Though there have been studies exploring usability evaluation methods for mobile applications, there is little documented research comparing evaluation methods for smartwatch applications. The purpose of this study was to explore how usability evaluation of smartwatch applications can be conducted. This was done by discussing what usability attributes are appropriate for the evaluation of smartwatch applications and by exploring what unique insights, strengths and weaknesses the results of the different methods of usability evaluation offer. As there are many different methods that could have been explored, after interviewing four user experience designers, the decision to focus on context and type of evaluator was made. Four types of tests were chosen that matched these variables: heuristic walkthrough, heuristic contextual walkthrough, laboratory test with end users, and in-situ tests with end users. A total of 18 participants were recruited and the results showed that the heuristic walkthrough was the most effective in terms of identifying the most and highest severity usability issues in the least amount of time. In general, the expert-based evaluations fared better than the user-based ones, revealing higher severity, more frequent, and most unique usability issues. Meanwhile, the in-situ tests revealed the least number of usability issues, as well as the least severe ones. Furthermore, the interviews and usability testing suggest that readability and comprehensibility are legitimate usability attributes to consider for smartwatch application usability evaluation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:kth-189033 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Karlsson, Fiona |
| Publisher | KTH, Skolan för datavetenskap och kommunikation (CSC) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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