Abstract
In the last decade, there has been an exponential growth in use of mobile phones among people. Smart phone invention has digitized life of a common man especially after introduction of 3G/4G technology. People are used to use Internet on the move because of this advancement in technology. This advancement has also motivated usability design researchers to propose more usable designs for both smart phones and web sites. This work focuses on evaluation of web usability of mobile phones as well as usability of university web sites. Evaluation is performed on the most popular mobile phones required by the most common mobile users. Selection of the most popular mobile devices, the most common mobile users and their web usage is done by conducting a very detailed survey in the local market. Survey concludes that students and labors are the most common buyers of mobile phones and we choose three mobiles phones from the category of most popular phones that are iPhone (iPhone 4 precisely), Q-Mobile (Q Mobile A35) and Windows phone (Lumia 535). Six participants (three male and three females) are selected for fully detailed and rigorous task-based usability testing with “think aloud” technique. Task scenarios are defined to evaluate the usability of both i.e. smart phones and chosen university web sites. From results of usability testing, we find out that iPhone has better usability design as far as its response time is concerned while Q Mobile ranks second and Microsoft Windows phone takes last position in this ranking. Usability evaluation of university web sites on these mobile phones concludes that web site of Islamia university of Bahawalpur (I.U.B, Bahawalpur) has better mobile usability design and Bahauddin Zakariya university (BZU, Multan) and NFC Institute of Engineering and Technology NFCIET, Multan) second and third respectively and while web site of Institute of Southern Punjab (ISP, Multan) comes last when measured in terms of task completion time. All tests are performed on wireless network when internet download speed is between 3MBPS to 3.2MBPS.
Highlights
Since the arrival of mobile phones in the 1980s, they have turned out to be broadly utilized among all ages
They are turning into the personal computers because users are increasingly using mobile phones rather than desktops to get to information and services
We know that usability of user interfaces are very important for web sites [17] but it becomes more important issue when a web site is being viewed on a mobile and is being frequently visited by many users
Summary
Since the arrival of mobile phones in the 1980s, they have turned out to be broadly utilized among all ages. They are turning into the personal computers because users are increasingly using mobile phones rather than desktops to get to information and services. Due to this significant diffusion of mobile technologies in our lives, the way we used to access information has changed. Students often consult institute’s web site for occasional changes in examination schedules, assignments, course material, exam results, news etc. To find out what kind of smart phones are popular among students, To find out what types of tasks student perform while surfing university web sites, To evaluate usability of popular smart phones for defined tasks, To evaluate usability of different university web sites
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