Usability study of the mobile library App: an example from Chongqing University

2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 340-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qunyi Wei ◽  
Zhaoxin Chang ◽  
Qin Cheng
Keyword(s):  
User Experience ◽  
User Satisfaction ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Information Services ◽  
Usability Study ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Effectiveness And Efficiency

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the usability of the mobile library App of Chongqing University and to provide recommendations for improving the experience of App users. Design/methodology/approach – Usability testing, which comprised pre-test questionnaires, accomplishing tasks, and post-test surveys, was conducted in this study. The effectiveness and efficiency of the App, as well as user satisfaction with it, were measured. Findings – The mobile App was proven effective but the efficiency of the App required improvement. With regard to user satisfaction, the factors “clarity” and “usefulness” received the lowest and highest scores, respectively. The descriptions of mobile services were unclear and confused users; nonetheless, the services provided by this App were appealing and useful to the users. Based on the measured user experience, this study proposed several recommendations for enhancing the usability of the App. Originality/value – An increasing number of domestic and foreign libraries have begun to use mobile Apps to provide new services to patrons. In the future, smartphones are likely to become crucial to the delivery of information services. Given the extensive use of the Super Star Mobile Library system adopted by Chongqing University Library in China, the usability of such a system must be investigated. Improving the usability of the mobile library App can help enhance user experience.

Explaining tourist behavioral loyalty toward mobile apps

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-430
Author(s):  
José-Alberto Castañeda ◽  
María-José Martínez-Heredia ◽  
Miguel-Ángel Rodríguez-Molina
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Internet Access ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Unified Theory ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Behavioral Loyalty ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Continued Use

Purpose The overall tourist experience is changing because of the development of mobile devices, ubiquitous internet access and applications (apps) designed specifically for tourism. The aim of this study is to identify the determinants of continued use and recommendation of such apps (loyalty), framed within the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) model, considering innate user traits (innovativeness) and one of the principal attributes of mobile phones (portability). Design/methodology/approach The sample comprised 285 Spanish tourists who owned a smartphone and were using some kind of mobile app in connection with their stay. Findings The results show that the UTAUT2 model is effective in explaining loyalty toward tourism apps and that its variables mediate the effect of user and mobile device characteristics. Research limitations/implications To ensure continued use of a tourism app, it should possess the following core attributes: deliver a positive cost–benefit trade-off, be fun to use, provide up-to-date and useful information and generate a degree of dependency in the user. Originality/value The present research is particularly relevant because of its focus on the use of apps during the stay, given that most of the extant literature centers on previous stages (such as service booking).

