Website user experience (UX) testing tool development using Open Source Software (OSS)

Abstract

Website usability and user experience (UX) are crucial measures of website quality. The challenges faced in manual usability testing gave rise to the growth of usability assessment tools in the market. As these tools may be costly, it is important for usability practitioners to justify the benefits and cost of these tools. Hence, the objective of this study was to first gather the requirements for website UX testing. This is followed by developing an Open Source Software (OSS) called Ultimate Reliable and Native Usability System (URANUS) to support most of the techniques used for usability test. The final objective was to benchmark URANUS against existing tools. The methodologies employed during requirements gathering included literature review and interviews with target audience. This was followed by development of URANUS using the Rapid Application Development (RAD). Based on the LBUT and RUT comparisons URANUS turned out to score relative high in terms of benefits with low cost of ownership.