An Application Of The Study On Sequential Patterns Mining In Web Usability Analysis

Usability is an important criterion that evaluates the quality of production from the viewpoint of end users. With the development of Internet technology, people pay more attention to the study on web usability. At present, most websites are set up from the viewpoint of designers, without considering the users' actual requirement, which results in the situation that the users' accessing patterns always runs counter to what the web is designed for, and causes many usability problems. It not only brings disagreeable user experience, but also causes much loss to the web operators, as with the sharp decrease of user amount, the competition of the web will consequentially go down.On the basic of investigation on analytical method and technology of web usability from both domestic and abroad, the author makes a study on how to utilize the method of sequential pattern mining to help usability experts to find out the probable usability problems. The method consists of two primary operations, finding the users' accessing patterns from the web log and combining it with the web structure. First, using user-centered design method, the author implements a tool that can help people to analyze usability problems in website. The focus is on the study of the feasibility of utilizing the method of sequential patterns mining on the web usability analysis and the treemap technology that visualizing the web structure. Second, the author takes a test on an actual website, in which usability experts find out several typical usability problems. Finally, the author evaluates the same website using both the heuristic evaluation and user testing, compares three different ways of finding problems, and validates the accuracy of result and the value of analytical tool.As indicated from the result, the tool can help usability experts find the probable web usability problems more effectively, and can provide most convictive data. Therefore, our study validates the feasibility of utilizing the method of sequential patterns mining on the usability analysis, and will lay a good foundation for future exploitation of more practical tool.