IMAT5209 Human Interaction: Usability Evaluation Report

This report presents a usability evaluation of the Marks and Spencer e-commerce website, conducted as part of the IMAT5209 Human Interaction in Systems Design module at De Montfort University. The report begins by describing the interactive system and its users, outlining the website's functionality and its target audience. It then details the use cases, including buyers, sellers, publishers, and administrators, and identifies the usability requirements, encompassing environmental, data, usability, user experience, functional, and user needs. The evaluation methodology employed is heuristic evaluation, which is described in detail. The report proceeds to outline the evaluation process and presents the findings, including areas of strength and weakness in the website's design and usability. The evaluation focuses on the e-commerce website of Marks and Spencer. The report concludes with a discussion of the findings and potential recommendations for improving the website's user experience and overall effectiveness.

Running head: USABILITY EVALUATION OF E-COMMERCE WEBSITE
USABILITY EVALUATION OF E-COMMERCE WEBSITE
Name of student
Name of university
Author’s note:

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USABILITY EVALUATION OF E-COMMERCE WEBSITE
Table of Contents
Part ONE: The interactive system and its users.............................................................2
Part TWO: The use cases...............................................................................................2
Part THREE: The usability requirements......................................................................4
Part FOUR: The evaluation methodology......................................................................6
Part FIVE: The evaluation.............................................................................................8
Part SIX: The findings of the evaluation........................................................................9
Bibliography.................................................................................................................12

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USABILITY EVALUATION OF E-COMMERCE WEBSITE
Part ONE: The interactive system and its users
The chosen interactive system is the marks and spencer website that provides the
customers with the ability of buying the online products of the company using the website.
This website comprises of the extensive and simplified interface for allowing the sellers and
the customers for easily communicating with each other and then select the kind of the best
product as per the requirements of the customers1. The e-commerce website requires the
customers with the positive user experience for being competitive and successful. The
website of the Marks and Spencer focuses on this business requirement and fulfil the
requirements of the customers of the company. It enables the company to reach the new
boundaries of the markets and expand their business significantly.
Part TWO: The use cases
The components of the use case of the website are:
Buyer: The buyers could be described as the people who intend to buy any product
from the website and obtain the products. They also manage their cart on their profile and if it
required by the customer then they could save the products for buying later and they also
perform the transaction on the website.
Seller: the sellers could be described as the manufacturers who provide their products
on the website for selling. These are the various centres where the products of the company
are available and the system provides the customers with the least distance suppliers for
allowing the reaching of the products in the minimum time. The company comprises of the
several sellers in different location who sell the items whenever any order is placed from the
website.
1 Shaheen, Farzana, Muhammad Ghayyur, and Ghazala Yasmeen. "An investigation of training and
development programs on employees satisfaction: A case study of Marks and Spencer London, UK." PUTAJ-
Humanities and Social Sciences 21, no. 1 (2014): 133-142.

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USABILITY EVALUATION OF E-COMMERCE WEBSITE
Publisher: The publisher manages the reviews that are to be placed in the website of
the company. If any kind of filtering is required regarding the comments and the reviews of
the products that are sold to the customers, then the publishers manages the reviews and post
the appropriate reviews regarding the products2. The systems that has been implemented in
the company website manages the reviews as per the time it has been made on the website.
Admin: The admin of the website manages the inventory of the company and includes
any product that is of high demand and they are also tasked with the proper management of
the inventory in the situations when any sale is provided for the customers3. The
authentication of the user details of the customers of the website is also managed by the
admin of the website. The appropriate comments are provided for the reviews of the products
that are bought by the customers and after proper analysis with the sellers of the company,
the comment is written in the website.
2 Walia, Surinder, and Di Marks-Maran. "Leadership development through action
learning sets: An evaluation study." Nurse education in practice 14, no. 6 (2014): 612-619.
3 Vinogradskiy, Yevgeniy, Leah Schubert, Quentin Diot, Timothy Waxweiller, Phillip
Koo, Richard Castillo, Edward Castillo et al. "Regional lung function profiles of stage I and
III lung cancer patients: an evaluation for functional avoidance radiation
therapy." International Journal of Radiation Oncology* Biology* Physics 95, no. 4 (2016):
1273-1280.

