Increased Popularity Through Compliance with Usability Guidelines in E-Learning Web Sites

This paper identifies and measures correlations between compliance with usability guidelines and the popularity of a Web site. A sample of e-learning Web sites was reviewed and their usability scored using a Web-based evaluation system developed during the study. This usability score was then tested against five different ranking systems using Spearman’s Rank correlation. The results of these tests show a strong correlation between compliance with usability guidelines and Web site popularity. The five ranking systems also showed positive correlations to each-other and to the usability of the sites. The conclusion drawn from these results is that compliance with usability guidelines could be a way to achieve higher Web site popularity and visitor numbers.