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Chapter 17
Applying the WDP Technique
to Usability Inspections in Web
Development Organizations
Tayana Conte
Federal University of Amazonas, Brazil
Verônica T. Vaz
PESC – COPPE/UFRJ, Brazil
Jobson Massolar
PESC – COPPE/UFRJ, Brazil
Andrew Bott
Fundação COPPETEC, Brazil
Emilia Mendes
University of Auckland, New Zealand
Guilherme H. Travassos
PESC – COPPE/UFRJ, Brazil
abStract
This chapter presents the WDP (Web Design Perspectives-based Usability Evaluation), an inspection
technique specifcally designed to assess the usability of Web applications. This technique combines
Web design perspectives and the heuristic evaluation method proposed by Nielsen (1994b). In addition
to describing the components of the WDP technique this chapter also illustrates its use in practice by
means of an industrial case study where the technique is applied to inspect a real Web application. In
this case study, developers and requirement assessment staff applied the WDP technique to evaluate
the usability of modules developed from scratch for a Web application. The results of this case study
indicate the feasibility of performing usability inspections with the participation of a software project’s
stakeholders, even when stakeholders are not usability experts.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-896-3.ch017