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