Cognitive walkthrough for the web

This paper proposes a transformation of the Cognitive Walkthrough (CW), a theory-based usability inspection method that has proven useful in designing applications that support use by exploration. The new Cognitive Walkthrough for the Web (CWW) is superior for evaluating how well websites support users navigation and information search tasks. The CWW uses Latent Semantic Analysis to objectively estimate the degree of semantic similarity (information scent) between representative user goal statements (100-200 words) and heading/link texts on each web page. Using an actual website, the paper shows how the CWW identifies three types of problems in web page designs. Three experiments test CWW predictions of users success rates in accomplishing goals, verifying the value of CWW for identifying these usability problems. Keywords Cognitive Walkthrough, web navigation, web usability, cognitive model, information scent, headings, link labels

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2002
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Marilyn Hughes Blackmon, Peter G. Polson, Muneo Kitajima, Clayton Lewis
• Keywords: CHI 2002, Human Computer Interaction, Keywords Cognitive Walkthrough, Theory-based Usability Inspection, Web Usability