Smartphone communication and app usability
Francisco Yus · 2021
This chapter is about interface usability and more specifically about smartphone usability regarding the small space of the screen that these devices exhibit and how the design of smartphone apps has to be relevance oriented. The chapter starts with a general account of usability from a relevance-theoretic perspective. Then it is stressed that the usability of an interface (and more specifically of a smartphone app) depends on a number of factors including estimations of relevance by all the people involved in the process of the creation of the app. The next section is about contextual constraints affecting usability, which are sub-divided into user-centred and interface-centred. The chapter ends with some comments on the specificity of smartphone usability and some non-propositional effects (feelings, emotions) that may be derived from engaging with the interface of a smartphone app.