StarOffice Calc v. MS Excel: - SVN

StarOffice Calc Usability Evaluation
Given the current price conditions of Excel (sold at $250 or more) and StarOffice Calc (available for
free), 92% of our subjects indicated they would choose StarOffice Calc if they had to pick a
spreadsheet system. The distribution of responses is shown in Table 11:
Table 11.
Willingness to Switch to StarOffice Calc
Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
Would always buy Excel 1 8.3 8.3
Would buy Excel if the 5 41.7 50
systems were equally
priced, but would switch to
StarOffice Calc if it were
free
Would buy Excel if the 5 41.7 91.7
systems were equally
priced, but would switch to
Calc if it were $125 and
Excel were $250
Would buy StarOffice Calc
if the systems were
equally priced, but would
buy Excel if it were $125
and Calc were $250
1 8.3 100
We see that StarOffice Calc works well enough that people’s decision to use it or not is generally
dependent upon price. Participants preferred Excel initially but were willing to switch if Excel cost
them significantly more money. When we asked participants about their responses to this
question, the participants usually said they initially preferred Excel for two reasons. First, the
participant had already learned Excel. Second, it would be easier for the participant to use the
same system that friends and co-workers use.
Effects of Participants’ Previous Excel Experience
We began our study anticipating that certain people rating themselves with higher levels of
experience would complete the test in shorter amounts of time. However, our results show no
significant correlations between any experience variables and any time variables, including individual
stage times, Excel Total Time, StarOffice Calc Total Time, and Overall Total Time. We also did not
find any correlations between experience and how participants rated the two systems.
Eklund, Feldman, and Trombley, 12/11/2001 30 of 54