Chapter 4: Methods to Test Website Usability

Following the outline in the previous chapter of work examining the use (and usability) of the Web for people with learning disabilities, this chapter introduces the body of research that has been, and is being, carried out by the writer.

The overall aims of the particular research programme that will be outlined in this book were to determine which Webpage interface attributes facilitate success in accessing information by people with learning disabilities. It should be stressed at the start that the idea was not necessarily that the cohort would be able to do this autonomously. Rather, that an accessible, usable and relevant Website could be a focus around which needs and interests could be discussed between the learner-user and a supporter, but which would nevertheless foster a feeling of ownership, empowerment and achievement in the former (‘this site is for me, and I am able to navigate and understand it’) and enable the supporter a lighter touch than may otherwise have been the case. ‘Guided autonomy’ sums up the approach. Secondary aims were to explore methods by which to elicit attribute preferences and to determine the extent to which preferences and performance matched.