Usability Evaluation of goPuff Food Ordering App: iOS and Android

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Heuristic Evaluation of the Food Ordering Application
1st Author Name
Affiliation
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2nd Author Name
Affiliation
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3rd Author Name
Affiliation
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ABSTRACT
The technology is changing day by day and with the
changing technology, there is a different application that is
available in the market to use. The best application is
selected based on the usability of the system & the
approach of designing the selected application/system. In
this paper, the usability of the online food ordering
application known as goPuff is evaluated for usability and
ease of use. Three different techniques of evaluation were
used on the basis of which the application evaluation results
were summarized. From the study of the usability and ease
of use, it was found that the goPuff application is user-
friendly and provides almost all the facilities that can be
needed by the user to completely use the application.
Author Keywords
Application, Heuristic Evaluation, Usability, Technique,
Interactive system, Interface, Reachability, Ease of use
Author Keywords
Design, Human Interaction, Factors
1. INTRODUCTION
The study presented here is based on evaluation results of
the usability and interactivity of the food ordering
application for smartphones.
The change in technology every day makes it easier for
people to reach every level of comfort that is possible. The
evolution in the development strategy of the application
also helps developers to reach the level of development
where they can provide the best usability structure to the
application users. The usability of the application is defined
as the user experience of system or application quality
while the user is interacting with the system [1]. These
systems include human interactive systems like video
games, mobile applications, websites or workplace systems.
A good interactive system is the system is the system that is
interactive with human and machines. The interactive
systems are the system that accepts the data entered by the
humans as the input for the system and processing. These
systems allow the user of the system to provide and
command to the system [2].
The system usability checking is the process that has the
main objective of evaluating the comfort of use while using
the system or application and to evaluate how good the user
can use & learn about/from the system [3]. Basically, the
testing of usability of the system or the interactive system is
focused on three main points of the usability: Effectiveness,
Satisfaction of user and Efficiency. The effectiveness of the
system is the level of completeness utilizing which the user
uses the system and reaches the goal of using the system.
The efficiency of the system or application is defined as the
competence level at which the resources are used in the
system and the user satisfaction is the smoothness of
working of the application [4].
In this study of the usability of the mobile application for
ordering food, the application known by the name goPuff is
evaluated for the usability. The application basically deals
with delivery of the food items and other products. The
customers can select the product and order from the
application anywhere, anytime. The application was
evaluated for the usability factors. The method that was
used for evaluating the application is the Heuristic principle
by Neilson. Also, the method of user interface task was
used to evaluate the application and to define its usability
[5].
Figure 1: goPuff
Source: [6]
2. BACKGROUND
Evaluation of the mobile application was related to the
smartphone application. The application named as goPuff.
It was designed and developed with the help of User
Experience (UX) and the User Interface (UI) designs. The
evaluation into the development strategies of an application
will help developers to complete the procedure of the users
in an application [6].
The goPuff application was designed for ordering food
online by one click. In this application, the mediator works
as a middleman between the customers and the restaurants.
The application operates more than one store of digital
convenience. In this application, other than food user can
order from bathroom tissues and phone chargers. It also
delivers the selected adult beverages.
The application is free for use or to watch the collection in
the goPuff application. But while ordering any item, it will
charge $2 for delivering the products. And it will deliver
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any of the product on the demanded 30 minutes of the time
period at the delivery zones. The delivery of the product is
free when the total order is more than or equals to $49.
This application is free to use and also available for many
operating systems that are for both IOS and Android. Users
can easily download the application from any operating
system for free [7].
3. USABILITY EVALUATION
The evaluation of usability was done for acquiring the
results of the food ordering application. It evaluated as the
application is user-friendly or not. User-friendly application
means that the application is quite understandable for each
and every person. For making the application user-friendly,
the heuristic principles were used that make the visibility
status much better than the normal application [8].
3.1 Motivation
The application was designed for the users. Its main motive
is to make easy for the users to buy or order products from
one place or at the one-stop place. This application provides
many types of necessary services to users. The application
basically deals with the food delivery and also other
services. Users can order any item or product from the
application anywhere and anytime. It also saves the time of
the users or the customers. This application was evaluated
with the usability principles.
The researcher's did research on the overall application that
the application is working correctly or not. The
functionality of the application is user-friendly and better
and proper functions were created.
3.2 User Types
In this application, mainly there are two types of users
present for the usage of this application. The types of users
are IOS and Android. This application is available for both
kinds of users for free to use with common privacy services
and the terms and conditions.
Other than that, there are many types of users contribute
their part into it. Users are like the end-users. End users are
also of many kinds of different age groups. The child age or
the under 18 users are there. The adult age group is also
there who preferred their own choice of products. And the
overage or the aged person also present there who are using
this application.
There are many or each kind of products are present there
in the application for different or each and every age
groups.
Under 18 kids or the children would prefer to order their
choice of products from the application:
 Kids or children will order the eatable items such
as chips or fast food and soft drinks.
 And the adult users mainly order the different
kinds of product that are necessary for them. It
provides both kinds of drinks such as soft drinks
and another type of drinks as cocktails and
mocktails both.