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USABILITY EVALUATION OF E-COMMERCE WEBSITE
Part THREE: The usability requirements
The usability requirements for the analysis of the Marks and spencer website could
be categorised as the:

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USABILITY EVALUATION OF E-COMMERCE WEBSITE
 Environmental Requirements: The environment could play the significant role
while determining the best method of communicating with the users through the
interface design. There are several situations when there are user who might have
some disability and are unable to interact with the website. The environmental
factors like the climate changes or any kind of disaster could impact on the use of
the interactive system by the users.
 Data Requirements: The data requirements assists the developers in
comprehending the methods using which the data would be gathered and utilised
for planning and building the database with the proper functionality, which could
support the information flow. When the collection of the information is being
execute from any user on the website, it is essential to have the knowledge
regarding the proper mechanism of storing and formatting the information for
making the effective use of the information in the later times.
 Usability Requirements: The interface must be easy to learn regarding the use and
it should also be easier to remember in using. The website should be easy to
handle and easy to remember for allowing the customers to make the quick
transaction each time they log in the website using the proper credentials.
 User Experience Requirements: The user experience requirements has the most
significant impact on each of the other requirements. This is observed due to the
fact that in any user centered design process, the priority of the users is on top.
Particularly, the users requirements and the preferences for any interface design
must be supported to the level that they could provide the users with the appealing
view and the memorable experience and also the simplified means of completing
the tasks. The experience of any user could be significantly improved by the
addition of the elements of the delight to the interactions of the users.

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USABILITY EVALUATION OF E-COMMERCE WEBSITE
 Functional Requirements: As soon as the features of the website are noted down,
there must be the proper knowledge provided to the customers for describing the
methods by which the features would function for supporting the workflow of the
users and the stages that are to be taken for completing any task. the respondents
are frequently observed to be immensely eager in providing the wish list of the
desired characteristics for the interface design. Some of the features might be the
common features and the some of the features might help in adding the significant
value for the interface design along with the method of solving any usability
issues that were persistent on the present design.
 User Requirements: The user requirements defines the methods by which the
interface could meet the cognitive and the physical requirements of the intended
users of the website. The users must be provided with the ability of effectively and
comfortably utilise the interface for accomplishing the goals, which are designed
to support from the website. The contextual text analysis could be extensively
exploited for gaining the insight regarding the methods by which the users would
expect the interface to behave, by the observation of the presently methods of
performing any task that could be executed by the interface.
Part FOUR: The evaluation methodology
The selected methodology for executing the evaluation of the website of the Marks
and Spence is the heuristics methodology. The heuristic evaluation is the method of the
usability inspection for the website that helps in the identification of the problems in the
usability in the design of the user interface. It particularly includes the evaluators
investigating the interface along with judging of the compliance with the recognised usability
principles. The evaluation methods are presently vastly practised as it is taught in the digital
sector where the user interface are frequently designed in the short time span on the budget

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USABILITY EVALUATION OF E-COMMERCE WEBSITE
that might restrict the major amount of the money that is available for providing any other
kind of the interface testing. The major intention of the heuristic evaluation is the
identification of any kind of problems that is associated with design of the user interfaces.
The heuristics evaluation are among the major informal methods of the usability inspection in
the sector of the human computer interaction. There are several sets of the heuristics of the
usability design, which might not be as exclusive and cover the several aspects of the design
of the user interface. Frequently, the problems of the usability that have been discovered are
then categorised on the numeric scale as per the estimated impact on the user performance or
any acceptance. Frequently, heuristic evaluation is executed in context of the use cases for
providing the valuable feedback to majority of the developers on level of the interface that
could be considered as compatible with the desired preferences and the requirements of the
users.
The simplicity of the heuristics evaluation is immensely beneficial at early stages of
the design. This particular method of the usability inspection do not need any user testing that
could be costly for the companies. The heuristics evaluation needs solely one expert that
helps in decreasing the complexity as well as the expended time for the evaluation. Majority
of the heuristic evaluation could be easily accomplished in significant less amount of time.
The majority of the time needed for could vary with size of artefact, the complexity of the
artefact, the major intention for the review, nature of the issues of the usability, which could
develop in review as well as the competence of reviewers. With the utilisation of the heuristic
evaluation before the user testing would significantly reduce the severity and the number of
the design errors that are discovered by the users. Even though the heuristic evaluation could
easily identify the major issues of the usability in less time, the major criticism that is often
identified is results could be immensely influenced by knowledge of the reviewers who are
the experts.

