Towards Usability Guidelines for Mobile Websites and Applications

The market for mobile devices is growing rapidly nowadays. Constant technolog-ical improvements provide great opportunities for the creation of mobile applica-tions. For the success of a mobile application or website, one of the main con-cerns, besides security issues, is usability. Poor usability decreases user produc-tivity and consequently causes loss of users. In order to avoid these problems, usability aspects have to be considered already during the design phase of the ap-plication, e.g. by following predefined usability guidelines. Although usability guidelines for web development are already in place since the 1990s, structured and evaluated usability guidelines for mobile applications can rarely be found in scientific literature. Thus, in this paper we introduce a catalogue of usability guidelines for mobile applications and websites, and subsequently demonstrate their usage by applying them in two case studies: the development of a mobile application and a mobile website

Towards Usability Guidelines for Mobile Websites and Applications

Abstract. The market for mobile devices is growing rapidly nowadays. Constant technological improvements provide great opportunities for the creation of mobile applications. For the success of a mobile application or website, one of the main concerns, besides security issues, is usability. Poor usability decreases user productivity and consequently causes loss of users. In order to avoid these problems, usability aspects have to be considered already during the design phase of the application, e.g. by following predefined usability guidelines. Although usability guidelines for web development are already in place since the 1990s, structured and evaluated usability guidelines for mobile applications can rarely be found in scientific literature. Thus, in this paper we introduce a catalogue of usability guidelines for mobile applications and websites, and subsequently demonstrate their usage by applying them in two case studies: the development of a mobile application and a mobile website. Keywords: Usability, usability guidelines, mobile applications, mobile websites Introduction The market for mobile devices is growing rapidly nowadays. Gartner research reported that "In 2009, smartphone sales reached 172.4 million units, a 23.8% increase from 2008" [1]. Nielsen names 2010 "the year of mobile" One of the main concerns in mobile applications, next to security issues, is usability [6], which can be defined as "the degree to which specified users can achieve specified goals in a particular environment, with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction" In the development of applications for mobile devices a number of issues have to be taken into account, such as small screen size, limited processing power, data entry methods, connectivity, etc. • RQ 1: Which usability guidelines should be considered to develop a usable mobile website or application? • RQ 2: To which extent are these guidelines applicable to a real world development process of mobile websites and applications? The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. In the next section, related work in the field of usability guidelines is presented. In section 3, the research approach is explained, followed by a literature review on usability experiments in section 4, which results in a catalogue of mobile usability guidelines. The compiled guidelines are then utilized in two demonstration scenarios, a mobile application for a process modelling tool and a mobile website for research portals, as presented in section 5. The evaluation of the suggested guidelines is described in section 6. The paper concludes with a discussion of findings and limitations of our research, as well as an outline of the future steps. Related Work The first guidelines for user interfaces (UI) of desktop applications appeared in the beginning of the 1980s and the first web-specific guidelines were formulated in the 1990s 1604 Since the beginning of the 1990s, there has been done much successful work on establishing usability guidelines for websites. For instance, the Usability.gov group has created a database of web usability guidelines Structured and evaluated guidelines for developing mobile applications can hardly be found in the scientific literature Research Method To address the research questions specified in the introduction, the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM), introduced in The methodology consists of six steps: problem identification and motivation, definition of the objectives for a solution, design and development, demonstration, evaluation and communication of the research result

Investigating the appropriateness and relevance of mobile web accessibility guidelines

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develop and maintain guidelines for making the web more accessible to people with disabilities. WCAG 2.0 and the MWBP 1.0 are internationally regarded as the industry standard guidelines for web accessibility. Mobile testing sessions conducted by AbilityNet document issues raised by users in a report format, relating issues to guidelines wherever possible. This paper presents the results of a preliminary investigation that examines how effectively and easily these issues can be related by experts to the guidelines provided by WCAG 2.0 and MWBP 1.0. Copyright 2014 ACM

Foregrounding accessibility for user experience design

textI am interested in creating generative tools and techniques for designing accessible user experiences for end users. As a user experience designer, I am working on embracing the web accessibility standards and guidelines and including them from the beginning of the User Experience (UX) design process. My projects are directed at facilitating design students and professionals to understand two things: that the broad concept of web accessibility is important, and how they can embed web accessibility into the UX design process at a very early stage. To do this, I used different media (website, posters and videos etc.) to create awareness and educate designers in an interesting, simple and engaging way. In this report, I will discuss the definition and role of accessible design, identify limitations in existing tools and methods, and demonstrate how future designers might research, prototype, analyze, and implement their designs for all users.Desig

Culture in the design of mHealth UI:An effort to increase acceptance among culturally specific groups

Purpose: Designers of mobile applications have long understood the importance of users’ preferences in making the user experience easier, convenient and therefore valuable. The cultural aspects of groups of users are among the key features of users’ design preferences, because each group’s preferences depend on various features that are culturally compatible. The process of integrating culture into the design of a system has always been an important ingredient for effective and interactive human computer interface. This study aims to investigate the design of a mobile health (mHealth) application user interface (UI) based on Arabic culture. It was argued that integrating certain cultural values of specific groups of users into the design of UI would increase their acceptance of the technology. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 135 users responded to an online survey about their acceptance of a culturally designed mHealth. Findings: The findings showed that culturally based language, colours, layout and images had a significant relationship with users’ behavioural intention to use the culturally based mHealth UI. Research limitations/implications: First, the sample and the data collected of this study were restricted to Arab users and Arab culture; therefore, the results cannot be generalized to other cultures and users. Second, the adapted unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model was used in this study instead of the new version, which may expose new perceptions. Third, the cultural aspects of UI design in this study were limited to the images, colours, language and layout. Practical implications: It encourages UI designers to implement the relevant cultural aspects while developing mobile applications. Originality/value: Embedding Arab cultural aspects in designing UI for mobile applications to satisfy Arab users and enhance their acceptance toward using mobile applications, which will reflect positively on their lives.</p

Understanding spatial data usability

In recent geographical information science literature, a number of researchers have made passing reference to an apparently new characteristic of spatial data known as 'usability'. While this attribute is well-known to professionals engaged in software engineering and computer interface design and testing, extension of the concept to embrace information would seem to be a new development. Furthermore, while notions such as the use and value of spatial information, and the diffusion of spatial information systems, have been the subject of research since the late-1980s, the current references to usability clearly represent something which extends well beyond that initial research. Accordingly, the purposes of this paper are: (1) to understand what is meant by spatial data usability; (2) to identify the elements that might comprise usability; and (3) to consider what the related research questions might be

Accessing the mobile web: myth or reality?

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How to make privacy policies both GDPR-compliant and usable

It is important for organisations to ensure that their privacy policies are General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant, and this has to be done by the May 2018 deadline. However, it is also important for these policies to be designed with the needs of the human recipient in mind. We carried out an investigation to find out how best to achieve this.We commenced by synthesising the GDPR requirements into a checklist-type format. We then derived a list of usability design guidelines for privacy notifications from the research literature. We augmented the recommendations with other findings reported in the research literature, in order to confirm the guidelines. We conclude by providing a usable and GDPR-compliant privacy policy template for the benefit of policy writers