Abstract #301561

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JSM 2003 Abstract #301561
Activity Number: 114
Type: Topic Contributed
Date/Time: Monday, August 4, 2003 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
Abstract - #301561
Title: Helping Users Find What They Want: Emerging Design Standards for Web Data Access Tools
Author(s): Marianne Zawitz*+
Companies: U.S. Department of Justice
Address: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Washington, DC, 20531,
Keywords: internet ; usability ; standards ; data access tools ; design ; databases
Abstract:

Many statistical agencies are moving toward the creation of browser-based data access tools and interfaces that allow users to specify the content of the output. Unless developers of such data access tools, which can be very expensive to build, pay close attention to usability, the tools fail to help users find the data they need and may instead increase user frustration. Several U.S. statistical agencies have been working to develop a set of usability standards for interfaces to statistical databases that are accessible using the World Wide Web. This paper identifies major classes of problems that users encounter when they attempt to use these tools, which had been designed with insufficient attention to their usability. It also presents design guidelines or standards which if followed help to overcome the usability problems. The guidelines are demonstrated on the Bureau of Justice Statistics Data Online (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/dataonline/). While newly developed browser gateways to data still need independent usability testing, designers who follow these standards during design of the tool should be able to achieve a fairly satisfactory degree of usability.

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