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USABILITY EVALUATION OF E-COMMERCE WEBSITE
Part FIVE: The evaluation
The evaluation of the website of the company is done for understanding the most
suitable methods of the assisting designers for developing the appropriate options in the
website in order to obtain the increased levels of success. The evaluation comprises of small
set of the evaluators those who have been tasked with the performing of the examination of
interface as well as then be the judge for determining the compliance with recognised
philosophies of the usability. Even though it could be discovered that evidence that is gained
from this evaluation could be not as efficient as results that could be attained from the
examination of the real users, this method of the heuristic evaluation is particularly utilised as
it provides the technique, which is majorly cost-effective and it has the ability of gathering
the huge proportion of issues in the complete design as well as the usability with the very
minimal evaluators. In the situation of the heuristic evaluation of the Marks and Spencer
website, the heuristic evaluation has been conducted with the offering of the evaluators with
the task of executing the inspection of interface of the website. When the completion of the
evaluations is done by the evaluators, it was allowed to the evaluators in having the facility of
communication as well as aggregate the discoveries of this research. The major significance
of executing this evaluation is the assuring of the independent and the unbiased evaluations.
The early stages of the evaluation was conducted for evaluation of the major proportion of
the interface provided to the users and this evaluation was majorly observed to be based on
the principles determined for the usability. Then the next step that was conducted was the
heuristic evaluation revision as well as the refinements of the results for the sole gaining of
the ten set of the heuristic. According to several researchers, it could be understood that if the
website is incapable of having the appealing nature to execute the major task of attracting the
new users on the domain, then the usability of that website could be determined effectively.

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USABILITY EVALUATION OF E-COMMERCE WEBSITE
As soon as the sole context of the analysis has been established, the small group of the
business academics and the experts were tasked with the verification of the issues of the both
formal as well as the conceptual issues has been chosen. This specific group of the experts
has been chosen on the basis of the experience in the profession as well as the knowledge on
context from perspectives of the both the professional as well as the means of the academic.
When the session of the evaluation in progress, the evaluators has been tasked with the
examination of the user interface of the website many times, and then inspect the various
elements as well as perform the extensively determined set of the representative tasks. After
the analysis was complete, the listing of the issues was done by the evaluators along with the
discovery of the appropriate practices along with the comparison with recognised principles
of the heuristics. The evaluators were then allowed the contemplation of any kind of the
additional principles or any results, which appears from expert view and it is associated to
specific perspective.
Part SIX: The findings of the evaluation
After the evaluation of the website by the evaluators, it was observed there are several
issues associated with the website that is preventing the users to become the regular
customers of the company4. In the initial stage of the problem awareness and the recognition,
deprived of the recognition of the requirement of the purchase could not take place. The
customers utilise the tools for the search and the navigation for discovering the service or any
product that covers the requirements. The website needs to stimulate all the desire for
purchasing in order to improve the requirements5. In the next stage that is the information
4 P. Wilson, John, and Colin Beard. "Constructing a sustainable learning organization:
Marks and Spencer's first Plan A learning store." The Learning Organization 21, no. 2
(2014): 98-112.
5 Kur, Annette. "Trade marks function, don’t they? CJEU jurisprudence and unfair
competition principles." IIC-International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition
Law 45, no. 4 (2014): 434-454.

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USABILITY EVALUATION OF E-COMMERCE WEBSITE
search, the customers are involved, where there is the requirement of recognising the
problems and the requirements for discovering the feeling of the customers regarding the
most appropriate solution. The customer majorly search for the sources of the information
connected to products that could cover the requirements6. The next stage involves the
decision making of the purchasing. In this stage, the consumers evaluates the various
products based on the varying attributes of the product for discovering the products that
provides the major benefits. In the simplified as well as the logical manner, the contents
associated with the products have been organised where each of the category signifies all the
subsections as well as the specific items. Along with this, the analysis could be made that the
improved quality of several of the information about the products majorly qualifies as the
complete and accurate website along with the availability of the additional information.
However, it could be determined that the map button on the website has been missing in
website, which would help in the simplification of the navigation of users on the website.
with sense of the process of the transaction or any of the shopping has been concerned,
evaluations that has been discovered proves that there is the simple and the secure process of
the transaction of the company. This offers the customers with assurance of the safe and the
secured details of the payments and however this website majorly emphasises on the task of
the securing of transaction details without the merchant or the bank. This is the major reason
why the extensive anonymity is provided to the customers7. This process of the shopping has
been completed for all the customers in the four simple steps. The company also offers the
customers with the functionality of the cash on delivery for eliminating the hesitation of the
6 Varley, Rosemary. Retail product management: buying and merchandising.
Routledge, 2014.
7 Rønfeldt, Thomas. "Use of Foreign Losses: The Advocate General Wants to Turn on
the Marks & Spencer Exemption, but the ECJ Rejects the Argument and States That EU Law
Constitutes Rights to Deduct Foreign Losses." Intertax 43, no. 11 (2015): 688-708.