Analyzing app-based food information services: the case of Olive Oil sector

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-453
Author(s):  
Alberto Michele Felicetti ◽  
Antonio Palmiro Volpentesta ◽  
Salvatore Ammirato
Keyword(s):  
Olive Oil ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Information Provision ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Information Services ◽  
Multidimensional Analysis ◽  
Knowledge Gap ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Oil Sector ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The provision of information about food to consumers is well recognized to be problematic and complex. Novel approaches tend to adopt app-based services as a way for consumers to get better food information. Potentially, these services could provide relevant information to consumers because they could address particular needs by leveraging on context-awareness, ubiquity and pervasiveness. Do current app-based services actualize these potentialities? The purpose of this paper is twofold: to propose a methodological approach that can be easily adapted to conduct reviews of app-based services and provide consumers with information about food and to answer this question on a specified food information domain (namely, olive oil). Design/methodology/approach A literature review was performed to investigate characteristics of food information services under a consumer’s value perspective. Then, a qualitative framework was built, which allowed a multidimensional analysis of the food information provided by a service through a mobile app. Moreover, an application of that framework on “olive oil” mobile apps was carried out, with the twofold objective of providing an example of application of the proposed framework in a real context and analyzing the role of mobile apps in reducing consumers’ information and knowledge gap in this particular domain. The review covers commercial applications on “olive oil,” available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Findings A framework of multidimensional analysis of the two-way information flow in the interaction between a consumer/user and a food app-based service is proposed. The framework represents a useful tool to analyze the offer of mobile-based services in a given sector. The framework is then applied to perform a situation analysis of app-based services in the olive oil market. The analysis highlights that olive oil information providers do not seem to fully exploit recent advances in “Internet of food” technologies. Hence, results from our survey suggest some direction to conceive and develop innovative mobile olive oil apps that better exploit mobiquitous technology features. Practical implications Consumers perceive a growing need of information about food. This need is mainly due to recent cases of adulterations, allegations of fraud and subterfuges that have invested food sector (in particular, olive oil sector). This research provides a useful framework to analyze some aspects of management of food information provision through mobile apps. Such a framework represents a practical tool that provides fruitful insights for the design of a new generation of food-app based services within the so-called “internet of food” domain. Originality/value Although there are countless mobile apps aimed to assist consumers with their everyday food practices, little research has been devoted to investigate the impact of mobiquitous technologies on the management of food information provision to consumers. The available research lacks in defining an approach capable to analyze the relevance of information provided to targeted audiences by mobile food apps. This paper tries to fill this knowledge gap by proposing a framework that is based on a characterization of food information flows in terms of categorization, source and service features.

Mobile app recommendations: travel apps

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 16-18
Author(s):  
Kristen Julia Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Interlibrary Loan ◽  
Digital Resources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Travel Guide ◽  
Travel Books

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a list of various travel-themed mobile apps that librarians might recommend as a supplement to other print/digital resources. Summer is a time when many people take the chance to escape on a much-needed vacation. As a librarian, whether you work in a public or academic institution, chances are you will be asked at one point or another where the travel books in your library are located. Design/methodology/approach There is always the possibility that the travel books in need may already be checked out or that the patron will not have time to wait for an interlibrary loan request to arrive. Findings Planning a trip, from deciding where to go, where to stay and what to do, can be a simultaneously stressing and thrilling decision-making process. Research limitations/implications Whether someone is planning a trip to a familiar location or to a place they never imagined visiting, there are numerous mobile apps that can aid the most nascent to the most experienced traveler. Originality/value In addition to including up-to-date travel guide books in library collections, librarians can also further assist their patrons with travel needs by recommending mobile travel apps.

When the mobile app is free, the product is your personal data

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spyros E. Polykalas ◽  
George N. Prezerakos
Keyword(s):  
Significant Interaction ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Google Play ◽  
The Eu

Purpose Mobile devices (smartphones, tables etc.) have become the de facto means of accessing the internet. While traditional Web browsing is still quite popular, significant interaction takes place via native mobile apps that can be downloaded either freely or at a cost. This has opened the door to a number of issues related to privacy protection since the smartphone stores and processes personal data. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of access to personal data, required by the most popular mobile apps available in Google Play store. In addition, it is examined whether the relevant procedure is in accordance with the provisions of the new EU Regulation. Design/methodology/approach The paper examines more than a thousand mobile apps, available from the Google Play store, with respect to the extent of the requests for access to personal data. In particular, for each available category in Google Play store, the most popular mobile apps have been examined both for free and paid apps. In addition, the permissions required by free and paid mobile apps are compared. Furthermore, a correlation analysis is carried out aiming to reveal any correlation between the extent of required access to personal data and the popularity and the rating of each mobile app. Findings The findings of this paper suggest that the majority of examined mobile apps require access to personal data to a high extent. In addition, it is found that free mobile apps request access to personal data in a higher extent compared to the relevant requests by paid apps, which indicates strongly that the business model of free mobile apps is based on personal data exploitation. The most popular types of access permissions are revealed for both free and paid apps. In addition, important questions are raised in relation to user awareness and behavior, data minimization and purpose limitation for free and paid mobile apps. Originality/value In this study, the process and the extent of access to personal data through mobile apps are analyzed. Although several studies analyzed relevant issues in the past, the originality of this research is mainly based on the following facts: first, this work took into account the recent Regulation of the EU in relation to personal data (GDPR); second, the authors analyzed a high number of the most popular mobile apps (more than a thousand); and third, the authors compare and analyze the different approaches followed between free and paid mobile apps.

