Website Usability: A Case Study of Marks & Spencer

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Usability Evaluation

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
1. Select a suitable interactive system..........................................................................................5
2. Produce a brief description of system and users....................................................................10
3. Produce a brief description of a subset of functionality considered.......................................10
4. Formulate a set of 5 precise, testable usability requirements.................................................11
5. Define and describe a systematic evaluation procedure............................................................15
6. Apply the procedure and document the results..........................................................................16
7. Write a brief evaluation of the usability of the interactive system............................................17
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................19
References......................................................................................................................................20

List of Figures
Figure 1: Logo.................................................................................................................................4
Figure 2: Marks and Spencer Website.............................................................................................4
Figure 3: Website Hyperlinks..........................................................................................................5
Figure 4: Interactive photos and videos...........................................................................................6
Figure 5: User Reviews...................................................................................................................7
Figure 6: rating and Feedbacks........................................................................................................7
Figure 7: Freebies, Gifts, and sale...................................................................................................8
Figure 8: Usability Requirements flow throughout the development phase of the website..........11
Figure 9: Usability Measurement Model for M & S.....................................................................12

Introduction
The report will be generated on the basis of based on the analysis of the Marks & Spencer
Website which is an interactive system that defines the usability requirements of an interactive
website. The major discussion of the will be the requirements of an interactive website with the
main focus of the discussion be on the usability factors of website design. The main highlights
of the report that will be discussed in the report includes the interactive features of Marks &
Spencer website requirements of the user that are required for usability testing, usability
evaluation, usability evaluation of Mark & Spencer website with the help of systematic standard
methodologies and proper documentation of the usability evaluation as well as testing. The
report will provide a proper and practical understanding of system usability factors.

1. Select a suitable interactive system
Marks & Spencer
Figure 1: Logo
Source: (Corporate.Marks&spencer, 2018)
The online website of Marks and Spencer is an interactive system that provides a great user
experience by providing an interactive shopping experience for its customers. The website holds
certain functionalities that basically provide its customers a rich shopping experience that attracts
more customer traffic to the website by engaging their customers to the site actively through
maximum visibility of the website features that are informative as well as attractive. The M & S
website helps the users in performing activities that are a task host that helps in changing the
perception of the user regarding the display of the website (Tsiaousis et.al, 2014).

Figure 2: Marks and Spencer Website
Source: (Zyxware, 2019)
Following are some of the features of the Marks & Spacer that makes it a user interactive
system:
Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks that are provided on the site are the main factors that keep the customers of Marks
and Spencer more engaged to the website. The hyperlinks are basically provided on the page that
contains the information of the products that help in the easy navigation of the website by the
users as well as keeps the interest of the users on the site with a more effective targeted manner.
Marks & Spencer effective added hyperlinks to the product pages such that provided the
customers with easy and effective access to each website pages which is positive feedback of the
customers towards increasing their sales as well the experience of the users.

Figure 3: Website Hyperlinks
Source: (Ivanov et.al, 2015)
Photos and videos that are interactive
The photos and video provided on the website of M&S are interactive such that the customers
can connect moiré to the product as the major problem that is experienced by a customer while
shopping through an online platform is that the customer cannot experience the products in
person prior to purchasing of the product. An example of the real world is provided through the
photos and videos of the products by Marks & Spencer (Kaur et.al, 2016).

Figure 4: Interactive photos and videos
Source: (Kaur et.al, 2016)
The Reviews that are generated by the user
The users of the website are allowed to interact with the website by sharing online reviews that
enables the customers to communicate with Marks & Spencer as a brand that also helps in
increasing the time of the engagement of the visitors on the site. There are certain negative
reviews in the site that builds a trust of the user that the reviews are authentic and realistic and
are not censored.

Figure 5: User Reviews
Source: (Ivanov et.al, 2015)
Ratings and Feedbacks
The website provides the users the privilege to provide feedback about the site that helps in
providing more information as well as the insight of the M & S interactive website. That helps in
maintaining the confidence of the customer about the user experience that they will be getting
connecting to the brand (McDowell et.al, 2016).
Figure 6: rating and Feedbacks

Source: (McDowell et.al, 2016)
Freebies, Gifts, and Rewards
Sale, as well as free product services, is also provided by the website that attracts more users to
the website. This increases the interaction with the user by increasing the excitement of the user
in shopping with M & S.
Figure 7: Freebies, Gifts, and sale
Source: (Ivanov et.al, 2015)
Newsletter
The newsletter is provided on the site that basically increased the interactivity of the M & S
website. Newsletters are sent to the customers of Marks & Spenser that contains sharable
contents that can easily share by the customers to their relatives, friends, etc. Even the customers
that are registered with the site of M & S are sent regular notifications through a newsletter that
is scheduled. This basically makes the website more interactive as well as increase the interest of
the visitors to the site (Ivanov et.al, 2015).

2. Produce a brief description of system and users
Users
There are several types of users that are generally found surfing a website. The types of users
surfing the website is generally identified in the testing of website usability. The success, as well
as the driving force to users on a website, knows the type of the users that are visiting the website
as the development of a website is completely dependent on the type of the user as well as the
according to the needs of the user.
System
A website system is basically for the management of the content of the website. A website
system helps the website in the collaboration, authoring as well as administration that helps the
website developers who do not have immense knowledge of the website development along with
less knowledge of programming as well as markup language, the system helps in the
management of the contents of the website (Breakey et.al, 2013).
3. Produce a brief description of the subset of functionality considered
The subsets of the functionalities of a website basically help in defining the navigation of the
website pages as well as the ease of the operation of the website. This also helps the user of the
site in getting the information from the website easily without any repeated consultation.
Following are the subset of the functionalities that are defined for the M & S website:
Planning of the design: This involves the designing of the website completely ion the
basis of the need of the customer following the principles of basic website designing.
Design consistency: This involves designing of the website that is appealing visually as
well as easy to navigate for the users.
Navigation of the site: The website is provided with links as well as hyperlinks that are
on each page of the website that easily guides the users through the website pages.

Standards of the website: The website is updated with the latest tools and languages
such as CSS, HTML, CGI, PERL, etc that fulfills the expectation of the client.
Designing of the graphics: The websites are to be designed such that it looks
informative as well as attractive as the impression of the website is dependent on the look
and feel of the website.
Purpose of the website: Clear as well as concise information of the purpose of the
website is to be delivered to the users such that the users are informed about the brand
and the products it offers.
Content: This is one of the most important factors that govern the traffic to the website.
The content should be such that it provides more information about the product details to
the customers (Dingli et, al. 2014).
4. Formulate a set of 5 precise, testable usability requirements
Complete documentation of the functions of the users, as well as the result of the analysis of the
functional components, is generated as the requirement of the usability of a system. For attaining
the goal of usability for a system the user’s requirement must be considered as well as met as per
respective users of the system. Usability testing ensures that the interface of the interactive
website should be such that users are easily navigated through the system and the users need not
consult every time to some manual instruction for surfing through the website.
Following are the basic usability requirements that are considered while designing an interactive
website:
Use efficiency: The objective of the website can easily be accomplished without the
errors of the user or only a few user errors.
The perceived workload is low: This requirement ensures that the website is user
interfaced that is simple and not intimidating, frustrating as well as more demanding in
terms of search requirements or login requirements.
Intuitiveness: The website is required to be easily useable as well as easy learning for the
user; easy navigation, heading, error messages or the help messages are in easily
understandable language, buttons are simple.