Papers by Aline Chevalier
Third Latin American Web Congress (LA-WEB'2005), 2005
This work addresses the question of supporting web designers in considering usability in their wo... more This work addresses the question of supporting web designers in considering usability in their work in order to foster user-centered design of web sites. With the MetroWeb tool that is described in this paper, designers can access usability guidelines contained in usability knowledge bases, and use them to design a particular web site based on these usability guidelines. MetroWeb consists of a Java-based application helping usability experts to gather usability guidelines coming from different sources and to organize them in a structured way. It then provides designers with guidance in using these guidelines according to a semantic network of concepts structured around the notion of guideline, such as ergonomic criteria, development phase, bibliographic reference, type of web site, type of web page, etc. A first experiment was conducted with professional web designers in order to evaluate their appreciation of the MetroWeb tool. They had to create two web pages with or without the support of MetroWeb. The main results showed that designers using MetroWeb took into account more usability guidelines and made web pages with less usability errors than designers without MetroWeb.
RÉSUMÉ En raison de l'essor de l'Internet, de plus en plus de sites sont diffusés sur le ... more RÉSUMÉ En raison de l'essor de l'Internet, de plus en plus de sites sont diffusés sur le World Wide Web (Web). Ces sites sont conçus non seulement par des spécialistes des nouvelles technologies mais aussi par des concepteurs "tout venant", grâce à l'utilisation d'éditeurs de pages HTML. Bien que de nombreuses recommandations ergonomiques, spécifiques à la conception de sites web, aient été proposées, la plupart des sites présents sur le Web sont considérés comme non satisfaisants d'un point de vue ergonomique. Dans la perspective de contribuer à une meilleure compréhension des difficultés rencontrées par les concepteurs de sites web (et ainsi, indirectement, à une amélioration des sites), une étude de type expérimental a été réalisée afin de caractériser (1) la prise en compte orale de contraintes par des concepteurs professionnels et débutants, et (2) le respect ou non de ces contraintes dans les maquettes de sites web produites. Les résultats obtenus...
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2011
The present study addressed age-related differences in performances and strategies developed by w... more The present study addressed age-related differences in performances and strategies developed by web users while searching for information. Ten older and 10 younger adults had to search for information with Google and to answer 9 questions varying in complexity: from simple ones (participants needed to use keywords provided in the questions) to impossible ones (no answer existed). The results showed that older participants had lower performances than younger ones; age-related differences were more particularly marked as the question complexity increased. Regression analyses showed that processing speed and cognitive flexibility accounted for a large part of the variance in performances. The younger and older participants also differed in the strategies they developed while searching for information. The older participants tended to focus on the evaluation of the results provided by Google. In contrast, the younger participants tended to plan and regulate their activity, this last strategy provided better performances.
A constraint-satisfaction approach to studying the management of multiple objectives in design problem-solving
Psychological reports, 2006
How professional and novice designers manage multiple objectives through constraint satisfaction ... more How professional and novice designers manage multiple objectives through constraint satisfaction was studied. An objective is defined as a network of constraints; a constraint is characterized as related to a source (internal or external) and an addressee (e.g., client or user). It has been shown that designers favour objectives related to external constraint (e.g., data from the task) and to the client. Generally, client and external constraints are identical. To study the management of multiple objectives, fifteen web site designers were instructed to design a site according to user's objectives or client's objectives. Our results indicate that the validity status allocated to constraints is more determined by the status of the addressee than by the status of the source, whatever the objective condition that must be satisfied. Possible methodological generalizations are discussed.
Conference on Modeling and Using Context, 2001
For a few years, partisans of two theoretical approaches have debated about the role attributed t... more For a few years, partisans of two theoretical approaches have debated about the role attributed to the context concept in the acquisition and the organization of knowledge. The first one is the symbolic information processing system which focuses on the symbolic structures of the mind. The second one is the “situated cognition” theory which postulates that all the action of
Bulletin de psychologie, 2003
Résumé Cette étude vise à déterminer l'effet du niveau de précision du cahier des charges à ... more Résumé Cette étude vise à déterminer l'effet du niveau de précision du cahier des charges à satisfaire et du niveau d'expertise des concepteurs sur les contraintes liées au commanditaire mobilisées par les concepteurs pour résoudre un problème créatif de ...