scholarly journals Analytics for measuring library use and satisfaction of mobile apps

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simran Kaur ◽  
Rupak Chakravarty
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Library Use ◽  
Artificial Intelligence Algorithm ◽  
Android App ◽  
Google Play ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
User Review

Purpose User review is a significant component of mobile app markets such as the Google Play Store, App Store, Microsoft Store and others. Users submit their reviews for downloaded apps on these sites in the form of star ratings and text reviews. Apps can contain huge volumes of feedback, making it difficult for the user and the developer to skim through thousands of such reviews to get an insight into usage and impact of such apps. Thus, the current study aims to assess the usage and satisfaction among users of the Mendeley’s Android app vs iOS app. Design/methodology/approach The analytics are performed by using Appbot analytics software which captured, monitored, measured and analyzed the review results for a particular period. Appbot provides easy-to-understand insights of an app using artificial intelligence algorithm tools. Findings The findings of the study reveal strong inclination, adoption and usage of Mendeley’s Android app compared to that of iOS among users. Originality/value The value of this research is in getting an insight of the pattern/behavior of users towards using apps on different platforms (Android vs iOS) and provides valuable results for the app developers in monitoring usage and enhancing features for the satisfaction of users. Without mobile app analytics, one will be blindly trying out different things without any evidence to back up their experiments.

User experience sharing

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (5/6) ◽  
pp. 1154-1184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Chen ◽  
Judy Drennan ◽  
Lynda Andrews ◽  
Linda D. Hollebeek
Keyword(s):  
User Experience ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Key Driver ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Level Of Effort

PurposeThis paper aims to propose user experience sharing (UES) as a customer-based initiation of value co-creation pertaining to service provision, which represents customers’ level of effort made for the direct benefit of others in their service network. The authors propose and empirically examine a user experience sharing model (UESM) that explicates customer-to-customer (C2C) UES and its impacts on firm-desired customer-based outcomes in online communities.Design/methodology/ApproachBased on an extensive review, the authors conceptualize UES and UESM. By using online survey data collected from mobile app users in organic online communities, the authors performed structural equation modeling analyses by using AMOS 24.FindingsThe results support the proposed UESM, showing that C2C UES acts as a key driver of both firm-desired customer efforts and customer insights. The results also confirmed that service-dominant (S-D) logic-informed motivational drivers exert a significant impact on C2C UES. Importantly, C2C UES mediates the relationship between S-D logic-informed motivational drivers and firm-desired customer-based outcomes.Originality/valueThis study offers a pioneering attempt to develop an overarching concept, UES, which reflects customers’ initiation of value co-creation, and to empirically examine C2C UES. The empirical evidence supports the key contention that firms should proactively facilitate C2C UES.

Influence of active methodologies: projects and cases in the development of digital competences with mobile devices

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha Vanessa Agila-Palacios ◽  
Ana García-Valcárcel Muñoz-Repiso ◽  
María Soledad Ramírez-Montoya
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Devices ◽  
Mobile Technology ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Digital Competence ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Functional Training ◽  
Common Process ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Case Based Learning

