Information Quality and Usability Assessment of Virtual Campus Journey Apps

Abstract

AbstractVirtual campus journey mobile apps are accommodating multi-user communication and information dissimilation to educational institutes. Like university websites, virtual campus journey (VCJ) applications also suffer from information overload, low-quality information, and poor usability. LUTMobile prototype introduces touchpoint as a feature of the VCJ user interface to accommodate explicit adaptable personalization core elements to overcome university websites’ information overload. This research presents a three-dimensional (3-D) model associating an application’s core elements, information quality characteristics, and usability heuristics to assess an application’s core elements’ information quality and usability. The 3-D model associates the information quality (IQ) characteristics to the core elements through usability heuristics to arrive at indicators for assessing information quality and usability of an application’s core elements. Seven usability heuristics, Clarity and Learnability, Error Messages, Access, Availability, Information Search, Credibility, and Relevance, are used. Each heuristic is divided into functionalities, and a total of 46 functionalities are created. A set of equations are developed to measure the value of IQ and usability of each selected VCJ application. Usability heuristic assessment assesses the functionality of indicators specific to an application’s core elements. In this particular case, the personalization of the VCJ application is the core functional area. The heuristic assessment indicators are from the application area’s point of view and persona usage scenario. This research contributes a 3-D model to assess the information quality and usability of an application’s core elements.KeywordsPersonalizationInformation qualityUsabilityHeuristicsMobile applications