Navigability of a Web Application : How different factors alter the perceived navigability of a web application focused on letting users rent out private belongings

Abstract: The primary aim of this study was to examine the effects of a web application’s navigability on user satisfaction. This was studied by developing a web application for the rental of pri- vate belongings such as tools, party equipment, outfits, et cetera. The study’s scope was hav- ing students at Linköping University as the target group. During the development phase, two different user tests were conducted on two different versions of the web application to obtain feedback on important factors within navigability such as functionalities, design, and layout. Said factors were tested with methods such as Concurrent Think-Aloud (CTA), Smith’s Mea- sure of Lostness, and Likert-styled questions. The first test provided a variety of feedback that, by applying retrospective probing, resulted in major improvements for the second user test. The study shows that in designing user tests it is important to have a widespread test group, test users without relations, and longer than one week between different iterations of a test. The study concludes that a thumbnail system is preferred over displaying products in a list. Moreover, tests showed that feedback and communication from the system improved the user experience.