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Laraib Abid
Student
Jinnah University for Women
Block 5C, Nazimabad,
Karachi, Pakistan
laraibabid94@gmail.com
Maryam Mukhtiar
Student
Jinnah University for Women
Block 5C, Nazimabad,
Karachi, Pakistan
maryammukhtiarkhan@gmail.co
m
Maryam Shaikh
Student
Jinnah University for Women
Block 5C, Nazimabad,
Karachi, Pakistan
maryamshaikh73@gmail.com
Syeda Ghalia Fatima Qadri
Student
Jinnah University for Women
Block 5C, Nazimabad,
Karachi, Pakistan
ghaliafatimaqadri@gmail.com
Abstract
Nowadays Ecommerce sites on the internet are becoming an easy way for expanding
businesses for business professionals and shopping online for individuals without
going physically to the markets. In the past few years the people are buying, selling,
products on e-commerce sites and they think of it as the most convenient and easiest
way for doing that. E-commerce sites are helping in the faster development of newly
created businesses, companies etc. because e-commerce sites are providing them a
platform for interacting with customers and knowing their demands of what they
need. With the increased usage of e-commerce sites, it must be kept in mind that
these websites are fulfilling the needs of usability and accessibility or not? This paper
will highlight some main issues regarding the use of the e-commerce websites for
blind, disabled and low vision people who face problems using them and due to which
popularity of e-commerce system is low in Pakistan compared to other countries. The
main objective of this research is to point out that e-commerce websites are following
the rules of Norman Nielson's heuristic principles for usability, and WCAG 2.0
guidelines for accessibility or not. The usability and accessibility for the normal and
the low vision individuals is not the same thing so by doing some task/questionnaire
based evaluation and by calculating results according to the hypotheses evaluation
this paper will provide recommendations and suggestions for improvement and
betterment of e-commerce sites.
Keywords
E-commerce sites, accessibility, usability, hypothesis, heuristic principles, WCAG 2.0, evaluation
Introduction
E-commerce sites are consists of the buying and merchandising of products or services through electronic systems
which are highly used by the business professionals around the world for small and large businesses. The internet is
providing popularity to e-business system and providing the efficiency of using it for the business professionals
anytime, anywhere. The popularity of E-commerce system is increasing day by day but in Pakistan these websites
are getting failed to make online purchasing easy for users. The main reasons behind the low rate of using these
websites are of usability and accessibility problems. In this paper, we will evaluate the usability and accessibility of
different Pakistani E-commerce websites on the basis of different hypotheses and by their proofs.
The evaluation of usability and accessibility of sites is done by the help of different surveys on the basis of pre and
post task sets/questionnaires. The normal and visually impaired users of different age groups ranging from 18-60,
the male/female users, the working/non-working users and the computing/ non-computing group of users were
involved in these surveys. In this research, the different 25 E-commerce websites were evaluated for usability and
accessibility testing. The accessibility testing is done on the basis of WCAG 2.0 guidelines by using tools of
accessibility evaluation and usability testing is done on the basis of Norman Nielsons heuristic principles and the
testing results are calculated and shown in the form of pie charts.
Focus of Study
In this paper we will point out the accessibility issues that are faced by the low vision and blind individuals and also
point out the usability issues that are because of not following the heuristic principles by Norman Nielson. For this
research study we have selected different E-commerce websites that are widely used in Pakistan by different
people. We have selected many of the Pakistani E-commerce websites that are selling online products for both
men/women and providing them products of good quality, so we can have clear results. The evaluation gives us the
understandable results and on the basis of those results we will give recommendations and suggestions for the
betterment of E-commerce websites in Pakistan.
Hypothesis
The following hypotheses were made before evaluation of all the selected sites.
H0: Pakistani e-commerce websites do not follow WCAG 2.0 guidelines; therefore they are not accessible
by disable persons.
H1: Most of the people prefer cash on delivery instead of other options.
H2: Most people do not know that to buy the products online, one have to login to the e-commerce
website.
H3: People are comfortable shopping on e-commerce websites than on Facebook.
H4: Most of the youngsters age below 30 prefers online shopping nowadays.
H5: Pakistani e-commerce websites do not follow the Nielson heuristic principles.
Accessibility Evaluation
Journal of Usability Studies
3
Proof to Hypothesis H0:
In order to prove our first hypothesis, we evaluated these websites according to WCAG rules with the help of
accessibility evaluation tools i.e. Power Mapper (25) and Wave (26). These tools helped us in evaluating the
accessibility of all websites according to WCAG 2.0 (27) rules. WCAG classified these rules into 3 levels:
1. Level A: In order to avoid these rules it will be impossible for many people to use website.
2.
Level AA: In order to avoid these rules some user groups find many difficulties in using website.
3.
Level AAA: In case of avoidance of these rules, some more specific user groups find it difficult to use.
