User interface design using cognitive approach: A case study of Malaysian government web portal

Abstract

The role of Malaysian government in realizing the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) goal of creating a world-class e-government web portal in Malaysia is very important as it helps citizens or customers to interact and used the services. This requires a good interface design to enhance the cognitive in human thus support human cognitive strength and weaknesses. However, MyEG as one of the Government-to-Citizens (G2C) web portal has been plagued with user interface problems. Users felt difficulties in using the web portal. Some of the users abandon the web portal because of the negative perceptions on the MyEG user interface design. This problem slowed down the growth of the MyEG web portal. This study aims to evaluate the MyEG user interface design using measures and constructs questionnaires tools and identifies the area of MyEG user interface problems. Three cognitive characteristics were used to evaluate: user cognitive characteristics, web portal characteristics and user task. Two constructs used to measures the user cognitive characteristics; Mental Model (MM) and Human Information Processing (HIP). Four constructs used to evaluate website characteristics; Cognitive principle (CP), Metaphor (ME), Fitt's Law (FL) and MAMPU guideline (MG) while the GOMS model (GO) used to evaluate the User Task. The results of the evaluation showed that in general MyEG user interface design has not fully achieved the desired level of cognitive user interface design. The weaknesses are identified and discusses. Finally, practical suggestions and recommendations for improving the user interface design of MyEG are suggested based on the findings.