Usability Evaluation of Maritime Websites with Different End User Groups

Maritime-related websites should be properly developed to guarantee a good level of usability, especially when end users comprise a variety of people with varied wants and desires. This study’s primary goal was to examine how various end users with different use purposes—including members of the working population in the maritime sector, maritime students, and seafarers’ relatives—react to maritime websites in terms of usage efficiency, satisfaction, which collectively form websites’ usability. The assessments were obtained through formal usability testing including think-aloud protocol during task performing and questionnaires. The results of the statistical analysis show that different groups of end users achieve different levels of efficiency in the completion of tasks. Also, it has been found that only for students there is a satisfaction difference between evaluated maritime websites. Suggestions to enhance websites’ usability, particularly for inexperienced users, based on the identified weaknesses are also provided.