Influence of Proficiency Level and Constraints on Viewpoint Switching: A Study in Web Design

International audienceWeb design is a complex problem in which designers have to consider the user's and the client's viewpoints to make satisfactory websites. Designers, particularly proficient ones, tend to privilege to the client's viewpoint to the detriment of the users' one. Consequently, websites often contain many usability violations and do not fit users' cognitive capacities, hence hampering navigation. The usability quality of websites may be proportional to designers' ability to switch between the client's and the user's viewpoints, which in turn may be influenced by designers' proficiency level. To explore the role of viewpoint switching in web design, performance was compared across three conditions emphasizing either the client's viewpoint, that of the user, or none of them in order to promote or hamper viewpoint switching. This manipulation had a significant effect on proficient designers' performance. Moreover, a significant relation between viewpoint switching and the usability quality of e-mock-ups was found. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd