Diompla Thesis - Usability Engineering of C-World

Usability Engineering von C-World

Diploma thesis, Pharmakon Software GmbH (Karlsruhe), duration: 4 month

Description

C-World is a web-based CRM system developed by Pharmakon Software GmbH. It has been specially designed for pharmaceutical companies. The web application is written in PHP and uses the Internet Explorer with activated JavaScript as a client. The server for the web application can be either a Windows or a Linux machine with the Apache web server installed.

For the future, Pharmakon Software GmbH plans to use not only acceptance tests but also usability evaluations to measure and improve the usability of C-World. Since the developers at Pharmakon have not performed such evaluations yet, I have described an explained the use of guidelines, the conduct of a Heuristic Evaluation, a Pluralistic Usability Walkthrough, a Cognitive Walkthrough and a Usability Test. I have also explained the use of questionnaires and the international norm EN DIN ISO 9241.

During a new development of a new screen within C-World I have applied all introduced evaluation methods. After that I have evaluated the benefits of each method with relation to the needs of Pharmakon and the further development of C-World. The main criteria are fast results and a lesser expenditure of time and money and more specifically a good cost-benefit ratio.

Besides the conduct of usability evaluations I have searched for easy and fast methods to improve the overall usability of C-World. Therefore I have conducted three projects within C-World. I have developed an online help system, re-engineered the list of persons in C-World and developed a concept for combo boxes with a pleasing design. The first two projects have improved the usability and the third project has revised the design of C-World.

Finally I have begun to create a style guide for C-World. This guide has been implemented as a part of the intranet. All usability and formatting issues of C-World are collected here.