BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 broadly illustrates example processing to determine the usability model in accordance with one example.
FIG. 2 illustrates example processing to determine values for the characteristics of the web pages, for one particular web page.
FIG. 3 illustrates an example of processing to determine a usability measure for a web page, using the statistical model for usability and the determined values for characteristics of the web page.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
In accordance with an aspect, a usability model is determined by, for example, surveying users about the usability of a sampling of web pages. The usability model is then applied to another web page to determine a usability indication for that web page.
FIG. 1 broadly illustrates example processing to determine a usability model in accordance with one example. As shown in FIG. 1, a web page sample includes a plurality of web pages 102. The web pages 102 are provided to users in a survey 104. The output of the survey 104 is an indication of reactions 106 of the users to the web pages 102 of the web page sample.
In addition, representations of the web pages 102 of the web page sample are processed 108 to determine, quantitatively, characteristics of the web pages. The indication of user reactions 106 and values for the determined characteristics of the web pages 102 of the web page sample are processed to determine a statistical usability model 114, in view of the determined web page characteristics. The statistical usability model 114 is saved for use in determining a usability measure for another web page that is not one of the web pages 102 of the web page sample.
In one example, the statistical usability model 114 is a regression model. For example, the regression model may be a linear regression model characterized by linear coefficients.
FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart of example processing to determine values for the characteristics of the web pages, for one particular web page 202. The FIG. 2 processing may be used, for example, for step 108 of the FIG. 1 processing. In the FIG. 2 example, the characteristics are considered in two groups—structural characteristics and visual characteristics. For structural characteristics, in the FIG. 2 example, a source HTML representation 204 is used. Processing 206 is performed to obtain a Document Object Model (DOM) tree representation 208 of the web page 202. The DOM representation is a nominally platform- and language-neutral representation that allows programs to access information about the structure and style of documents. Processing 210 is performed (including traversing the DOM tree representation 208) to determine values for structural characteristics 212, and the determined values are added to an attributes values list 214.
In one example, the following structural characteristics are considered:
- 1. Total number of links
- 2. Total number of words
- 3. Total number of images (non-ad images)
- 4. Image area above the fold (non-ad images)
- 5. Dimensions of page
- 6. Page area (total)
- 7. Page length
- 8. Total number of tables
- 9. Maximum table columns (per table)
- 10. Maximum table rows (per table)
- 11. Total rows
- 12. Total columns
- 13. Total cells
- 14. Average cell padding (per table)
- 15. Average cell spacing (per table)
- 16. Dimensions of fold
- 17. Fold area
- 18. Location of center of fold relative to center of page
- 19. Total number of font sizes used for links
- 20. Total number of font sizes used for headings
- 21. Total number of font sizes used for body text
- 22. Total number of font sizes
- 23. Presence of “tiny” text
- 24. Total number of colors (excluding ads)
- 25. Alignment of page elements
- 26. Average page luminosity
- 27. Fixed vs. relative page width
- 28. Page weight (proxy for load time)
- 29. Total number of ads
- 30. Total ad area
- 31. Area of individual ads
- 32. Area of largest ad above the fold
- 33. Largest ad area
- 34. Total area of ads above the fold
- 35. Page space allocated to ads
- 36. Total number of external ads above the fold
- 37. Total number of external ads below the fold
- 38. Total number of external ads
- 39. Total number of internal ads above the fold
- 40. Total number of internal ads below the fold
- 41. Total number of internal ads
- 42. Number of sponsored link ads above the fold
- 43. Number of sponsored link ads below the fold
- 44. Total number of sponsored link ads
- 45. Number of image ads above the fold
- 46. Number of image ads below the fold
- 47. Total number of image ads
- 48. Number of text ads above the fold
- 49. Number of text ads below the fold
- 50. Total number of text ads
- 51. Position of ads on page
This is an example, and fewer, more or other structural characteristics 212 may be utilized.
For visual characteristics, in the FIG. 2 example, processing 216 converts the web page 202 to an image representation 218 of the web page 202. The image representation 218 is processed 220 to determine values for visual characteristics 222, and the values are added to the attributes values list 214.
In one example, the following visual characteristics are considered (numbered sequentially from the last number of the structural characteristics):
- 52. Presence of animated/flashing ads
- 53. Average ad luminosity
- 54. Maximum ad luminosity
Again, this is an example. Fewer, more or other visual attributes may be utilized.
We have described how a statistical model for usability may be determined (FIG. 1) and, further, how a web page may be processed to determine values for the characteristics of the web pages (FIG. 2). We now describe, with reference to FIG. 3, an example of processing to determine a usability measure for a web page, using the statistical model for usability and the determined values for characteristics of the web page.
At step 302, a representation of the web page 304 is processed to determine characteristics 306 of the web page 304. The step 302 processing may be, for example, processing similar to that described with reference to FIG. 2. At step 308, the determined characteristics 306 of the web page 304 are processed in view of the usability model 310, to determine the usability measure 312. The usability model 310 may have been determined, for example, using processing similar to that described with reference to FIG. 1.
As for step 308, the processing may be, for example, processing to use a regression model, whether a linear or non-linear regression model. Other models may be utilized as well, as appropriate.
Furthermore, in some examples, various models and/or various web pages may be provided to the FIG. 3 processing. For example, the FIG. 3 processing may be a result of a program being executed on a general purpose computer. The program may include, or have accessible to it, user interface processing via which a user may interact with the program to indicate a particular web page and/or a particular model to be processed by the FIG. 3 processing.
In FIG. 3, a choice of web pages is indicated by the schematic switch 314, via which one of a plurality of web page representations (shown in FIG. 3 as web pages 316) may be provided as the web page representation 304 input to the step 302 processing. Furthermore, a choice of statistical usability models is indicated by the schematic switch 318, via which one of the plurality of statistical usability models (shown in FIG. 3 as models 320) may be provided as usability model 310 to the step 308 processing. In practice, the switch 314 and switch 318 would typically (but are not required to) be implemented via choices on a user interface of a software application on a general purpose local computer, server or distribution of computing power.
In one example, the usability indicator is utilized as a tool to improve the usability of a web page. For example, the usability indicator for a web page is characterized by sub-components that each correspond to the contribution of a separate attribute of the web page. For example, going back to the linear regression example, each subcomponent may be a product of a value associated with a particular attribute and a coefficient of the statistical usability model, also associated with that particular attribute. An examination of the sub-components, then, contributes to an evaluation of how the usability of the web page may be improved.
For example, if, the higher the usability indicator, the more “cluttered” a web page is deemed to be, then a particular attribute for which an associated coefficient of the statistical usability model is larger has a relatively larger contribution to the clutter. Put another way, if the value for the particular attribute can be lowered, then this will have a relatively larger effect on reducing the clutter.
It has been shown, then that a generally-applicable usability model may be determined. The usability model is then applied to another web page to determine a usability indication for that web page. Furthermore, if the usability model is determined based on subjective interpretations of usability with respect to particular web pages, then those subjective interpretations can be practically applied to web pages other than those particular web pages. This results in a measure of usability that, while determined in view of subjective criteria, is repeatable and is practically determined.