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Journal of Computing in Higher Education

, Volume 30, Issue 3, pp 466–488 | Cite as

A DEMATEL method in identifying design requirements for mobile environments: students’ perspectives

  • Ahmed Ibrahim Alzahrani
  • Hosam Al-Samarraie
  • Atef Eldenfria
  • Nasser Alalwan
Article
First Online:

Abstract

The understanding of the design of mobile phones is somewhat different from other devices and products. This is properly due to the limited design capacity of mobile phones which need to be maintained within a small screen. One aspect for consideration is the relationship between certain design elements and users’ usage behavior and perception of the device. This study examined the feasibility of multiple-criteria decision making, known as the decision-making trial evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), for identifying the key design patterns necessary for promoting users use of mobile devices. Precisely, we studied users’ direct, indirect, and interdependent behaviors in relation to seven mobile design patterns, including dealing with data, providing input, navigation, notification, personalization, screen interaction, and social activity. A DEMATEL model was generated for 75 students using these dimensions. The results showed that patterns corresponding to users’ interactions with the screen, dealing with data, and navigation were the core factors that can potentially aid the design of mobile environments. Our findings can be used by educational designers of mobile applications to form better design scenarios that are closely connected to a specific task and setting.

Keywords

Mobile environments HCI Decision-making User design requirements Higher education 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

The authors extend their appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University for funding this work through research group No (RG-1438-062).

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Computer Science Department, Community CollegeKing Saud UniversityRiyadhSaudi Arabia
  2. 2.Centre for Instructional Technology and MultimediaUniversiti Sains MalaysiaGelugorMalaysia
  3. 3.Faculty of Information TechnologyMisurata UniversityMisrataLibya

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