ITC 504: Evaluation of Mobile App Interface Usability for Farm Shop

This report evaluates the user interface design of a mobile application developed for a local farm shop, aiming to expand its business through an e-commerce platform. The evaluation, conducted using the cognitive walkthrough method, focuses on identifying usability issues within the application's wireframes. The report analyzes several key areas, including the registration page, loading times, search functionality, and product/service information presentation. Specific issues are highlighted, such as visibility problems, lack of interactivity, and missing back buttons, along with their potential impact on user experience. The report also offers remediation actions for each identified issue, such as using standard fonts, preloading data, adding back buttons, and providing detailed product information. Furthermore, the report includes a bibliography of relevant research papers on user interface design and usability evaluation.

Subject: ITC 504 Interface Useability SEM_4
Interface Usability
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note
Student ID 11592302
Student Name: ROHIT SUTHAR

Introduction
The report is prepared for the evaluation of the user interface design created for the
local farm shop case study. The farm shop deals in selling gifts, foods, wines and other
products to its customers. Curently the customers of the local farm shop needs to visit the
store physically for purchasing the products and the shop whants to expand their business to
reach more number of customers. For the achievement of their goals and objectives the shop
neess to develop an e commerce application for reaching the customers who are not able tto
reach the shop due to limitations of distance and time. The mobile application is designed for
creating a virtual interface of the store and add their small restaurant with the application for
enabling online booking service for the restaurant.
Therefore, Group 12 made a mobile application Wireframes. In m 12, I am rohit
suthar and my student no is 11592302. I am going to evaluate Group 12 mobile application
wire-frames with using Cognitive walkthroughs method.
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Evaluation of the design and the usability issues
(1). What the issue is and where is it located
- For the registration page the main issue is visibility of the contents off the page and more
text information is added that can cause the user to avoid registration.
(2) Why the issue is a problem;
- The interface is not attractive and it does not meets the consistency and standards of the
design. It also does not have a match with the real life applications. The text used does not
have a resemblance with the registration of login page.
(3) Whether the issue is a significant or a minor issue
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- It is a significant issue because the user needs to be familiar with the registration or login
page for using the application. If the first look and feel is not attractive the user may not find
the application useful.
(4). Possible remediation actions that could resolve the issues found.
- A standard font shoud be used for all pages and the texts should be short such that the user
can read it at a glance and spend less amount of time in the registration page.
(1). What the issue is and where is it located
- The main issue of the interface is that the application should be interactive and it should use
local data for reducing the loading time of the application.
(2) Why the issue is a problem;
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- Fetching all the data from the online servers can take more time to load the application and
thus the application should preload some of the data for reducing the waiting time of the user.
(3) Whether the issue is a significant or a minor issue
- it is a minor issue for some of the customer but can be a major issue if they internet
connectivity speed is slow. The loading time may cause the application unusable for some of
the customers.
(4). Possible remediation actions that could resolve the issues found.
It is recommended that breadcrumbs should be used along with cache for reducing the
loading time of the application.
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(1). What the issue is and where is it located
- The search option is not required in the registration page and it is not linked with any of the
pages. The user cannot go back from the registration page to normally search for products.
(2) Why the issue is a problem;
- Once entering into the registration page the use can get stuck if he/ she does not have the
available information such as the email address.
(3) Whether the issue is a significant or a minor issue
- The issue is considered as a major issue because the user needs to close the application by
force and return with the information required for registration.
(4). Possible remediation actions that could resolve the issues found.
- Removal of the search option form the registration page and addition of a back button can
help in providing the possible remedy for the actions.
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(1). What the issue is and where is it located
It alos have the same issue that is there is no back option provided in the login page.
(2) Why the issue is a problem;
The issue is a problem for the non registered users because if they enter into the login page
they cannot go back.
(3) Whether the issue is a significant or a minor issue
It is a major issue because it makes the application freeze and the user needs to close the
forcefully for using it again.
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(4). Possible remediation actions that could resolve the issues found.
The addition of a back button and linking it with the previous page page can resolve the
problem and increase the usability of the interface.
(1). What the issue is and where is it located
The list of products lacks in details and only the name of the product and the image is
displayed to the users. The user select the product for getting all the detaisl of the page.
(2) Why the issue is a problem;
The issue is a problem the user have to spend more time for getting the product of their
choice.
(3) Whether the issue is a significant or a minor issue
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It is a major issue because it does not attracts the users and violated the consistenct standards
for designing the user interface.
(4). Possible remediation actions that could resolve the issues found.
Adding of relevant product information using short text can resolve the problem such as
addition of the price and manufacturing details of the product
(1). What the issue is and where is it located
The service page is irrelevant and appropriate headings should be used for displaying relevant
information to the users using the information system.
(2) Why the issue is a problem;
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The issue ia a problem because under the heading “Select the food item from the below list”
no food items appears and irrelevant information is displayed to the user.
(3) Whether the issue is a significant or a minor issue
It is a significant issue because the user does not find the information in the application
interface useful and this can cause addition of extra charge without the consent of the user.
(4). Possible remediation actions that could resolve the issues found.
Relevant information should be used and the user must be informed about each of the steps
performed by the user for maintaining transparency in the business.
(1). What the issue is and where is it located
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The alignment of the text box is not proper in the user interface and thus it hampers the look
and feel of the application.
(2) Why the issue is a problem;
The issue is a problem because it violates the consistency of the design and it violates the
match between the real world.
(3) Whether the issue is a significant or a minor issue
It is a minor issue because the website can be used irrespective of the alignment of the text
boxes.
(4). Possible remediation actions that could resolve the issues found.
The changes in the alignment of the design can help in increasing the usability of the website
and remove the constrtainst of the web interface design.
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(1). What the issue is and where is it located
The details of the amount are not displayed to the users and the user does not find the details
of the cost for each of the items.
(2) Why the issue is a problem;
The main issue is that the the update should be available to the users about the payments.
(3) Whether the issue is a significant or a minor issue
It is a major issue and can cause customer dissatisfaction and loss of customers.
(4). Possible remediation actions that could resolve the issues found.
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The details of the price of the products, packaging charge and the taxes should be calculated
and displayed to the users.
(1). What the issue is and where is it located
The list of gifts lacks in details and only the name of the product and the image is displayed
to the users. The user select the gifts for getting all the details of the page.
(2) Why the issue is a problem;
The issue is a problem the user have to spend more time for getting the gifts of their choice.
(3) Whether the issue is a significant or a minor issue
It is a major issue because it does not attracts the users and violated the consistenct standards
for designing the user interface.
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(4). Possible remediation actions that could resolve the issues found.
Adding of relevant product information using short text can resolve the problem such as
addition of the price and manufacturing details of the product
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Bibliography
Feiner, J., Krainz, E., & Andrews, K. (2018). A New Approach to Visualise Accessibility
Problems of Mobile Apps in Source Code.
Forsgren, M. (2015). Designing a Risk Manager Dashboard.
Hermawati, S., & Lawson, G. (2015). A User-Centric methodology to Establish usability
heuristics for specific domains. In Proceedings of the International Conference on
Ergonomics & Human Factors (p. 8085).
Rohrer, C. P., Wendt, J., Sauro, J., Boyle, F., & Cole, S. (2016, May). Practical Usability
Rating by Experts (PURE): A Pragmatic Approach for Scoring Product Usability.
In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in
Computing Systems (pp. 786-795). ACM.
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