Usability Improvement Through A/B Testing and Refactoring

Autores
Firmenich, Sergio; Garrido, Alejandra; Grigera, Julián; Rivero, José Matías; Rossi, Gustavo Héctor
Año de publicación
2019
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
artículo
Estado
versión aceptada
Descripción
Usability evaluation is an essential task in web application development. There have been several attempts to integrate user-centered design with agile methods, but it is hard to synchronize their practices. User testing is very valuable to learn from feedback of actual use, but it remains expensive to find and solve usability problems. Furthermore, the high cost of usability evaluation forces small/medium-sized companies to trust the first solution applied, without actually testing the success of the solution or considering a possible regression in usability, as could be highlighted by an iterative testing method. In this article we advocate for a usability improvement cycle oriented by user feedback, and compatible with an agile development process. We propose an iterative method supported by a toolkit that allows usability experts to design user tests, run them remotely, analyze results, and assess alternative solutions to usability problems similarly to A/B testing. Each solution is created by applying client-side web refactorings, i.e., changes to the web pages in the client which are meant to improve usability. The main benefit of our approach is that it reduces the overall cost of user testing and particularly, A/B testing, by applying refactorings to create alternative solutions without modifying the application’s server code. By making it affordable for usability experts to apply the method in parallel with the development cycle, we aim to encourage them to incorporate user feedback and try different ideas to discover the best performing solution in terms of the metrics of interest
Materia
Ciencias de la Computación e Información
Usability evaluation
A/B testing
Web refactoring
Agile methods
External quality
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Repositorio
CIC Digital (CICBA)
Institución
Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
OAI Identificador
oai:digital.cic.gba.gob.ar:11746/10678

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network_name_str CIC Digital (CICBA)
spelling Usability Improvement Through A/B Testing and RefactoringFirmenich, SergioGarrido, AlejandraGrigera, JuliánRivero, José MatíasRossi, Gustavo HéctorCiencias de la Computación e InformaciónUsability evaluationA/B testingWeb refactoringAgile methodsExternal qualityUsability evaluation is an essential task in web application development. There have been several attempts to integrate user-centered design with agile methods, but it is hard to synchronize their practices. User testing is very valuable to learn from feedback of actual use, but it remains expensive to find and solve usability problems. Furthermore, the high cost of usability evaluation forces small/medium-sized companies to trust the first solution applied, without actually testing the success of the solution or considering a possible regression in usability, as could be highlighted by an iterative testing method. In this article we advocate for a usability improvement cycle oriented by user feedback, and compatible with an agile development process. We propose an iterative method supported by a toolkit that allows usability experts to design user tests, run them remotely, analyze results, and assess alternative solutions to usability problems similarly to A/B testing. Each solution is created by applying client-side web refactorings, i.e., changes to the web pages in the client which are meant to improve usability. The main benefit of our approach is that it reduces the overall cost of user testing and particularly, A/B testing, by applying refactorings to create alternative solutions without modifying the application’s server code. By making it affordable for usability experts to apply the method in parallel with the development cycle, we aim to encourage them to incorporate user feedback and try different ideas to discover the best performing solution in terms of the metrics of interest2019-03info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersionhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:ar-repo/semantics/articuloapplication/pdfhttps://digital.cic.gba.gob.ar/handle/11746/10678enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1007/s11219-018-9413-yinfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1573-1367info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/reponame:CIC Digital (CICBA)instname:Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas de la Provincia de Buenos Airesinstacron:CICBA2025-09-04T09:43:22Zoai:digital.cic.gba.gob.ar:11746/10678Institucionalhttp://digital.cic.gba.gob.arOrganismo científico-tecnológicoNo correspondehttp://digital.cic.gba.gob.ar/oai/snrdmarisa.degiusti@sedici.unlp.edu.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:94412025-09-04 09:43:22.416CIC Digital (CICBA) - Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas de la Provincia de Buenos Airesfalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Usability Improvement Through A/B Testing and Refactoring
title Usability Improvement Through A/B Testing and Refactoring
spellingShingle Usability Improvement Through A/B Testing and Refactoring
Firmenich, Sergio
Ciencias de la Computación e Información
Usability evaluation
A/B testing
Web refactoring
Agile methods
External quality