Operable
Understandable
Robust
Problem Identified
Guideline
Violated
1.3.2
1.4.1
1.1.1
1.3.1
1.1.1
IMG ALT text must not be the same as the image name
1.3.1
1.1.1
2.4.1
2.1.1
2.3.2
3.1.1
3.2.2
4.1.2
4.1.2
2.4.4
2.4.4
2.2.2
2.2.2
2.1
3.3.2
4.1.1
Table 2. Level AA
4
Principles
Perceivable
Operable
Understandable
Problem Identified
Guideline
Violated
1.4.3
2.1
2.4.6
2.4.5
2.4.7
3.1.2
3.3
3.4
1.4.4
1.1.1
1.1.1
Results:
The results are the proof of our hypothesis. The above table shows the list of violated rules according to WCAG 2.0
guidelines. There are many violated rules from level A and AA so that it is impossible to fulfill requirements of level
AAA. i.e.: until the requirement of level A and AA does not fulfill, we cannot fulfill level AAA requirements.
Proof to Hypothesis H1
This hypothesis state that most people prefer cash on delivery over other payment methods available on ecommerce websites. To prove our hypothesis, we had conducted a survey of about 75 people. The findings of this
survey proved our hypothesis.
We noticed that amongst 64 people 78.1% people prefer cash on delivery, while 18 % people prefer credit card and
about 1% people prefer PayPal and visa.
In this survey we have also found that most people nowadays use these websites for shopping because online
shopping is less time consuming as refer to shopping in the markets. Here we noticed that about 44.4 % people
use e-commerce websites while 33.3% people do not use them and 14.3% people use it sometimes.
Journal of Usability Studies
Statistics showed that 54% people trust e-commerce websites nowadays. While 25.4% people do not trust these
websites and the others were confused about the trust factor.
Results:
The above results prove the stated hypothesis as the results shows that most people prefer cash on delivery over
other payments methods, while we have also noticed that nowadays the trend of buying goods online is increasing
rapidly. Users prefer cash on delivery might because they are more comfortable with this method because mostly
want to see the product before paying for it so by this methods they satisfy themselves that they are buying the
right product they want.
Proof to Hypothesis H2
Mostly people do not usually create an account on e-commerce websites. Calculations shows that 71% people do
not have account on ecommerce websites. Mostly shop from their friends or familys registration id or they just
select the item and request any family member or friend to shop, so that they dont know about the registration
process.
Mostly people do not think that it is necessary to create an account to shop on e-commerce website. As statistics
shows that 48.4 % people do not think it is necessary to create an account to shop on e-commerce website and 25
% people think it is necessary while others dont know about it.
When people were asked about why they have to create an account on e-commerce website, many of them said
that to sale a product we need to make an account, while 27.7% people think that to buy a product we need to
create an account while others have selected mixed options.
Results:
Most people really dont know that to buy a product they need to do registration to the website. Most people just
select the item once and take the help of relative or friend to buy that product, so they actually do not know how to
buy it or mostly just visit the site for product information. So these questionnaires thus proof our hypothesis that
most people do not know about signup.
Proof to Hypothesis H3
According to this hypothesis, people are comfortable shopping on e-commerce website then on Facebook because
they feel that on Facebook their data is insecure as compare to e-commerce website.
The survey result shows that 68 % do not shop on Facebook, while 22% people shop on Facebook and 11% do it
sometimes.
Ratios prove that 3% people found Facebook totally secure while 27% people found it insecure and 46% found
Facebook shopping sometimes secure and sometimes insecure, while 14.3% people are agreed and 7.9 % people
strongly disagree.
When users were asked about their views that do they agree with the statement of shopping on e-commerce
website is the better option than Facebook then about 10% users Strongly agreed with the statement,37% people
were just agree with the statement and 40% users were neutral because they were confused with the statement.
Journal of Usability Studies
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Result:
We came to know as the trend of shopping online is increasing, more and more people getting into this and their
trust level towards online shopping through e-commerce websites is also increasing. People trust Facebook less
than any e-commerce website as results proved. We also came to know that many people do not shop on Facebook
because; they feel insecure that anyone can cheat them easily on Facebook but not on authorized e-commerce
website.
Proof to Hypothesis H4
Mostly internet users nowadays are our young generation. They want everything in their hand with no time, so,
they found online shopping an easy way to shop as compare to shop in the market.
Our survey was conducted by people of different age groups but according to the results many of the people age
lies below 30 are likely to do online shopping. As shown above, our survey includes 82% youngsters.
This shows that among 61 people 49% people shop on e-commerce sites, while 34% people do not shop on these
sites. This result shows that mostly young generation likes to do online shopping which is the proof of our
hypothesis.
