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Usability heuristics for mobile learning applications

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Abstract

Heuristic evaluation is a fast and easy way to detect usability problems. Nielsen (1994) proposed ten heuristics that are being widely used to conduct heuristic evaluation. Utilizing these heuristics for mobile learning applications is not very effective because they are generic and were not developed taking mobile devices into consideration. In this research new heuristics were developed to extend Nielsen (1994) heuristics to support heuristic evaluation of mobile learning applications. Sixteen usability studies on mobile learning applications were retrieved from the literature, the listed usability problems were analyzed and three new heuristics were developed. The validation results indicate that using newly developed heuristics allow evaluators to detect more usability problems while evaluating mobile learning applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, Fiji National University, Suva, Fiji

    Bimal Aklesh Kumar & Munil Shiva Goundar

Authors
  1. Bimal Aklesh Kumar
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  2. Munil Shiva Goundar
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Correspondence to Bimal Aklesh Kumar.

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Appendix

Appendix

 

Authors

Year

Title, Source, Publisher.

1

Armstrong and Wilkinson

2016

Preliminary usability testing of ClaMApp: a classroom management app for tablets, OzCHI ‘16 Proceedings of the 28th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction, ACM.

2

Kumar and Mohite

2016

Usability guideline for mobile learning apps: an empirical study, International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation, Inderscience.

3

Arain et al.

2016

Evaluating Usability of M-Learning Application in the Context of Higher Education Institute, International Conference on Learning and Collaboration Technologies, SpringerLink.

4

Masood and Thigambaram

2015

The Usability of Mobile Applications for Pre-schoolers, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Elsevier.

5

Lee

2014

Development and Usability Assessment of Tablet Based Synchronouous Mobile Learning System, Ubiquitous Information Technologies and Applications, SpringerLink.

6

Hashim and Ahmad

2012

A Comparison of Architectures for a usability- Aware Customized Mobile Learning Management System (CMLMS), 2012 Sixth UKSim/AMSS European Symposium on Computer Modeling and Simulation, IEEE.

7

Heng et al.

2012

End User’s Perspective of Usability in Mobile Learning System, 2012 International Conference on Computer & Information Science (ICCIS), IEEE.

8

Ivanc et al.

2012

Usability evaluation of a LMS mobile web interface, International Conference on Information and Software Technologies, Springer Link.

9

Li et al.

2011

Case Study of Usability Testing Methodology on Mobile Learning Course, 2011 International Conference on Advanced Intelligence and Awareness Internet (AIAI 2011), IET (The Institution of Engineering and Technology).

10

Fetaji and Fetaji

2011

Comparing Developed MLUAT (Mobile Learning Usability Attribute Testing) Methodology with qualitative user Testing method and Heuristic Evaluation, CompSysTech ‘11 Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies, ACM.

11

Hashim et al.

2011

Mobile Learning Course content Application as a Revision Tool: The Effectiveness and Usability, 2011 International Conference on Pattern Analysis and Intelligence Robotics, IEEE.

12

Hashim et al.

2011

Usability Study of Mobile Learning Course Content Applications as a revision tool, Second International Visual Informatics Conference, Springer Link.

13

Sánchez and Espinoza

2011

mGuides, Design and Usability of a mobile System to Assist Learning in Critical Situations, International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction, Springer Link.

14

Sánchez et al.

2008

Mobile Science Learning for the Blind, CHI EA ‘08 CHI ‘08 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM.

15

Wei et al.

2008

Development of a mobile learning model with usability features for online education, International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation, Inderscience.

16

Corlett et al.

2005

Evaluation of a mobile learning organiser for university students, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, Wiley.

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Kumar, B.A., Goundar, M.S. Usability heuristics for mobile learning applications. Educ Inf Technol 24, 1819–1833 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-019-09860-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-019-09860-z

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