title_short Usability Improvement Through A/B Testing and Refactoring
title_full Usability Improvement Through A/B Testing and Refactoring
title_fullStr Usability Improvement Through A/B Testing and Refactoring
title_full_unstemmed Usability Improvement Through A/B Testing and Refactoring
title_sort Usability Improvement Through A/B Testing and Refactoring
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Firmenich, Sergio
Garrido, Alejandra
Grigera, Julián
Rivero, José Matías
Rossi, Gustavo Héctor
author Firmenich, Sergio
author_facet Firmenich, Sergio
Garrido, Alejandra
Grigera, Julián
Rivero, José Matías
Rossi, Gustavo Héctor
author_role author
author2 Garrido, Alejandra
Grigera, Julián
Rivero, José Matías
Rossi, Gustavo Héctor
author2_role author
author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Ciencias de la Computación e Información
Usability evaluation
A/B testing
Web refactoring
Agile methods
External quality
topic Ciencias de la Computación e Información
Usability evaluation
A/B testing
Web refactoring
Agile methods
External quality
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv Usability evaluation is an essential task in web application development. There have been several attempts to integrate user-centered design with agile methods, but it is hard to synchronize their practices. User testing is very valuable to learn from feedback of actual use, but it remains expensive to find and solve usability problems. Furthermore, the high cost of usability evaluation forces small/medium-sized companies to trust the first solution applied, without actually testing the success of the solution or considering a possible regression in usability, as could be highlighted by an iterative testing method. In this article we advocate for a usability improvement cycle oriented by user feedback, and compatible with an agile development process. We propose an iterative method supported by a toolkit that allows usability experts to design user tests, run them remotely, analyze results, and assess alternative solutions to usability problems similarly to A/B testing. Each solution is created by applying client-side web refactorings, i.e., changes to the web pages in the client which are meant to improve usability. The main benefit of our approach is that it reduces the overall cost of user testing and particularly, A/B testing, by applying refactorings to create alternative solutions without modifying the application’s server code. By making it affordable for usability experts to apply the method in parallel with the development cycle, we aim to encourage them to incorporate user feedback and try different ideas to discover the best performing solution in terms of the metrics of interest
description Usability evaluation is an essential task in web application development. There have been several attempts to integrate user-centered design with agile methods, but it is hard to synchronize their practices. User testing is very valuable to learn from feedback of actual use, but it remains expensive to find and solve usability problems. Furthermore, the high cost of usability evaluation forces small/medium-sized companies to trust the first solution applied, without actually testing the success of the solution or considering a possible regression in usability, as could be highlighted by an iterative testing method. In this article we advocate for a usability improvement cycle oriented by user feedback, and compatible with an agile development process. We propose an iterative method supported by a toolkit that allows usability experts to design user tests, run them remotely, analyze results, and assess alternative solutions to usability problems similarly to A/B testing. Each solution is created by applying client-side web refactorings, i.e., changes to the web pages in the client which are meant to improve usability. The main benefit of our approach is that it reduces the overall cost of user testing and particularly, A/B testing, by applying refactorings to create alternative solutions without modifying the application’s server code. By making it affordable for usability experts to apply the method in parallel with the development cycle, we aim to encourage them to incorporate user feedback and try different ideas to discover the best performing solution in terms of the metrics of interest
publishDate 2019
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2019-03
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion
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info:ar-repo/semantics/articulo
format article
status_str acceptedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://digital.cic.gba.gob.ar/handle/11746/10678
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dc.language.none.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1007/s11219-018-9413-y
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1573-1367
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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
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dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:CIC Digital (CICBA)
instname:Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
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instname_str Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
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repository.name.fl_str_mv CIC Digital (CICBA) - Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
repository.mail.fl_str_mv marisa.degiusti@sedici.unlp.edu.ar
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