Results:
The above calculations and according to their results we can say that youngsters are the real source for the
popularity of e-commerce sites. They prefer online shopping the most for buying products.
Heuristic Evaluation
Proof to Hypothesis H5
This hypothesis states that the Pakistani e-commerce websites do not fulfills the requirements of Nielsons design
principles (28). There are two stages through which we have proved our hypothesis. In the first stage, we have
conducted heuristic evaluation through Nielson design principles which have pointed some positive and negative
findings of websites. In the second stage, we have given task set to different people and evaluate these websites
by the results of post study questionnaire which was related to the given task set.
Usability Evaluation Stage 1: Heuristic Evaluation
a) Positive findings
Journal of Usability Studies
8
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
If the user enters an invalid email address on a web form that requires for order completion, an error
occurred and the page does not proceed to the next page or sometimes most sites give a sample like
please enter an email address in this format: email@address.com.
The field containing the error only that is highlighted or prompting an error so that user can easily
understand where the mistake has been made.
Error prevention
In case sensitive scene sites provides instructions like password length must be at least 8 characters, 1
uppercase letter, at least 1 special character etc. or in case password do not match to prevent from
errors.
Sites do not allow invalid emails and contact numbers as they can be used in future.
When the user is deleting information that may be difficult to recreate, some sites offer users a
confirmation to delete the data.
Additionally, some sites provide the ability to undo actions that users could accidentally commit and,
consequently, lose important information.
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7.
8.
9.
b) Negative findings
From all the research and evaluation, we found out some issues in websites.
1.
Cosmetic Issues
Suggestion: these buttons should be present at each step and should be clear for user understanding.
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Every site should have the function that by clicking the image of any product will open its detail or
specification or related products so that user can choose from them. This is the screenshot from
one of the site that is showing this issue.
Suggestion: View detail or related products should be mentioned with these images.
2.
Minor Issues
From 20 sites (we have evaluated) have the choice of increasing quantity of particular item or
product we are adding in our cart but in some sites the quantity increases but the number showing
the quantity does not change? Above screenshot is showing this visibility issue that the quantity
has increased but the number showing the quantity is 1.
Suggestion: As the user increase the quantity of the product, the number should also increases.
Journal of Usability Studies
11
Help option:
o
Sometimes help button or option is not available for any query or inquiry for users.
Suggestion: Help option should be available at all stages user may need help at any stage.
Next item:
o
Sometimes next item is not available and it is not shown anywhere and user keeps clicking
to see next item.
Suggestion: If there is not next item available it should be shown or displaying somewhere that no next item is
available.
Suggestion: Help option should be consistent and easy to reach for users, so that whenever users want help they
can easily reach to that option.
Suggestion: Chat button should be placed at consistent position where user can easily find out.
Error prevention
o
Invalid email domains:
In most sites email address domains are registered (e.g. gmail.com, yahoo.com, Hotmail.com etc.)
but in some sites fake users enter invalid domain (e.g. firstname@somewhere.com) and their
account still create.
Suggestion: If a user enters these types of addresses they should not get registered or their account should not be
created by any site.
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Users have to recall help option rather than recall.
Suggestion: Help or chat option should be easy to recognize, so user will not take time to find out this button.
Suggestion: These important options should be highlighted, popup displayed or clearly visible to the users.
o
Slider moves very fast
Most of the time slider moves very fast and user get confuse which may cause bad effect
on user.
Suggestion: slider should remain at least 2 seconds, so that user can see and understand.
Suggestion: All products should be provided with detailed information or enough information for user
understanding.
3.
Major Issues
Suggestion: Info or detail of any product should be given properly or it should remain until user moves the cursor
somewhere else from that products image.
o
How to go next?
Sometimes users get confuse in what to do next.
Suggestion: for each step or going on another steps instruction should be given properly, so that user will not take
time in ordering something.
o
Hover effect
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Whenever user moves the cursor on any image or option, it hovers but sometimes hover effect
does not work properly or may be light colors used by the sites developer which is difficult to
recognize hover effect.
Suggestion: Proper colors should be used, so the user can easily recognize hover effect.
Match between system and real world
o
Irrelevant icon functionality
When user done his shopping, some sites give option of Finish shopping.
Suggestion: Appropriate icons should be used with every option which may not cause users confusion.
o
14
This is about How to order page whose information is missing and no any other alternative or
sorry message is given by which users may face difficulty to order.
Suggestion: Proper order method should be given, if not available due to some reasons then any alternative or
sorry message should be displayed which will prove as plus point for that site.
Suggestion: comment option should be available, so that users can do comments about the product.
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Suggestion: Appropriate fonts should be used, so that user can easily read out each text.
Suggestion: Relevant statements should be shown which help user to recognize the error.
Error prevention
o
All info is displaying together which is difficult to understand for user where to click and if
a user clicks anywhere irrelevant pages open.
