The Web Static Analyzer Tool (WebSAT) is a prototype tool that inspects the HTML composition of web pages for potential usability problems. WebSAT allows the usability engineer to investigate these potential problems so as to determine whether they should be purged from the design of the web pages.

WebSAT inspects the HTML composition of web pages against numerous usability guidelines. WebSAT can perform inspections using either its own set of usability rules or those of the IEEE Std 2001–1999 according to specifications in its P2001/D8.01 Draft. In either case, WebSAT expects as input the URL to a single web page or to a whole site. The output for a single web page is almost immediate (depending on the page size). In the case of a whole site, the length of time needed to analyze the site will depend on the number of pages that comprise the site; therefore, an email address must be supplied so that the destination of the result files can be identified upon completion.

WebSAT is a prototype tool for researching usability rules and uses only a subset of the guidelines available in many commercial packages. Therefore, WebSAT should NOT be used to test for Section 508 compliance. For more information, see http://www.nist.gov/webmetrics. Direct all comments and questions to webmetrics@nist.gov. Before using this tool, please review the WebSAT release notes and known bugs.

See NIST Web Metrics disclaimer.