Usability evaluation of messenger applications for Android phones using cognitive walkthrough
Dhiraj Jadhav, Ganesh Bhutkar, Vishal Mehta · 2013
Android - the open source operating system for mobile phones is grabbing more and more user attention and thousands of Android applications are currently being developed. This research aims at usability evaluation of three messenger applications on Android phones, chosen based on a user survey. The applications include WhatsApp, Skype and GO SMS Pro, focusing on primary tasks such as chatting, file transfer, profile viewing and updating contacts. For usability evaluation, Cognitive Walkthrough is selected as it helps in evaluation of tasks providing correct execution paths, while revealing reasons for error occurrences. Cognitive Walkthrough also highlights many usability problems such as lack of provision for multiple smiley selection, no confirmation message for file transfer and ineffective 'Search' functionality. In future, the identified usability problems should be resolved by designing improved mobile interfaces for messenger applications that has an ever-growing user-base.