Guidelines for Web Application Usability

Abstract: More people are connecting to the Internet, by using computers and other devices. At the same time web applications are replacing locally installed applications. This makes web application usability an interesting and important subject. The aim of this thesis was to find a set of usability recommendations and guidelines specifically suited for web-based applications. The guidelines were derived both from studies on how web applications and regular web sites should be designed, usability studies for locally installed applications as well as more general usability and interaction design guidelines. A prototype was created based on the list of guidelines. The prototype was then evaluated from a usability perspective, using heuristic evaluation with Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics, to test the validity of the guidelines. The results of the evaluation says that while the list of guidelines can be used to help creating usable web applications, following the guidelines is not alone a mean of getting rid of all usability problems.