Effective use of human physiological metrics to evaluate website usability. An empirical investigation from China
| Published date | 17 July 2017 |
| Pages | 370-388 |
| Date | 17 July 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-09-2016-0155 |
| Author | Qing-Xing Qu,Fu Guo,Vincent G. Duffy |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management |
Effective use of human
physiological metrics to
evaluate website usability
An empirical investigation from China
Qing-Xing Qu
School of Business Administration, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China and
School of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University,
West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
Fu Guo
Department of Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University,
Shenyang, China, and
Vincent G. Duffy
School of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University,
West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
Abstract
Purpose –The evaluation of website usability is the precondition and a critical step for website design and
optimization. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and provide empirical evidence of the
interrelationships between human physiological metrics and website usability. This study examines how
eye-movement metrics and heart rate variability (HRV) evaluate website usability, and then affect users’
online surfing behavior.
Design/methodology/approach –A physiological measurement experiment is designed to collect
participants’physiological metrics. This paper proposes an objective measurement model for website
usability, and partial least squares is used to analyze the measurement and structural models, based on data
collected from 200 participants who had experienced online surfing at least four times.
Findings –The analysis supports partially or fully 28 of the 31 hypotheses formulated. The study reveals
that human physiological metrics (i.e. fixation duration, fixation count, blink count, HRV) have a strong
explanatory ability for website usability.
Research limitations/implications –Data for this study were collected only from mainland China.
Therefore, participants may have been influenced by Chinese cultures. The generalizability of this study may
be enhanced by collecting data from more diverse samples and validating the model on different cultures.
Originality/value –This study contributes significantly to the industry by providing empirical evidence of
the interrelationship between human physiological metrics and website usability. The findings also provide
managers with valuable insight into better understanding of the nature of these interrelationships.
Keywords Heart rate variability, User experience, Eye-tracking, Human-computer interaction,
Website usability, Empirical investigation
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
With the rapid development of internet technology, life-service is becoming one of the most
popular applications on the internet, which could provide education, work, entertainment
and other life-related service information for user’s daily life. Websites are important
interfaces in Human-computer interaction (HCI). To be successful, websites must not only
Aslib Journal of Information
Management
Vol. 69 No. 4, 2017
pp. 370-388
© Emerald PublishingLimited
2050-3806
DOI 10.1108/AJIM-09-2016-0155
Received 19 September 2016
Revised 30 January 2017
Accepted 12 April 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2050-3806.htm
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant
No. 71471033 and 71171041). This work was also funded by China Scholarship Council
(No. 201506080073). The authors are grateful to all the experimental participants for this research.
Further, gratitude is also extended to the reviewers and the editor for their valuable comments.
370
AJIM
69,4
contain useful information, but also provide that information in an efficient and easily
accessible manner (Djamasbi et al., 2012). One method of delivering this experience is to
design websites that effectively guide users’attention to key information on the page.
Website usability significantly affects user online surfing behavior. Usability studies
provide essential information about users’views and perceptions of efficiency, effectiveness
and satisfaction of given online services. Therefore, there is a need for usability
testing to specify the usability problems and to make the online services more usable
(Albayrak and Cagiltay, 2013).
Generally, website usability testing measures the degree to which a website can assist
the target user to achieve certain purposes quickly, efficiently and approvingly under a
given operational environment. As the internet becomes relatively open, the website should
initially be usable and practical to maintain user viscosity and enhance user loyalty
(Huang, 2002). For websites with low usability, users will give up and turn to another
website in most cases (Ellis and Kurniawan, 2000). Meanwhile, websites with excellent
usability can not only bring positive impact on users but also boost the returning rate
(Song and Zahedi, 2005), and also stimulate consumption with regard to e-commerce
websites (Gefen and Straub, 2000; Lee and Lee, 2004; Konradt et al., 2003; Muthitacharoen
et al., 2006). Obviously, usability is a critical factor for making websites successful. Aware of
this, many researchers have studied website usability, and gathered abundant conductive
proposals so far. Therein leading the way is to develop a scale to evaluate the website
usability. However, as a pure subjective approach, it cannot define the usability problem
objectively. Additionally, it only evaluates the overall usability of a website and cannot
efficiently define the usability problem in different phases of a task (Tong et al., 2005).
Therefore, it is desirable to have an evaluation approach that could evaluate website
usability in an objective and quantitative way.
On the other hand, as user-centered design has been applied in websites extensively, the
emotional experience of users becomes a key factor in website competition. The design level
of the website determines its usability which in turn affects users’emotional experience.
So, the strength of user emotional experience could be used to evaluate usability to some
extent. Generally, the objective measurements of user emotional experience include the
measurement of physical arousal and the evaluation of external behavior performance such
as voice, facial expression, heart rate variability (HRV ), eye movement and so on
(Pieters and Wedel, 2004; Fernandez, 2008; Fernandez et al., 2011; Lin and Imamiya, 2006).
In terms of observation during website tasks, the physical arousal and eye movement data
could vary dramatically. It is obvious that the development of eye-tracking technique and
physical arousal measures facilitate the measurement and provide a new way for the
measurement and evaluation of website usability.
With the above consideration, this paper will study how to measure website usability
from the perspective of eye-movement and physical arousal, and then how to affect users’
online surfing behavior, thus to develop a more objective methodology guiding the usability
evaluation and the improvement of the website. In the proposed methodology, a general
usability evaluation scale for life-service website is established, and the participants’task
procedure is divided into several phases by concur task tree (CTT). CTT uses a tool for
editing the task model used to specify tasks, roles, and objects as well as the task hierarchy
with temporal operators (Magoulas, 2001). Meanwhile, eye-tracking technique and physical
arousal measures will be used to record the transitions of participants’emotional state
when they are fulfilling experimental task under given experimental environment.
Through partial least squares (PLS) path modeling, the generated physiological data will be
modeled with the usability level of different websites’different operational phases, which
will be measured by the general scale. The usability level of websites will eventually be
explained by the proposed model. Furthermore, we contribute to the ongoing research on
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Effective
use of human
physiological
metrics
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