Accessible and usable web interface forpPower grid database

Abstract

Different stakeholders of the electric power grid sector need data for their research and decision-making tasks. However, the power grid field lacks an accessible and easy-to-use system that contains openly available data sources that is open to use for everyone.

This thesis creates a prototype of an accessible and usable web interface for the power grid database by following the user-centered design (UCD) methodology. The web interface is targeted to be used by different stakeholders of the power grid sector. The principles of universal design and concepts of accessibility and usability were considered throughout different activities in the thesis.

Different qualitative research methods and research methods from human-computer interaction (HCI) have been used in this study. The research methods employed in this thesis are survey, coding, interviews, paper prototyping, personas, automatic testing, heuristic testing, and discounted testing. Further, ethnographic observation and thinking out aloud methods have also been used.

The prototype development process followed an iterative approach for finding user requirements and deliver a prototype of a web-based interface for the power grid database. The prototype was tested for its accessibility and usability. The prototype presented uses modern web technologies and is found to meet the accessibility and usability requirements of its target users. The prototype and the instructions to install it have also been uploaded along with this thesis.

Finally, some topics for future work to further extend this study and to make the software prototype more effective have been presented.