Usability inspection: Novice crowd inspectors versus expert

Objective: This research study aims to investigate the use of novice crowd inspectors for usability inspection with respect to time spent and the cost incurred. This study compares the results of the novice crowd usability inspection guided by a single expert's heuristic usability inspection (novice crowd usability inspection henceforth) with the expert heuristic usability inspection. Background: Traditional usability evaluation methods are time-consuming and expensive. Crowdsourcing has emerged as a cost-effective and quick means of software usability evaluation. Method: In this regard, we designed an experiment to evaluate the usability of two websites and a web dashboard. Results: The results of the experiment show that novice crowd usability inspection guided by a single expert's heuristic usability inspection: a) Finds the same usability issues (w.r.t. content & quantity) as expert heuristic usability inspection. b) Is cost-effective than expert heuristic usability inspection employing less time duration. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this research study, we can conclude that the novice crowd usability inspection guided by a single expert's heuristic usability inspection and expert heuristic usability inspection, on average, gives the same results in terms of issues identified. (C) 2021 Published by Elsevier Inc.

Automated summary

This research study explores the use of novice crowd inspectors for usability inspection and finds that novice crowd usability inspection guided by a single expert's heuristic usability inspection is as effective as expert heuristic usability inspection but more cost-effective and efficient in terms of time spent.