3.1. The Web DUE Technique The Web Design Usability Evaluation (Web DUE) technique is an evaluation technique based on checklists that allows the evaluation of mockups of Web applications [16]. Mockups are a software model that uses images of how the software would look like after its implementation to document and validate the overall software design. Since mockups have a low creation cost, their popularity has risen [13]. Thus, by evaluating Web application mockups, the Web DUE technique assists the identification of ease of use and navigational problems in early stages (see Section 2 Feature 1). Moreover, since mockups are created before developing the applications, the problems can be identified before the source code is written, loweringtheir correction cost [21]. Another feature of the Web DUE technique is that it guides the inspectors through the inspection process by using Web page zones and checklists (see Section 2 – Feature 2). A Web page zone is a piece of a Web
page with specific contents [6]. The Web DUE technique uses up to ten Web page zones, such as the navigation, system state, data entry, among others, to draw attention to specific user interaction and ease of use problems that a Web application can present. To identify such problems, each of these zones provides a set of verification items to be checked. For instance, Table 1 contains some of the verification items for the data entry zone, which provides users with a data input form to execute certain operations in the Web application. The complete list of Web page zones and their verification items can be found elsewhere [17][14].