Android app usability

Riaan Cornelius

a.k.a Making an app useful

TopicsBecause nobody likes a surprise

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• A quick intro to usability• What, Why, How and When?

• Usability Heuristics• Quick intro to the design process•

requirements for an app• A look at existing apps• Designing a new app

• Requirements• Prototyping it• Testing it

What is usability

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Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. Usability includes methods of measuring usability, such as needs analysis and the study of the principles behind an object's perceived efficiency or elegance.

In human-computer interaction and computer science, usability studies the elegance and clarity with which the interaction with a computer program or a web site is designed.

Definition on Wikipedia

What is usabilityThe 5 quality components

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Usability is defined by 5 quality components:• Learnability• Efficiency• Memorability• Errors• Satisfaction

What is usabilityQuality metrics

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Usability and utility are equally important.

To study a design's utility, you can use the same user research methods that improve usability.

Utility = whether it provides the features you need.Usability = how easy & pleasant these features are to use.Useful = usability + utility.

Why is usability important?Quality metrics

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Usability is a necessary condition for survival.

If an app is difficult to use, people uninstall.

If users get lost in an app, they uninstall.

If an apps information is hard to read or doesn't answer users' key questions, they uninstall.

How do we improve usability?Through hard work

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Most basic and useful method: User testing.

User testing has 3 components:1. Find users2. Let them do stuff3. Observe them doing stuff

Shut up and let the users do the talking.

How do we improve usability?Through hard work

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Testing 5 users is typically enough to identify worst usability issues.

Rather than 1 big study, do lots of small tests and fix issues between every test.

The more interface ideas you test with users, the better.

Iterative design is the best way to increase UX quality.

When do we look at usability?Short answer? Always!

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Usability plays a role in each stage of the design process.

Here are the main steps:• Before starting the new design, test the old design.• Test your competitors' designs. • Conduct a field study to see how users behave in their natural habitat.• Make paper prototypes of one or more new design ideas and test them. • Refine the design ideas that test best through multiple iterations• Inspect the design relative to established usability guidelines• Once you decide on and implement the final design, test it again.

Usability heuristicsWhat we use to rate an app

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Jakob Nielsen's 10 general principles for interaction design. They are called "heuristics" because they are broad rules of thumb and not specific usability guidelines.

• Visibility of system status• Match between system and the real world • User control and freedom • Consistency and standards • Error prevention • Recognition rather than recall • Flexibility and efficiency of use • Aesthetic and minimalist design • Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors • Help and documentation

When do we look at usability?The cold hard truth

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Requirements

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What would a load shedding app need?

• I need some help for this part

Some existing apps

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• * GridWatch - Load Shedding (News24): 100k 500k Downloads (4.3 Stars)• * Loadshedding Cape Town: 1k 5k Downloads (4.2 Stars)• Load Shed Sched: 1k 5k Downloads (4.2 Stars)• * Load Shedding Notifier (Sharenet): 10k 50k Downloads (4.2 Stars)• Load Shedding Alert: 10k 50k Downloads (4.1 Stars)• Load Shedding Notifier: 5k 10k Downloads (4.1 Stars)

• * SA Loadshed: 1k 5k Downloads (3.9 Stars)• ShedAlert load shedding alerts: 10k 50k Downloads (3.8 Stars)• Blackout: 500 1000 Downloads (3.6 Stars)• * Loadshed: 5k 10k Downloads (3.3 Stars)

• Load Shedding Schedules SA: 10k 50k Downloads (2.9 Stars)• MyEskom (Eskom): 10k 50k Downloads (2.8 Stars)• * Loadshedding SA: 5k 10k Downloads (2.8 Stars)• Load Shedding SA: 10k 50k Downloads (2.7 Stars)

Gridwatch Load Shedding100k 500k Downloads (4.3 Stars)

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Load Shedding Cape Town1k 5k Downloads (4.2 Stars)

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Load Shedding Notifier10k 50k Downloads (4.2 Stars)

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SA Loadshed1k 5k Downloads (3.9 Stars)

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Loadshed5k 10k Downloads (3.3 Stars)

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Loadshedding SA5k 10k Downloads (2.8 Stars)

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Requirements

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What would a load shedding app need?

• Current load shedding status• Choose an area you are interested in

• Multiple areas?• How about detecting your location and narrowing it down?• Maybe even detect my zone / region based on power outages?

• Show load shedding times for my area• What about for the next week?

• Push notifications• Countdown to start / end of load shedding?• Power utility contact details• Social media (Twitter, etc) for Eskom / power utility

Requirements

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What about other usability issues?

• How do you keep all schedules updated?• Which areas do you support?• Performance?• Updates?• App size?

PrototypingMake it real

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Low fidelity:• Paper• Prototype On Paper (POP)• Balsamiq

High fidelity• Photoshop• InDesign• InVisionApp• Axure RP Pro

PrototypingMake it real

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Prototype On Paper (POP)

Demo

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Demonstrationhttp://invis.io/262VK87TU

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Questions?

References:

Usability Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usabilityhttp://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/

Usability Heuristics: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/Prototyping: http://www.nngroup.com/courses/wireframing-and-prototyping/

Protoype On Paper: https://popapp.in/Invision: http://www.invisionapp.com/Material Design Templates: http://www.okilla.com/search.php?s=material+designAxure RP Pro: http://www.axure.com/Axure Library: http://www.axure.com/c/forum/tips-tricks-examples/14842-material-design-axure-library.html

Reference: Load Shedding AppsSome existing apps

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* GridWatch - Load Shedding (News24): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.news24.loadshedding* Loadshedding Cape Town: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.loadshedding.capetownLoad Shed Sched: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=za.co.antix.loadshedsched* Load Shedding Notifier (Sharenet): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.uk.sharenet.loadsheddingLoad Shedding Alert: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bitzulu.loadsheddingalertLoad Shedding Notifier: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.abisoft.loadsheddingnotifier

* SA Loadshed: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stoneagetechnologies.saloadshed* ShedAlert load shedding alerts: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ionicframework.clunk534363Blackout: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rbg.loadshed* Loadshed: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ionicframework.loadshed186899

Load Shedding Schedules SA: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ionicframework.loadshedder235300MyEskom (Eskom): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.za.fogg.eskom.myeskom* Loadshedding SA: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.rezonet.loadsheddingsaLoad Shedding SA: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=loadsheddingsa.darkwater.com.loadsheddingsa