2021, and a BSc degree in Software Engineering from the University of Informatics Science (Havana, Cuba) in 2017. His research interests include usability and secure and sustainable business processes.
Juan Manuel Carrillo-de-Gea
Juan Manuel Carrillo-de-Gea is an associate professor at the University of Murcia. He received the PhD degree in Software Engineering from the University of Murcia in 2016. His current research interests include software engineering, sustainability, medical informatics, and eLearning.
Juan José López-Jiménez
Juan José López-Jiménez is currently a PhD student at the University of Murcia. He received the Technical Engineering degree in System Informatics, the MSc degree in Computer Science from the University of Murcia, and the BSc degree in Computer Science from the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain).
Joaquín Nicolás Ros
Joaquín Nicolás Ros is an associate professor in the Department of Informatics and Systems at the University of Murcia. He received BSc and PhD degrees in Computer Science. Currently, his main research interests are in agile, continuous requirements engineering and audit, usability and sustainable processes.
José Luis Fernández-Alemán
José Luis Fernández-Alemán is a professor of Computer Science at the University of Murcia. His research interests include DevOps, testing and computer-based learning. Fernández-Alemán received a PhD in computer science from the University of Murcia.