Usability Evaluation of Web-Based Collaboration Support Systems: The Case of CoPe_it!

Usability is considered as a very significant factor towards the wide acceptance of software applications. Although the usability evaluation can take place in different forms, the entire evaluation procedure usually follows predefined ways according to a classification of the common characteristics of software applications. However, contemporary Web 2.0 applications, which aim at both social network development and collaboration support, reveal the need for modifying the settings of the evaluation procedure. This is due to some unique characteristics of these applications, such as the support of both synchronous and asynchronous collaboration, the use of common spaces for working and information exchanging, and the advanced notification and awareness services. This paper explores these applications’ particularities with respect to the way the whole usability evaluation procedure is affected and proposes a composite evaluation technique based on the development of appropriate heuristics that is suitable for such cases. The aforementioned issues are elaborated through the case of CoPe_it!, a Web 2.0 tool that facilitates and enhances argumentative collaboration.