Abstract
User interface usability is a very relevant aspect, especially for mobile applications. In this paper we propose a methodology for automating user interface usability testing in the early phases of the development process directly on the mobile device. Mockup interfaces are designed, then the way the designer interacts with the interface is compared with the way the end-user interacts with the same interface and the discrepancies between the two usage models are highlighted. The methodology is supported by a mobile tool named PlatoS, which captures a case of use of a mockup in terms of a sequence of actions. On the end-user side, PlatoS captures the user interaction with the mockups and performs the automatic identification of usability problems on the base of the log data. An example of evaluation of an eCommerce mobile prototypes is also presented.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Brooke, J.: SUS-A quick and dirty usability scale. Usability Eval. Ind. 189(194), 4–7 (1996)
Butt, S.M., Ahmad, W.F.W., Rahim, L.: Handling tradeoffs between agile and usability methods. In: International Conference on Computer and Information Sciences (ICCOINS), pp. 1–6. IEEE (2014)
Butt, S.M., Onn, A., Butt, M.M., Inam, N.T., Butt, S.M.: Incorporation of usability evaluation methods in agile software model. In: 17th International Multi-Topic Conference (INMIC), pp. 193–199. IEEE (2014)
Cabrejos, L.J.E.R., Kawakami, G., Conte, T.U.: Using a controlled experiment to evaluate usability inspection technologies for improving the quality of mobile web applications earlier in their design. In: Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering (SBES), pp. 161–170. IEEE (2014)
Conover, W.J.: Practical Nonparametric Statistics, 3rd edn. Wiley, New York (1998)
Francese, R., Gravino, C., Risi, M., Scanniello, G., Tortora, G.: On the use of requirements measures to predict software project and product measures in the context of android mobile apps: a preliminary study. In: 41st Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA), pp. 357–364 (2015)
Francese, R., Gravino, C., Risi, M., Scanniello, G., Tortora, G.: Mobile app development and management: results from a qualitative investigation. In: 4th International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems, pp. 133–143 (2017)
Ivory, M.Y., Hearst, M.: The state of the art in automated usability evaluation of user interfaces. University of California, Computer Science Division (2000)
Kaikkonen, A., Kekäläinen, A., Cankar, M., Kallio, T., Kankainen, A.: Usability testing of mobile applications: a comparison between laboratory and field testing. J. Usability Stud. 1(1), 4–16 (2005)
Lettner, F., Holzmann, C.: Automated and unsupervised user interaction logging as basis for usability evaluation of mobile applications. In: 10th International Conference on Advances in Mobile Computing & Multimedia (MoMM), pp. 118–127. ACM (2012)
Ligman, J., Pistoia, M., Tripp, O., Thomas, G.: Improving design validation of mobile application user interface implementation. In: 5th International Conference on Mobile Software and Systems, pp. 277–278. ACM (2016)
Mockplus. https://www.mockplus.com
Moqups. https://moqups.com
Moran, K., Li, B., Bernal-Cárdenas, C., Jelf, D., Poshyvanyk, D.: Automated reporting of GUI design violations for mobile apps. arXiv:1802.04732 (2018)
Nielsen, J.: Usability metrics: tracking interface improvements. IEEE Softw. 13(6), 12–13 (1996)
Pallant, J.: SPSS Survival Manual, 3rd edn. McGrath Hill, Maidenhead (2007)
Polson, P.G., Lewis, C., Rieman, J., Wharton, C.: Cognitive walkthroughs: a method for theory-based evaluation of user interfaces. Int. J. Man-Mach. Stud. 36(5), 741–773 (1992)
Reggio, G., Leotta, M., Ricca, F.: A method for requirements capture and specification based on disciplined use cases and screen mockups. In: Abrahamsson, P., Corral, L., Oivo, M., Russo, B. (eds.) PROFES 2015. LNCS, vol. 9459, pp. 105–113. Springer, Cham (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26844-6_8
Ricca, F., Scanniello, G., Torchiano, M., Reggio, G., Astesiano, E.: On the effort of augmenting use cases with screen mockups: results from a preliminary empirical study. In: International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM). ACM (2010)
Rivero, J.M., Grigera, J., Rossi, G., Luna, E.R., Montero, F., Gaedke, M.: Mockup-driven development: providing agile support for model-driven web engineering. Inf. Softw. Technol. 56(6), 670–687 (2014)
Rosenthal, R.: Meta-Analytic Procedures for Social Research, vol. 6. Sage, Newbury (1991)
Scholtz, J.: Common industry format for usability test reports. In: CHI - Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, p. 301. ACM (2000)
Stewart, T.: Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs): part 11: guidance on usability. International Organization for Standardization ISO 9241 (1998)
Travassos, G., Shull, F., Fredericks, M., Basili, V.R.: Detecting defects in object-oriented designs: using reading techniques to increase software quality. In: ACM Sigplan Notices, vol. 34, pp. 47–56. ACM (1999)
Venkatesh, V., Ramesh, V., Massey, A.P.: Understanding usability in mobile commerce. Commun. ACM 46(12), 53–56 (2003)
West, R., Lehman, K.: Automated summative usability studies: an empirical evaluation. In: SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 631–639. ACM (2006)
Wetzels, M.: Klikker: a method and infrastructure for mining, analysis, and visualisation of user behaviour and usability issues for mobile application development. Glob. J. Comput. Sci. Technol. 18(1) (2018)
Acknowledgements
We would like to offer our sincere thanks to the experiment participants.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Barra, S., Francese, R., Risi, M. (2019). Automating Mockup-Based Usability Testing on the Mobile Device. In: Miani, R., Camargos, L., Zarpelão, B., Rosas, E., Pasquini, R. (eds) Green, Pervasive, and Cloud Computing. GPC 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11484. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19223-5_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19223-5_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-19222-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-19223-5
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)