AJAX from the users point of view. The development and evaluation of a Rich Internet Application using asynchronous client-server communication

Abstract

This thesis focuses on how the use of asynchronous communication affects users of web applications, speciffically considering the expectations the users have towards the application. Our main hypothesis was: "Ajax influences the users to try to use common desktop conventions in the application as if it were a traditional desktop application."To try to answer this question we created two prototypes of a web application called iRIS. One prototype incorporated asynchronous communication and one incorporated traditional synchronous communication.An analytical framework was created to help evaluating the application. It contains a taxonomy of user interface- and interaction elements common in desktop applications and contrasts these to similar elements found in web applications. This work also resulted in a checklist of common conventions.To test our hypothesis we conducted an experiment where one group of participants tested the prototype using asynchronous communication while an other group tested the prototype using synchronous communication. The results from the experiment are analysed and discussed in this thesis.