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USABILITY EVALUATION OF E-COMMERCE WEBSITE
several customers to pay on the online platform8. This helped the Marks and Spencer to gain
more customers as the people gained the opportunity of paying afterwards the product was
delivered to them9. The company also provides the functionality of return of any delivery that
might not be according the requirements of the customers10. The website consists of the
sections of the return policy that could be read by the customers to understand the process
using which the products could be returned or replaced11. Then the customers could visit the
orders in their account and then appeal for the return of any particular product12.
8 Islam, Md, Md Khan, and Mashiur Rahman. "Environmental sustainability
evaluation of apparel product: a case study on knitted T-shirt." Journal of Textiles 2014
(2014).
9 Scott, Peter, and James T. Walker. "Barriers to ‘industrialisation’for interwar British
retailing? The case of Marks & Spencer Ltd." Business History 59, no. 2 (2017): 179-201.
10 Jones, Peter, David Hillier, and Daphne Comfort. "Assurance of the leading UK
food retailers' corporate social responsibility/sustainability reports." Corporate
Governance14, no. 1 (2014): 130-138.
11 Shen, Bin, Jin-Hui Zheng, Pui-Sze Chow, and Ka-Yan Chow. "Perception of
fashion sustainability in online community." The Journal of the textile institute 105, no. 9
(2014): 971-979.
12 Bian, Xuemei, and Cleopatra Veloutsou. "Consumers’ attitudes regarding non-
deceptive counterfeit brands in the UK and China." In Advances in Chinese Brand
Management, pp. 331-350. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2017.

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USABILITY EVALUATION OF E-COMMERCE WEBSITE
Bibliography
Shaheen, Farzana, Muhammad Ghayyur, and Ghazala Yasmeen. "An investigation of training
and development programs on employees satisfaction: A case study of Marks and Spencer
London, UK." PUTAJ-Humanities and Social Sciences 21, no. 1 (2014): 133-142.
Walia, Surinder, and Di Marks-Maran. "Leadership development through action learning
sets: An evaluation study." Nurse education in practice 14, no. 6 (2014): 612-619.
Vinogradskiy, Yevgeniy, Leah Schubert, Quentin Diot, Timothy Waxweiller, Phillip Koo,
Richard Castillo, Edward Castillo et al. "Regional lung function profiles of stage I and III
lung cancer patients: an evaluation for functional avoidance radiation therapy." International
Journal of Radiation Oncology* Biology* Physics 95, no. 4 (2016): 1273-1280.
P. Wilson, John, and Colin Beard. "Constructing a sustainable learning organization: Marks
and Spencer's first Plan A learning store." The Learning Organization 21, no. 2 (2014): 98-
112.
Kur, Annette. "Trade marks function, don’t they? CJEU jurisprudence and unfair competition
principles." IIC-International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law 45, no. 4
(2014): 434-454.
Varley, Rosemary. Retail product management: buying and merchandising. Routledge, 2014.
Rønfeldt, Thomas. "Use of Foreign Losses: The Advocate General Wants to Turn on the
Marks & Spencer Exemption, but the ECJ Rejects the Argument and States That EU Law
Constitutes Rights to Deduct Foreign Losses." Intertax 43, no. 11 (2015): 688-708.
Islam, Md, Md Khan, and Mashiur Rahman. "Environmental sustainability evaluation of
apparel product: a case study on knitted T-shirt." Journal of Textiles 2014 (2014).

13
USABILITY EVALUATION OF E-COMMERCE WEBSITE
Scott, Peter, and James T. Walker. "Barriers to ‘industrialisation’for interwar British
retailing? The case of Marks & Spencer Ltd." Business History 59, no. 2 (2017): 179-201.
Jones, Peter, David Hillier, and Daphne Comfort. "Assurance of the leading UK food
retailers' corporate social responsibility/sustainability reports." Corporate Governance14, no.
1 (2014): 130-138.
Shen, Bin, Jin-Hui Zheng, Pui-Sze Chow, and Ka-Yan Chow. "Perception of fashion
sustainability in online community." The Journal of the textile institute 105, no. 9 (2014):
971-979.
Bian, Xuemei, and Cleopatra Veloutsou. "Consumers’ attitudes regarding non-deceptive
counterfeit brands in the UK and China." In Advances in Chinese Brand Management, pp.
331-350. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2017.