The importance of Human Mental Workload in Web design

Luca Longo, Fabio Rusconi, Lucia Noce, Stephen Barrett

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

28 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The focus of this study is the introduction of the construct of Human Mental Workload (HMW) in Web design, aimed at supporting current interaction design practices. An experiment has been conducted using the original Wikipedia and Google web-interfaces, and using two slightly different versions. Three subjective psychological mental workload assessment techniques (NASA-TLX, Workload Profile and SWAT) with a well-established assessments usability tool (SUS) have been adopted. T-tests have been performed to study the statistical significance of the original and modified web-pages, in terms of workload required by typical tasks and perceived usability. Preliminary results show that, in one ideal case, increments of usability correspond to decrements of generated workload, confirming the negative impact of the structural changes on the interface. In another case, changes are significant in terms of usability but not in terms of generated workloads, thus raising research questions and underlying the importance of Human Mental Workload in Interaction Design.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationWEBIST 2012 - Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies
PublisherSciTePress
Pages403-409
Number of pages7
ISBN (Print)9789898565082
Publication statusPublished - 2012
Externally publishedYes
Event8th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies, WEBIST 2012 - Porto, Portugal
Duration: 18 Apr 201221 Apr 2012

Publication series

NameWEBIST 2012 - Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies

Conference

Conference8th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies, WEBIST 2012
Country/TerritoryPortugal
CityPorto
Period18/04/1221/04/12

Keywords

  • Human factors
  • Human Mental Workload
  • Interaction Design
  • Usability
  • Web Design

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