Aiding Web Usability : Integrating usability with Web Content Management Systems

Abstract: Web site usability is an important factor when creating and managing web sites, since it essentially determines whether or not the site is usable by its intended audience. As an attempt to simplify the process of achieving high usability for web sites, this thesis has explored the possibility of integrating usability guidelines with web content management systems. The overall aim was to determine if, and how, usability guidelines can be implemented in a web content management system to make it promote and deliver web site usability, and to find solutions that aid web site users in carrying out the basic tasks of finding, reading and understanding information on the web. To estimate the effectiveness of such solutions, the level of human dependency was considered when evaluating the solutions. This thesis has shown that it is possible to construct such solutions, and has found several for each of the basic user tasks of finding, reading and understanding information. Although some of the found solutions automatically improve a site's usability or actively promote site usability, the majority are still dependent on human efforts in order to promote usability. It was concluded that it is possible to integrate usability guidelines with a web content management system, but that web site usability still largely depends on human effort in order to be effective.