Users’ perceptions of the arrangement of links in government websites: an investigation using think-aloud and interview methods

Abstract

The aim of this study is to find out what users think about the arrangement of links in government websites. The paper describes a study which used both think-aloud and interview methods. The study investigates real online government websites in the users natural environment of Internet use. Four online government websites are the object of the present study. It also investigates where users look first when using a government website, the search strategy and the link characteristics which help or hinder users in finding information on screen. The findings show that where the participants look first and their search strategy are both dependent on the layout of the website. In addition, the findings show the link features that help the users find information, such as a clean website, with not too many links. The findings also indicate that think-aloud and interview method is an efficient way to record users perceptions of real websites.

Assessing the Usability of a Mobile App in a Remote Environment: Combining Think Aloud With a User Experience Scale Questionnaire

“…The concurrent thinking aloud method (also referred to as classic, McDonald et al 2016) was first introduced to the literature by Ericsson and Simon (1980) and refers to a test in which participants are asked to verbalise their thoughts while performing tasks (Souto, 2013). Another type of thinking aloud, also introduced by Ericsson and Simon (1980), is retrospective thinking aloud, in which participants verbalise their thoughts after performing tasks.…”

“…Among these methods, the think-aloud protocol stands out as one of the most popular methods in usability research (Nielsen, 2012). The think-aloud protocol is considered a highly valued (Fan et al 2019) and effective method for usability testing to learn people's thoughts about mediating the completion of a task (Souto, 2013). It has been used for many years in various research areas such as cognitive psychology (Davison et al, 1997) and human-computer interaction (Ramey et al, 2006).…”