Analysis of the user experience in a web-based university staff’s publication management system

Abstract

Research and analysis of user experience in software applications is a current area in the design and development of the user interface. Analysis of users’ behavior in a specific application can help detect vulnerabilities in the interface and direct developers to places to change. There are different approaches to data collection and analysis of user experience, as well as ready-made software environments that implement this. In this paper, we describe a particular approach to collecting, processing, and analyzing user behavior data in a web-based specific-task-oriented system. Information about the number of user sessions and clicks on various elements of the user interface is stored with the purpose of collecting enough historical data that can be further analyzed. The dataset examined in this paper consist of information about the sequences of actions of each user for five months. The dataset is unique because it contains user sessions right from the release of the application, giving the opportunity to examine the first responses of the users and to follow the development of their habits while working with it. The different groups of users (known in advance) and their behavior in the system are described. Conclusions are made about the benefits of changes to the interface and the added new features, as well as the way users perceive and use them.