The growth of the Internet and related technologies has enabled the development of a new breed of dynamic websites, applications and software products that are growing rapidly in use and that have had a great impact on many businesses. These technologies need to be continuously evaluated by usability evaluation methods (UEMs) to measure their efficiency and effectiveness, to assess user satisfaction, and ultimately to improve their quality. However, estimating the sample sizes for these methods has become the source of considerable debate at usability conferences. This paper aims to determine an appropriate sample size through empirical studies on the social network and educational domains by employing three types of UEM; it also examines further the impact of sample size on the findings of usability tests. Moreover, this paper quantifies the sample size required for the Domain Specific-to-context Inspection (DSI) method, which itself is developed through an adaptive framework. The results show that there is no certain number of participants for finding all usability problems; however, the rule of 16 4 users gains much validity in user testing. The magic number of five evaluators fails to find 80% of problems in heuristic evaluation, whereas three evaluators are enough to find 91% of usability problems in the DSI method

Usability has become an imperative aspect of survival on the web, thus, it has always been considered as a crucial aspect of web design. This paper presents the results of a study that compared two think-aloud usability testing methods: the concurrent think-aloud and the retrospective think-aloud methods. Data from task performance, testing experience, and usability problems were collected from 40 participants equally distributed between the two think-aloud conditions. The results found that while the thinking aloud method had no impact on task performance and participants testing experience, participants using the concurrent think-aloud method detected a larger number of minor problems with the test interface than participants using the retrospective think-aloud method. These findings suggest a reason for preferring the concurrent think-aloud method to the retrospective one. Think-aloud protocols. Usability testing. User studies.

Website localisation is the process of adapting the linguistic and cultural content of an internationalised web design for a specific target audience in a specific locale. With the advent of globalisation, website localisation is becoming a powerful way to attract online customers in a global market. Hence, the main driving force behind such moves is financial, but with a strong motivation towards cross-cultural sensitivity.The primary aim of this research therefore is to explore the design of websites for different cultures. It seeks to provide an outline of the current and relevant literature with regard to cultural usability and user interface design. It also aspires to develop and experiment with a Cultural User Interface (CUI) profile. The intention is to create a framework for designing usable localised websites. To achieve these ends, the research employs various methodologies. These include descriptive/interpretive studies of the literature and previous studies by academics and industrial institutions. Furthermore it utilises surveys and case studies among Internet users, web designers, and web production companies in the target cultures (Arab and British). In the process a website has been redesigned according to the guidelines of a newly built framework within the context of an action research approach. Finally, by comparing the original and the redesigned websites, a comparative evaluation has been carried out.The research findings contribute to the general field of software/web localisation and personalisation. They also provide academics and industry with information on the degree to which cultural localisation is needed to ensure usability. In addition, they highlight the extent to which users' cultural background and perceptions influence their preferences and hence the acceptance of the virtual world of online user interfaces. The main findings of this research highlight the necessity to understand both the target culture and the needs of the business commissioning the website. They also show the value of design consistency (navigation, layout, interaction, graphics and colours, etc). Furthermore the researchers were able to identify a drawback in web designers' current practices in the investigated countries, in terms of their limited utilisation of existing guidelines for the exploitation of intercultural usability, accessibility, knowledge, tools and methods.

The availability and continued growth of Internet technologies (IT) have created great opportunities for users all over the globe to benefit from these services and use them in a variety of different ways. The use of IT to conduct business online is known as Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce). While developed countries have harnessed and adopted ECommerce, developing countries are not yet fully adapted to its adoption. The aim of this study is to investigate the main factors that play a role in the adoption of E-Commerce from a consumer's perceptive and, hence, develop a framework that conceptualises the influential factors (enablers and disablers) of E-Commerce. A 'grounded theory' methodology was used to collect and analyse the data and develop the proposed framework. Thus, semi-structured interviews were conducted with Saudi residents to elicit their opinions about E-Commerce enablers and disablers in Saudi Arabia. The findings of the study suggest that the factors that have the most significant impact on the adoption of E-Commerce in Saudi Arabia are security, fraud and hacking, trust, cyber-law, awareness and perceived usefulness, postal services, government e-readiness, resistance to change, the presence of commercial electronic websites, cost, tangibility, warranty, trial and experience.

The high rate of unsuccessful IT projects has been examined by many researchers world-wide in order to identify IT project critical success factors (CSFs). Using a framework from previous literature, this research examines four organizational factors (Top management support, project team competencies, communication management, and project management) that affect IT projects success in Saudi Arabian public organizations and compares the outcomes with findings in Malaysian multinational companies. Furthermore, organizational culture as a moderator has been deployed in the model to examine its impact on the relationships between CSFs and IT project success. A quantitative approach using a survey questionnaire method was used to collect the data. The questionnaires were distributed to CIOs in Saudi Arabian public organizations. PLS-SEM was used to analyze the collected data and test the relevant hypotheses. The outcomes showed that there were some similarities and differences between Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. In both countries, IT project success was influenced by project management; however, it was not influenced by project team competency. Furthermore, the outcomes showed that IT project success in Saudi Arabia was influenced by top management support while it is influenced by communication management in Malaysia. Finally, it was found that organizational culture moderates the relationships between top management support and project management and IT project success in Saudi Arabia, while the organizational culture moderates the relationships between communication management and project management and IT project success in Malaysia