Usability evaluation of an M-commerce system using proxy users

Abstract

We have done a usability evaluation of a mobile commerce system developed by Ericsson in Sweden. The main market for the system is in developing countries in Africa. Consequently, there is a geographical distance between the developers and the users, and it is difficult to involve actual users in usability tests. Because of this, a team of solution architects that work with the product was used as proxies for the actual users in the usability test. When the test was completed, a group of actual users came to Sweden to attend a course. In order to get additional input to the usability evaluation, the usability test was repeated with the actual users. The results from the two groups were very similar, and our conclusion is that the proxy user group was a good alternative to actual users.