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Naming page elements in end-user web automation

Published: 21 May 2005 Publication History

Abstract

The names of commands and objects are vital to the usability of a programming system. We are developing a web automation system in which users need to identify web page elements, such as hyperlinks and form fields, in pages written by other designers. Using a survey of 40 users asking them to provide names for page elements, we found that users' names varied widely. However, when names were restricted to using only visible words from the web page. we were able to develop name resolution techniques that automatically find the desired page element given the user's name for it, striking a balance between usability and the precision required by the programming system.

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Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences
WEUSE I: Proceedings of the first workshop on End-user software engineering
May 2005
65 pages
ISBN:1595931317
DOI:10.1145/1083231
  • cover image ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes
    ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes  Volume 30, Issue 4
    July 2005
    1514 pages
    ISSN:0163-5948
    DOI:10.1145/1082983
    Issue’s Table of Contents
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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 21 May 2005

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  1. end-user web automation
  2. web browsers

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