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Title:	Guidelines to improve usability of ribbon interfaces for users with less computer literacy
Authors:	Ali Darejeh (P61077)
Supervisor:	Dalbir Singh, Dr.
Keywords:	Application program interfaces (Computer software).
Issue Date:	28-Aug-2013
Description:	These days, user interface design has become a serious competition between software development companies. In this marketing rat race, the emerging of Ribbon interface made the software environment easier. Ribbon is a replacement for menus and toolbars and it tends to organize tools in its tabs based on their similarities. Microsoft Office and Microsoft SharePoint are examples of software that utilize Ribbon to introduce their tools. Concerning users with less computer literacy, previous researches have shown that there are two main usability issues in Ribbon interfaces software: a) there are too many tabs in every software and b) the arrangement of tools in tabs is difficult to understand. Thus, this study aims to increase learnability level of people with less computer literacy and decrease the problems caused by high number of tabs and their tools arrangement. In this research, Microsoft Outlook is chosen as the experimental software. Ten amateur users are then selected as the participants and they were taught Microsoft Outlook's Ribbon structure. Seven tasks were assigned to the participants of the study that required them to work with Microsoft Outlook's Ribbon and tools. In the next step, the participants' performance was measured based on the duration of completing the given tasks and the steps they went through to fulfill the task. In addition, participants were observed during performing tasks and they expressed their opinions and dissatisfactions during an interview session. The results showed that the given tasks were difficult for most of the participants and none of them could fully accomplish all the tasks. Based on the direct observation and interview results, the design solutions that can increase Ribbon interfaces usability for users with less computer literacy were discovered. In order to prove the solutions helpful, a new Outlook user interface prototype is designed and iterative usability process is conducted to validate the prototype. The findings showed there are seven solutions that can alleviate the usability problems of Ribbon interfaces for users with less computer literacy. The solutions are a) decrease the number of core tabs shown at the same time to maximum three tabs, b) sort tools in the tabs according to their sequence of usage, c) put software main features in one menu with specific categorization, d) put simultaneous help in the menu to facilitate learning process, e) label all the commands and avoid using computer terms for naming tools, f) use descriptive icons and avatars and g) avoid using deactivated tools or commands. These guidelines are applicable to Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint and most of the software that can be developed with Ribbon interface. Putting these guidelines in action, self-learning would be promoted and learning issues of users with less computer literacy would decrease.,Master / Sarjana
Pages:	145
Publisher:	UKM, Bangi
Appears in Collections:	Faculty of Science and Technology / Fakulti Sains dan Teknologi

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