Assessing the Usability of Truck Hiring Mobile Applications in Bangladesh Using Heuristic and Semiotic Evaluation

Abstract

The digital truck hiring systems facilitate the transfer of goods effectively and efficiently, and greatly impact the performance of the logistics industry of any country including Bangladesh. Thus, a digital truck hiring system needs to be usable and accessible to users irrespective of their level of familiarity with digital systems. Earlier researches did not focus to design, develop, and evaluate such applications for making them usable, intuitive, and accessible to end-users. Therefore, the objectives of this research are to assess the usability of truck hiring applications and to provide possible design recommendations for enhancing their usability. To attain these objectives, the usability of three truck hiring applications (DigiTruck, Truck Lagbe, and Trux24) currently operating in Bangladesh was evaluated through heuristic evaluation and semiotic evaluation techniques. As outcomes of heuristic evaluation, a noticeable number of usability problems were found in each application primarily related to maintaining consistency, flexibility, conventions, and error management, while the severity levels of these problems were ranged from cosmetic (level 1) to major (level 3). The semiotic evaluation depicted the intuitiveness of the interface elements of the selected applications. Finally, a set of design recommendations and implications for practitioners are presented to design and develop such applications with enhanced usability and user experience.