Many types of products were ordered with the use of this
application. Such common products are booze, ice cream,
groceries, and the snacks, and many products were
delivered by this application. This application provided the
customer care services also for the customers. They can ask
any query by the customer care executive.
Users are commonly two types that are the unauthorized
and the authorized user. Unauthorized users are those who
didn’t register in the application and trying to order any
product or food from the application. They have to register
themselves into the application for ordering food or any
type of product. And the authorized users have the authority
to order food or any product that is delivered by the
application. The delivery services were connected with the
application by which the product can easily deliver on time
at the doorstep of the delivery address.
3.3 Evaluation Methods
The method of evaluation is of two types that are:
- User Interface Tasks
- Heuristic Principles
User interface Tasks
The user interface is the interface design that is used into
the information devices by which the person or the user
may interact with each other with the application. It
contains the keyboards, display screens, mouse clicks, and
the desktop appearance. It is the precise way by which any
person or the user will able to make better interaction with
the application or the web applications.
The design of the app was depending on the User Interface
or the UI. Basically, the application designing part is the
main part because all the look and feel of the application
depended on it with these principles or the heuristic
principles.
Heuristic Principles
Heuristic principles are those principles that were used in
the designing or the UI part of the application. Each
functionality depends on the UI of the application.
Visibility of screens, font sizes, color combination, image
quality with their preferred sizes, and many more were
depending on the heuristic principles [9].
In evaluating this application, we are using two types of
evaluating methods that are:
- Heuristic Principles by Jakob Nielsen
- Heuristic Principles by Gerhardt Powals
There are 10 most heuristic principles were used for
designing the application.
Heuristic Principle by Jakob Nielsen
 Display system status
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The app of goPuff will keep persons up-to-date
about recent actions and the recent statement by
the feedbacks into the given time.
Figure 2: Visibility of System Status
Source: [17]
 Real and system world should match
This principle will help to connect the system with
the real-world applications.
Figure 3: similarity between real and system world
Source: [17]
 Freedom & control to user
It helps the control the human errors while using
the system.
Figure 4: User Control and Freedom
Source: [17]
 Error Prevention
It helps users while processing the application. It
provides the dialog box as shown as the error was
created of which type.
Figure 5: Error Prevention
Source: [17]
 Understanding the error and help in resolving error.
It helps the users while exiting the application. It
provides the dialog box whether the user wants to exit
or not.
 Consistency and standards
It helps for the identification whether the font size is of
the same kind or not.
 Recognition rather than recall
It helps in the search bar functionality where the user
cannot type the whole searchable format. The system
will recognize itself.
Source: [17]
 Flexibility and efficiency of use
It helps in the linking of pages such as quick links.
 Aesthetic and minimalist design
It helps in the design of the application with the images
and fewer texts for identification.
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Figure 6: Aesthetic and minimalist design
Source: [17]
 Help and documentation
This principle gives their command on the terms and
condition and privacy policy pages [10].
Figure 7: Help and Documentation
Source: [17]
Heuristic Principles by Gerhardt Powals
 Automation of unwanted workload of documents
 The uncertainty of errors and time was reduced.
 New information or data has to be present within the
frameworks that are familiar to them.
 Display labels and names that are dependent on the
context and it also improve recognition and recall.
 Use of graphics and color will help to make the better
look and feel of the screen [11].
4. RESULTS
For generating the right usability results and to evaluate the
application is chosen, i.e. goPuff, two different principles
were used. The used principle is Heuristic approach by
Neilson and Gerhardt-Powals’ and the user interface task.
These three testing methodologies allowed to get the best
insight in the application and the usability.
Figure 8: An Application interface
Source: [16]
The following are the detailed results of the usability
testing:
User interface task
The user interface task process of identifying the usability
of the applications using the task system. The objectives of
the user of the system are defined and the goals to be
achieved by the system are listed. All the goals and the
objectives are listed and then divided into a small group of
tasks.
The method of evaluation can be understood using the
process as a task of ordering the food is consist of the
selecting food item, selecting quantity, finalizing the cart
value and paying for the selected order. These all are the
small task that will be used to complete the overall task of
food order.
The listed below are the aims of the user and task that must
be achieved by the system of goPuff:
User objective
 To order the food.
 To get himself registered.
 To add food to the cart
 To view cart and manipulate items in the cart
 To update and change details
The task to be achieved by the system:
 Get user registered
 Update information when instructed
 Open all application modules
 Update cart as instructed
 Delete/add content in cart
 Show the status and wanting time
For the system to be effective and user-favorable, the
goPuff application should achieve all these tasks and the
table below concludes the testing of the goPuff application
using the user interface task method:
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S.NO. Test Results
1. The objective of the user to be able to register
himself and the goal of the application to get
user registered was achieved and the user was
successfully able to register himself using the
phone number and via using Facebook.
2. The objective of the user to order to food and
the goal of the application to help user
ordering food and other products was
successfully tested. The user was able to order
food and other products.
3. The objective of the user to add an item in the
cart and the goal of the application to allow
the user to add/delete items in the cart was
successfully tested. The user was able to get
the data in the cart and manipulate cart
according to requirement.
