Usability compliance audit for technology intelligence services

Abstract

Usability has become a central aspect of the success of applications in the mobile environment. However most usability engineering theories are rather cost intensive and involve the work of usability experts. This paper presents an approach for a "discount usability" check in the means of a usability compliance audit. Being composed of various international usability guidelines, policies and legislation as well as specific development tools for the iOS and Android platform, we have created an audit of 189 general usability recommendations as well as 39 statements focusing on usability issues within the tablet environment. The audit model has been tested at the example of the technology intelligence service application InSciTe (Intelligence in Science and Technology), designed by KISTI (Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information). The results of the audit, conducted by researchers within the development team, show first insights into areas of usability compliance as well as areas in need for improvement. Although the model has a limited scope and needs further development, it can be seen as a starting point to employ usability testing means within the development lifecycle of tablet application projects. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.