Applying a New Questionnaire to Evaluate the Usability of Peruvian E-Government Websites

Usability has become an extremely relevant aspect that must be considered in the development of any software product. If usability is not considered, then there is a high probability that its users will reject the application. A software product is destined to fail in a highly competitive environment such as the current one, depending on its capability to be understood, learned, and attractive to its users. For this reason, a set of usability evaluation methods have been developed that allow specialists to systematically determine whether graphical interfaces are usable. Among the methods that exist, one of the most used due to its simplicity and low demand for resources is the usability assessment questionnaire. However, most of the questionnaires that have been designed are intended to be answered by end-users of the application. In contrast to this paradigm, in a previous work, a questionnaire was developed and designed that can be used by specialists in Human-Computer Interaction. This new questionnaire involves a set of 60 items with which it is possible to verify if the interfaces of a software product fulfill aspects that make them usable. In this study, the new questionnaire was employed to evaluate the usability of the main Peruvian E-Government Websites. The intention of this scientific article is to serve as a source for future improvement of the websites and to serve at a methodological level so that specialists can widely use the evaluation instrument and the conduction process that has been carried out in this research.