ICS280 Information Visualization

A Comparative Usability Evaluation of User

Interfaces for Online Product Catalogs

Ewa Callahan Jürgen Koenemann

Presented by: Xiaohong Bao

ICS280 Information Visualization

Introduction A comparative study of the

usability of hierarchical structure and Infozoom

The increase in electronic commerce creates a need for Electronic Product Catalogs (EPC).

Navigation problems are the second most cited reason for not shopping online.

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Introduction ---cont’d The most common catalog interfaces on

the web are hierarchically organized catalogs.

Problems:1. Confusing2. Items in dropdown menus are not visible3. Lengthy result pages force users to scroll Solutions:1. Recommendation approach2. Interaction approach

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Evaluation of existing online catalogs

List of Websites Evaluated (Fall 1999)

1. www.autobytel.com 2. www.Auto.de

3. www.autoinfo.de 4. Automarkt

5. www.auto-shop.de 6. www.autosite.com

7. www.autotaal.nl 8. carpoint.msn.com

9. www.dadb.com 10. www.faircar.de

11. Lycos Decision Guide Cars 12. Mastercar.de

13. www.mobile.de 14. www.whatcar.co.uk

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Evaluation results

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Result analysis Database size Searching mode Attribute Specifying ranges Searching history Result pages Sorting search results Item comparison

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Infozoom introduction Based on dynamic queries and

fisheye techniques Attributes as rows and objects as

columns Compressed mode and overview

mode Many ways of searching Easy to compare, sort and re-order

the results

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Overview Mode

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Compressed mode

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Usability study From the feature comparison of

Infozoom and the hierarchical interface, Infozoom should be more efficient

A comparative usability study to confirm it

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Materials A database contains 1690 cars

with over 20 attributes. The hierarchical interface was

implemented with forms in MS Access.

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Hierarchical interface-1

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Hierarchical interface-2

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Hierarchical interface-3

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Participants Totally 26 participants 15 male and 11 female 13 aged 21~30; 9 aged 31~40;

one teenager and one over 51 16 use computers over 10h/week;

6 3~9 h/week; 4 less than 2h/week

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Tasks Find Attribute value for given ObjectT1: Does the Jaguar XJR have side airbags? Find Database SubSet Attribute ValueT2: How many different models does the Peugeot class 106 have?T4: How many cars have the following characteristics:convertible, 100-150 HP, front drive, and cost 40.000 DM orless? For given Attribute(s) value(s) Find Object(s)T3: Which middle class car is the cheapest one in the database?

T6: Which Funcar has the quickest acceleration?

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Tasks-cont’d Compare Attribute Values for 2 ObjectsT5: Which car has better fuel consumption: the Audi A6 1.8

or the Volvo S70 2.0? Find Database Attribute ValueT7: How many cars are in this catalog? Compare Attribute Values for SubsetT8: What is the price range (from the cheapest to the most

expensive model) for the Alfa Romeo 145 series?T9: Is the acceleration of the Mercedes-Benz S430 Automatic

slow, normal, or quick for a car of its class?

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Procedure1. Introduce the purpose and

upcoming tasks briefly2. 5 minutes demo about Infozoom3. Introduce 9 tasks. After each task,

they answer 3 questions about the satisfaction, perception of the time needed, perceived efficiency

4. Summarizing their experience

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Results Accuracy Completion timeAVGIZ = 19.4 min / AVGHI = 27.7 min NavigationEase of use: IZ 5.5 / HI 4.9 over 7Efficiency: IZ 5.0 / HI 4.8 SatisfactionComfortable: IZ 5.15 / HI 5.23Fun: IZ 6.3 / HI 5.0Overall satisfaction: IZ 6.38 / HI 5.38

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Completion rate and accuracy

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Observations Users’ strategies Critical incidents --- breakdown and

things that went especially well Users’ comments

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Hierarchical interface Dislike look for desired information

from main menu Be lost on pages that looked like Be annoyed by the long pull-down

menus and lengthy result pages Be confused about the default

values and attributes visible Be inpatient about no car matched

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Infozoom Interface Feel overload at the first glance Hard to choose appropriate search

strategy at the beginning Difficult to double-click on the

small sectors if selecting objects on the screen

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Conclusion Both EPC’s interfaces were rated

highly, but Infozoom was rated higher in overall performance

Infozoom supports choice by attribute searching strategy better

Infozoom interface has easy learnability