Bio-behavioral and Self-Report User Experience Evaluation of a Usability Assessment Platform (UTAssistant)

This work shows the user experience (UX) assessment of a web-based platform for the semi-automatic usability evaluation of websites, UTAssistant, which is primarily addressed to workers in public administration (PA). The study is part (Phase 1) of a multiple assessment methodology which consists of four phases in total: (1) UX in laboratory conditions; (2) Usability evaluation in remote online conditions; (3) Usability evaluation in workplace conditions; and (4) Heuristic evaluation. In Phase 1, a UX study in laboratory conditions was carried out. Participants’ UX of a PA website navigation through UTAssistant was evaluated by both traditional self-report usability assessment tools (SUS and UMUX) and bio-behavioral measurement techniques (facial expression recognition and electroencephalography). Results showed that using the UTAssistant usability assessment tool for webpages did not affect users’ perceived usability in terms of self-reports and affective states, which were mostly neutral for all the assessment session. However, frontal alpha asymmetry EEG’s scores showed a higher sensitivity of UTAssistant users to the duration of the trial, with a decrease in motivation displayed as the trial ensued. However, this result did not seem to affect emotional experience.