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Abstract

Recent trends in designing self-report measures of Internet usability are emphasizing more diagnostic capabilities. Diagnostic usability evaluations are, in a sense, hierarchical in that they have the ability to determine lower level sources that contribute to traditional (higher-level) usability concepts/scales (i.e. ease of use, adaptability, control). Based on hundreds of empirically developed usability guidelines, we demonstrate one of the higher-level components of Internet usability, “situational awareness (SA)”, and its conceptual diagnostic sources via a prototypical model. It is of interest to note that research has shown that users of Internet environments lack a major component of SA, “site orientation” (knowledge of where they are in the site structure) and generally disregard it while exploring a site or performing a task. It is suggested that determining the sources of SA will lead to enhanced usability, task performance, and user satisfaction. A prototype self-report measure of SA in Internet environments (SAMIE) was developed.

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Situational Awareness Measure for Internet Environments (SAMIE)

Abstract

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References