The research for the awards is conducted by BlueRiverStone for Financial Mail. The method that we use to do the website and email responsiveness assessment is a scenario-based heuristic, and was developed and tested over three years in conjunction with Dr Andrew Thatcher at The University of the Witwatersrand. This method, while not a complete usability assessment, allows us to compare on relatively objective criteria many websites from the user's perspective and forms a natural starting point in the design/redesign cycle.
In brief, a heuristic (or score sheet) is developed to measure a user's interaction with the website given a defined scenario of use. The heuristic will be validated by the panel of experts that we are setting up before we apply it with trained evaluators in a controlled environment.
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Firstly a technical quality evaluation using a browser-based client side website validating and testing tool called eValid (www.e-valid.com). |
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Secondly there is a website usability analysis. Trained evaluators score website and webpage navigability to important pieces of content, they evaluate dynamic functionality, professionalism and a range of other features relevant to the scenario. |
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Thirdly email enquiries are sent and responses evaluated against an email score sheet. |
A full paper on the methodology and its rationale is available for download here.
Click here.
Websites and emails will be evaluated against three scenarios of use: Corporate
Reporting, Employer Brand and Commerce. The last will be designed to suite each sector evaluated.
Overall Winner: 1st 2nd and 3rd places
Oil & Gas, Basic Materials
Industrials
Consumer Goods
Health Care
Consumer Services
Telecommunications
Financials
Technology
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