4. The goal of the user to update user details in
the application and objective of the system to
allow user flexibility was attained. The user
was able to update profile.
The heuristic principle by Neilson
The Heuristic principle of the Neilson was used in order to
test the usability of goPuff [12]. The following are the
results of the evaluation using the principle by Neilson:
S.No. Heuristic
principle
Test Result
1. System status
visibility
The status of the order and
the status of the services
like loading images and
details are displayed in the
application.
2. Real and
system world
matching
The icons like the cart
image, search icon and
delete and add option etc.
are used as they are used in
the real world.
3. Control and
freedom
The user is allowed to
move out of the system
any time the user of the
application wants. This
allows the user to have the
freedom and control of
use.
4. Prevention of
error
The error related to the
system like logging out
unknowingly, adding and
deleting items from the
cart is done after taking
regular consent from the
user. This is the prevention
from errors.
5. Recognizing
and recovering
from the error
If the error is caused, then
the user is allowed to undo
the deletion done.
6. Standards and
consistency
The standards and the
consistency are used in the
goPuff. The standard
phrases like forgot
password, login into the
system, and others were
used in the application.
7. Recognition
instead of
recalling
The user is not forced to
remember the order placed
and the item added in the
carts. The option of a cart
is displayed on the
application.
8. Efficiency and
flexibility of
use
The user is given
efficiency and flexibility of
use of the application.
Autofill and search
recommendations are used
in order to provide
flexibility.
9. Aesthetical
designing and
minimalistic
approach
In this application, no
useless and non-required
data is displayed anywhere
on the screens.
10. Documentation
and help aids
There is an option in the
application to get help in
case of any problem/issue.
Gerhardt-Powals' cognitive engineering principles
There are 10 different principles of the Gerhardt-Powals'
cognitive engineering application heuristic evaluation on
the basis of which the goPuff was evaluated:
 Automate unwanted workload: the application does not
cause the user to have any kind of mental pressure of
calculation and estimates.
 Uncertainty reduction: the data used in the application
is not ambiguous and does not cause any confusion in
the minds of the user.
 Fusion of data: the data of cart is fused on the payment
page for final payment.
 Presentation of new information is done using the same
framework and notification to elaborates the update is
used.
 The functionalities name is relevant.
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 At a time, only relevant information is displayed on the
screen.
 User requirements are satisfied in the interface of the
goPuff [13].
Some of the screens that were used for the evaluation
purpose are as following:
Figure 9: Login screen
Tool: Balsamiq
Figure 10: category screen
Tool: Balsamiq
5. FUTURE WORK SUGGESTION
The following is the list of recommendations for the future
development work of the application:
 The categories of food from restaurant and food order
from stores should be separated.
 The categories of order should be separated according
to food from a restaurant and other orders.
 The help section should allow the contact delivery
executive option.
 There should be an option to allow the user to explore
the application without logging into the system.
Figure 11: Screen without a guest login system
Tool: Balsamiq
 There should be an option to allow to register after
adding the items in the cart.
 The application should allow users to get an estimate of
order without login [14].
6. CONCLUSION
The application goPuff was evaluated above on the basis of
the three-evaluation methodology: Heuristic principle by
Neilson, the Heuristic principle by Gerhardt-Powals and the
user interface task method. These three methods were used
to evaluate the application for its usability.
6

Figure 12: System usability evaluation
Source: [15]
From the study of the usability of the goPuff application, it
can be concluded that the application developed by the
technical team of the goPuff is very accessible and is simple
to use. It was found that the application supports all the user
objectives and completes all the goals of the application
development.
The application is passed in all the three evaluation
techniques proving that the development done was user-
centric. The results also conclude that the application
developed is available for all types of smartphones and has
two different approaches as iOS and Android. Some work
that can be done in order to improve the application
interface and user access.
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APPENDIX
Risk assessment
The risk related to the application usability research can be the factors like the non-compatibility of the application with the
device, internet system not working, device not UpToDate, application not updated and others. These factors can affect the
usability testing of the application and can cause variations in the results of the application evaluation.
Consent form
Overall result
From the study of the usability of goPuff app, it can be concluded that the application developed by the technical team of the
goPuff is very accessible and very simple to use. It was found that the application supports all the user objectives and
completes all the goals of the application development.
The application is passed in all the three evaluation techniques proving that the development done was user-centric. The
results also conclude that the application developed is available for all types of smartphones and has two different approaches
as iOS and Android. Some work that can be done in order to modify the application interface & user access.
8
For [please enter group]:
Name of department:
Title of study: Heuristic Evaluation of the Food Ordering Application
Purpose of study: the main reason behind the study of the usability of the application names as goPuff is to evaluate the
application for its usability and to understand how the principles of designing are implemented to make the application
more user friendly and usable.
I hereby verify that I have gone through and understood the information about the work to be done in the research as per
the guideline provided.
I confirm that I have had the opportunity to gather the relevant data for research and I have used appropriate methods to
collect the data for research.
I understand that the responsibility of this work is mine and I am answerable to any question asked regarding the same.
I also know that I can take back the data from the study at any time.