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of two active methodologies on digital competences development using mobile devices. The first methodology is project-oriented learning (POL); the second one is case-based learning (CBL). The analyzed digital competences belong to the communication and collaboration area of framework DIGCOMP.Design/methodology/approachThis article shows the results of the quantitative stage with a design pre-experimental pre-test–post-test. A questionnaire was designed and applied to an intentional sample from two different courses. In total, 178 students completed the questionnaire in the pre-test, and after five months, 38 students completed the questionnaire in the post-test.FindingsThe results show that students to whom POL was applied increase by 7% competence of interaction with mobile technology. The results also show that the students to whom CBL was applied to increase all four competencies (interaction +8%, share +6%, collaboration +5%, netiquette +4%).Research limitations/implicationsSelf-perception for the evaluation of digital competence and the short study time are limitations to generalize the results, so a longitudinal study is necessary and complemented with qualitative analysis, to present a better validation of the contribution of active methodologies to the development of digital competences.Originality/valueThe rapid advance of technology and the results of various investigations make evident the need of digital competences development. The most common process is digital literacy through techno-functional training. However, these research results confirm that it is possible to promote these digital competences from a practical view and implicitly in active methodologies educational practices.

Digital content creation: an emerging role for librarians

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Omorodion Okuonghae
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Information Services ◽  
Digital Content ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Content Creation ◽  
High User ◽  
Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽  
Content Marketing

Purpose The increasing importance of digital content creation in relation to content marketing and promotion of library and information services in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has attracted global attention. Thus, the purpose of this study is to theoretically examine librarians’ role in the creation of digital content in the 4IR. Design/methodology/approach This study used the review method to theoretically examine the nexus between digital content creation and librarians’ role in the 4IR. Findings This study showed that librarians are well positioned to become professional digital content creation, as they already possess the basic skills needed to create effective content for high user engagement. Originality/value This study seeks to pioneer a new area of focus by linking librarians’ skills to digital content creation skills and making a case for librarians as the perfect digital content creator.

Using UTAUT 2 model to predict mobile app based shopping: evidences from India

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 248-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Preeti Tak ◽  
Savita Panwar
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Intention ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Smart Phone ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Usage Behavior ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Facilitating Conditions ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand antecedents of app-based shopping in an Indian context. The paper has used unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) 2 model for examining the impact of various constructs on behavioral intention and usage behavior of smart phone users toward the mobile shopping apps. Design/methodology/approach The constructs were tested and validated by means of a structured questionnaire which was administered on a sample of 350 mobile app shoppers in Delhi. AMOS 20 was used to analyze the collected data. Findings The study revealed that hedonic and habit are the strongest predictors of users’ behavioral intention to use mobile apps for shopping. Respondents are also influenced by the deals that are being offered by the marketers. The research also suggests that facilitating conditions help in usage of mobile apps for shopping. Research limitations/implications Managerial implications simplifying the interface which would encourage the less technologically advanced individuals to use mobile apps. Hedonic element of shopping through mobile apps should also be enhanced. Originality/value This study contributes to the research on intentions and usage behavior of consumer technologies by adopting UTAUT 2 model to explain the intentions and usage behavior toward mobile apps for shopping. The paper also measured the role of deals in influencing the consumers.

Unpacking the object of learning

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 194-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Björkholm
Keyword(s):  
Technology Education ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Learning Study ◽  
Linkage Mechanism ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Specific Object ◽  
Primary Technology Education

Purpose – Knowledge concerning the meaning of the object of learning is an important contribution of Learning study. The purpose of this paper is to generate this kind of knowledge and show how it can be developed and refined in the different phases of a Learning study. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reports on a Learning study in primary technology education conducted with students aged six to seven years old, with the aim to explore a specific object of learning; to construct a linkage mechanism for transferring and transforming movement. Findings – The findings show several aspects to discern by the learner in order to grasp the object of learning and reveal how this knowledge was gradually developed during the Learning study. The presumed aspects, those identified in the pre- and post-test, as well as how they were elaborated in the lesson contributed to refining the meaning of the object of learning. Originality/value – In Learning study, knowledge concerning the meaning of the object of learning is generated. By empirically demonstrating the development and specification of this knowledge during a Learning study, this paper will contribute to the discussion of knowledge products from Learning studies as well as to knowledge concerning what there is to know in order to develop a specific capability in technology education.

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