Computers in Human Behavior, 2007
This paper aims at contributing to a better understanding of the cognitive activities of web site... more This paper aims at contributing to a better understanding of the cognitive activities of web site designers and, more precisely, their articulation and satisfaction of various design constraints. In this paper, we first present an experiment in which professional and novice designers have to evaluate a web site developed for reflecting usability errors identified in web sites. Then, the results obtained in this evaluation task are compared with results previously obtained in a design task, in which professional and novice designers had to create a web site. Data analyses focused on the number and nature of constraints articulated by designers in these two types of tasks (evaluation vs design). In particular, we distinguished constraints linked with the client of the site and constraints linked with the future web users. The obtained results show effects of both the level of expertise and the task. While designing, all of the designers focused mainly on constraints linked with the client. In contrast, while evaluating the web site, novices focused on constraints linked with the user, whereas professionals shared their attention between these two kinds of constraints (client vs user-oriented constraints). Based on these results, we conclude with ways for supporting designers' activities.
Behaviour & Information Technology, 2009
Over the last few decades, several usability knowledge-based systems have been developed to provi... more Over the last few decades, several usability knowledge-based systems have been developed to provide user interface designers with usability knowledge (e.g., heuristics, usability guidelines, standards). Such systems are intended to assist designers during the design process, and to improve the usability of the user interface being designed. However, the assumption that such systems actually improve the usability of the resulting user interface remains to be demonstrated: virtually no systems have been empirically tested by designers who create products. In order to confirm this assumption, we conducted an experimental study in which professional web designers had to create web pages either using a knowledge-based system -MetroWeb -or without it. This study was intended to determine the influence of MetroWeb on the professional web designers' cognitive activity, and to find out whether MetroWeb actually assists them to develop a user-centered design. The results show that the web designers did not very often use MetroWeb while designing web pages, however, rather surprisingly, the designers who did use MetroWeb more often exhibited a user-centered activity than those working without MetroWeb. We conclude this paper by discussing these findings, and suggesting future possible ways of research intended to assist designers to adopt a usercentered approach to their activity.
Behavior Research Methods, 2008
Designing cooperative systems: The use of theories and models, 2000
Abstract. We are looking at how new forms of document interface can be used to support new forms ... more Abstract. We are looking at how new forms of document interface can be used to support new forms of scholarly discourse, and ultimately, new models of scholarly publishing. Towards this end, we have been using specially designed computer-mediated conferencing technology to realize an innovative peer review model within an academic e-journal-the Journal of Interactive Media in Education. In essence, through re-design of social processes and technical products, we have tried to shift reviewing from a closed process centered on ...
Despite rapid growth in the number of web sites, there is still a significant number of ergonomic... more Despite rapid growth in the number of web sites, there is still a significant number of ergonomic problems which hinder web users. Many studies focus on analysing cognitive processes and difficulties experienced by web users, but very few are interested in web designers' difficulties or in comparing their respective activities. Towards this end, the two experimental studies presented in this article compare the strategies developed both by professional web designers and (novice vs. experienced) web users while searching for information on web sites of varying ergonomic quality. More precisely, we investigated whether web designers can effectively use their own strategies as web users when designing web sites. We presented a comparison of novice web users, experienced web users and professional web designers searching behavior and cognitive load when using ergonomic and non-ergonomic web sites. In addition, we asked web designers to predict the strategy used by novice web users. Based on the results obtained in the two experiments, we conclude that web designers are not able to predict strategies of novice users and do not behave like novice users. Consequently, ways for supporting web designers in developing a user-centered activity are necessary, and certain ways are suggested at the end of this article. r
Mots-clés : Conception de sites web, Contraintes, Expertise Abstract: Articulation and management... more Mots-clés : Conception de sites web, Contraintes, Expertise Abstract: Articulation and management of constraints: A study in creative design problem solving This study aims at determining both the effect the constraint condition and the expertise level of designers on mobilized constraints related to the client. Toward this end, professional and novice designers have to elaborate a first web site sketch
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Papers by Aline Chevalier