Evaluating Usability of Communics Authoring Tool: Comparing Synchronous with Asynchronous Remote Evaluation when using Cognitive Walkthrough

Usability Evaluation is essential for developing user-friendly interfaces that are welcomed by users. There are many types of evaluations, but Cognitive Walkthrough is a usability inspection method that is centered on evaluating the ease of learning of a program’s interface. This attribute was the precise one that needed to be examined in the recently designed Communics’ Authoring Tool; however, no studies were found on the best way of how to conduct this method remotely. Thus, this research had two main aims: The first one was to find the usability problems of the design and to re-design the interface according to the issues found. The second one was to compare the effects of carrying out a remote Cognitive Walkthrough synchronously or asynchronously and to conclude with some future recommendations for undertaking this method remotely. The comparisons made in the study were based on the number and severity of usability problems found, on the task performance and on the participant’s satisfaction. In the end, it was found that both methods have their advantages and drawbacks and a recommendation for improving the remote technique was made by combining the good elements of both methods.