ABSTRACT
Investigating the usability of communication artifacts provides fertile ground for qualitative research, but the underlying methods of usability studies can also be analyzed using qualitative techniques. In “Heuristic Web Site Evaluation: Exploring the Effects of Guidelines on Experts’ Detection of Usability Problems,” Welle Donker-Kuijer, de Jong, and Lentz investigate the role that heuristics play in expert evaluations of Web usability and the ways that experts use those heuristics. The result is a mixed study, a quantitative and qualitative analysis in which the authors examine the contributions that heuristics make to expert evaluation by comparing the results of such evaluations made with and without the use of heuristics.
