Incorporating Heuristic Evaluation (HE) in the Evaluation of Visual Design of the Eco-Tourism Smartphone App

Heuristic Evaluation (HE) has proven to be important in the development of different computer systems but has not been incorporated in the development of eco-tourism smartphone applications. This results inusability issues that significantly affect user experience (UX) as discussed in literature. This study reports the HE in the design and development of Niranur Agro Farm (NAF) eco-tourism smartphone applications, which could improve UX. Eight experts participated in this study, utilizing the SMART mobile usability heuristic developed for mobile application and the severity rating scale to determine usability issues. The HE findings indicated that 22 usability issues were identified. One issue was rated 4 (catastrophe), four issues were rated 3 (major problem), twelve issues were rated 2 (minor problem) and five issues were rated 1 (cosmetics). Although there are issues rated as 4 and 3, the majority of the issues were considered to be minor (1 and 2 on the scale). Results indicated that it is crucial to incorporate HE into the design and development of the eco-tourism smartphone app to minimize the usability issues faced by users. It further validated that utilizing a specific heuristic for smartphone applications would ensure that all usability issues are correctly categorized and remedied.

Usability Evaluation and User Acceptance of Mobile Applications for Saudi Autistic Children

<p class="Body">The evolution of mobile technologies in learning, has been increased the requirements for developing appropriate usability model to fall into the same line with mobile learning applications. Usability of mobile learning applications is a topic that is into research, this paper focuses a tailored designed model called (M-UTUAT) mobile usability model that combines People at the Centre of Mobile Application Development (PACMAD) and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to form a more robust model. As an addition to the usability research, an application (ICT) was developed for children with speech delays and children diagnosed with autism spectrum. The application is a mobile/tablet-based application that developed according to mobile usability measures to get the maximum learning skills and abilities to help autistic children. It has been designed according to the needs of the children specific to their category and skills. The autism spectrum is a broad spectrum with high and low disabilities. The application consists of both visual and audio aids to help children feel comfortable and associate objects more easily with their original meaning and connections. (PECS) is one of the most common techniques that have been clinically proven to be effective in such cases. This application helped an individual with autism spectrum as well as children with speech delays or disabilities to communicate and correlate faster and easily. The application can help so many families by constructing a more communicative path for people with disabilities. The application is innovative that it developed in the Arabic language to serve Arabic learners as most of the autistic applications available serve English learners. Results gathered after questionnaire highlight the usability issues with the (ICT) application. We developed an app to overcome usability issues.</p>

Standardization Issues of Mobile Usability

<span>The benefits of maintaining standards can be summarized from different perspectives: consumers, businesses, governments, economically. They inform and shape the products we buy, ensuring quality and safety. Standardizing in dynamic activities such as the development of mobile applications and devices can be not easy task. In this regard, the aim of the current paper is to revise some international standard towards usability problems of mobile user interfaces and to analyze the possibility of standardization of mobile usability.</span>

Users Perception of the Mobile Usability of a Global Bicycle Sharing Platform

Global bicycle sharing platform offers commuters an accessible, convenient and eco-friendly alternative mode of transport. The study reports on the users’ perception about the mobile usability of oBike, a global bicycle sharing platform. Fifteen participants were recruited for the study. The study outcome reveals that most of the participants found that the oBike mobile application needs to be enhanced to improve their satisfaction. Some recommendations were proffered that if implemented will guarantee the improvement of the application.

Conceptualising Mobile Apps Usability Dimension: A Feasibility Assessment of Malaysian Industrial Practitioners

This paper proposes a usability measurement forevaluating mobile applications. The measurement incorporates usability viewpoint of both, usability specialist and non-usability expert. The resulting usability measurements were validated through a survey of 113 industrial practitioners in Malaysia. Cronbach alpha of .952 reveals that the survey response is consistent and reliable. Hypothesis testing using a Chi-square goodness of fit indicates that the usability measurements were significantly feasible for real practice with p<.000.Mobile usability studies previously conceptualised usability from HCI perspective (e.g. usability attribute and heuristics), constraints and limitations of mobile devices. On the contrary, this paper characterise usability by integrating design features of mobile application through usability features, and quality attributes through usability criteria, in conceptualising apps usability dimension.

Mobilization Techniques Utilized by Leading Global E-Commerce Sites

The objective of this study is to improve our understanding of website mobilization techniques. The landing pages of Alexa's 527 top global shopping sites were analyzed for mobilization technique, mobile usability, and data requirements. It also investigates how mobile technique impacts Google mobile search results. The study found that 89.3% of top global shopping sites are mobile-friendly. The most popular mobile technique is to redirect mobile users to a separate URL, commonly known as m.sites, utilized by 44.1% of sites, followed by dynamic serving, utilized by 23.8%, and responsive, utilized by 23.0% of sites. Keyword analysis using the SEMRush service found a statistically significant difference in keywords following Google's algorithm change to favor mobile sites.