Abstract:

The present study aims to compare websites of English language teaching according to usability aspects. At first the analysis of users' interaction with the selected interfaces occurred observing certain criteria under the brazilian ISO 9241-11, furthermore, in its Annex A. Tests were performed on users and evaluated aspects were previously established. These aspects were finally analyzed through the point of view of design verifying the possibility of interventions to be made to adequate the features to the referred ISO. The focus was to point out the positive aspects of the websites, besides the ones to be improved, in order to develop a better experience to the user, as well as an effective teaching and acquisition of the language.

In daily experience people are constantly confronted with the need to interact with different services and products such as cell phones, computers, websites, remote controls, ATM machines, watches and lots of other devices. However, it is very common for people to be confused when using banking services available through ATMs, and also feeling unable to use a product without consulting the manual or getting lost when seeking for information on a website.

Many of these products and services do not fulfill the users since they were not designed focused on the consumer real needs. The mentioned cases are examples of the demand to apply the concepts of interaction design in the development of products and services.

It is important for the designer to know how to balance the goals of usability and the resulting user experiences. Moreover, it is necessary to consider the reality of the users, and then seek information about the context of utility, such as the tasks to be performed and the consumer profile.

From these analyzes and arguments it was verified the practical application evaluating three websites of English language teaching, following a specific methodology, and by applying monitored tests.

It is necessary to consider that there is a diverse and wide profile of users in this study, in addition to the fact that the websites chosen were free of charge, such as; Livemocha (http://livemocha.com/?lang=pt-br), BBC - Learn English (http://www.bbc.co .uk / english / topics / aprenda_ingles /) and CAPES - My Inglês Online (http://www.myenglishonline.com.br/).

The selected websites evaluation criteria was identified according to usability aspects and it was determined that the practical analysis would occur during their use. Afterwards, requirements were established to be observed during the performance of predetermined tasks by random users.

Through the following criteria of tests previously established, there was the analysis of the results verifying possible design interventions to improve the usability and, consequently, the English learning process by users of the websites.

Therefore, it was possible to identify positive aspects and others to be improved in terms of usability on the websites of English language teaching. From this point it is possible to adapt the following features to the real needs of the users using the available design tools adequately, in order to optimize learning through the internet.

Keywords:

Usability, interaction and e-learning.