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Suggestion: Proper list of all options should be clearly visible so the user will click on the right option.
o
For checkout, it is not asked by the user for confirmation it simply goes on checkout
process, it may be accidently clicked on checkout button.
Suggestion: A confirmation popup for going on checkout process should asked by the user.
o
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The above highlighted picture is given with its short name which is not clearly defined the
products brand.
Suggestion: Proper brand or company name should be written with all the products.
Suggestion: After completion of order user should be able to see his ordered items just to verify what he has
ordered.
Suggestion: Slider moving buttons or navigation bar should be given so the user can move slider according to his
choice.
o
Same colors re used so the user has to face difficulty in distinguishing between
background and image.
Suggestion: Different colors should be used which makes difference between background and foreground, so the
user will take less time in understanding.
Suggestion: Report option should be available which makes user to feel secure that he can also report a problem.
4.
Catastrophic Issues
User is not allowed to jump to the next step without login to the website or cannot buy any product before login in
to the site.
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Suggestion: Easy process will use for buying the product users do not want to create an account or login in to the
site for buying the product.
Suggestion: There will be an option of return policy for the confused customers so the customer will buy the
product more efficiently.
Suggestion: There must be online chat and FAQs option on the site which will contain the information about the
problem or help for the user online.
Results:
According to Usability evaluation stage 2, it has been proved that our hypothesis is correct. The results are clearly
understandable for proving that e-commerce sites do not follow the Norman Nielsons heuristic principles.
Recommendations
Remember what youre selling, its your product, not your website: A good e-commerce site
should focus attention on the products, not on the store design. Make things simpler.
Dont force customers to register before shopping. Remove the restriction of signup you place in the
way of customer before purchasing, it will make your website more efficient.
Make your security and privacy policy easily available. Sometimes users are not satisfied for online
shopping because of the security so you need to convince the customer in other ways about the security
of their online shopping and importance of personal information they place on the site will be secure.
Add to Cart Button: Make it nice and clear or it should resemble with real world cart so it is easy for
customer to recognize quickly.
Return Policy: A good e-commerce sites should have return policy which make the website more usable
and flexible.
Provide full detail of products: People need complete information about products so provide complete
information through which user can influence.
Color Option: Provide color options for products or show the image how the product looks like.
Online chat: Customers have questions related to the product or purchase process so offering online
chat can be more convenient for customers.
Highlight Discount: if you r offering discount on products make it highlight or clear and provide
complete detail.
Keep your product and category structure simple: Make your product category structure simpler,
divide the products into sub categories so it will be easy to navigate and find products for users.
Product Page Font Visibility: Grab visitors attention: Right color combination, font size, and font
color ensures that customers do not have any problem viewing product details and they can find whatever
they want easily. Use fine combination of colors so customers get attracted towards the products for
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which they are looking for in the shortest possible time. So, every element should be designed to grab
users attention.
Conclusion
By the growing era of E-commerce technology, competition among different countries is also increasing for the vast
development of e-businesses. Users want the system attractive and much more easy to use.
To design a usable system, designer should follow some guidelines which will help in making their product more
usable and make user experience more enjoyable.
In this study we have analyzed the problems in our e-commerce websites and we have tried to share the user
experience about these websites. This study also includes many suggestions which will also help the new comers in
this field and through this we can also help young researchers.
The design principles should be followed in case of designing a good system and to be in the competition. To
prosper IT field of Pakistan, designers should keep themselves up to date with latest principles and guideline so
that we can compete others on international level.
There are not only negative findings but many of the positive findings we observed during the research which is a
very positive sign. Our aim should be to improve our quality of work so that Pakistan's E-commerce system
prospers day and night.
Acknowledgements
We are firstly, thankful to Almighty ALLAH who has helped us in completing this research study by time. And
secondly, we are sincerely thankful to our course coordinator Miss Narmeen Shawoo Bawany, who has helped us
throughout this research and motivates us towards hard working for this research study. This would not be possible
to complete this study without her sincere guidance, knowledge and kindness.
We are also thankful to our friends, class mates, university fellow students and family members who helped us
throughout this research by taking part in our task sets and questionnaire surveys whose responses and
cooperation helped us in compiling our results.
Statement of contribution
1)
Laraib Abid: Have done 25% work in this report including surveys, task sets of usability and accessibility
(complete) evaluation, citations and referencing.
2)
Maryam Shaikh: Have done 25% work in this report including surveys, task sets of usability (complete)
and accessibility evaluation, and referencing.
3)
Maryam Mukhtiar: Have done 25% work in this report including surveys, task sets of usability and
accessibility evaluation, and complete formatting of document.
4)
Syeda Ghalia Fatima Qadri: Have done 25% work in this report including surveys, task sets of usability and
accessibility evaluation, and calculated results from responses.
Reference:
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