Conducting a Usability Evaluation and Cross-Platform Design Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of usability evaluation and cross-platform design, focusing on a food ordering website. It begins with the creation of a usability test plan, outlining methods to assess user experience, including the speed of the website, user task completion, icon comprehension, and device optimization. The report then presents an expert review of a prototype food ordering service, evaluating it based on Nielsen's heuristics, such as system visibility, real-world alignment, user control, consistency, error prevention, and aesthetic value. Finally, the report explores strategies for mobile design, comparing native, hybrid, and mobile web applications, and considers human factors in the mobile context. The author emphasizes the importance of mobile-first design and the need to adapt to evolving mobile technologies. The report concludes with a call for continuous development to meet the changing requirements of operating systems and mobile browsers.

Running Header: CONDUCTING A USABILITY EVALUATION AND CROSS-PLATFORM
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Conducting a Usability Evaluation and Cross-Platform
[Names of Author First, Last]
[School of Study]
Abstract

2. CONDUCTING A USABILITY EVALUATION AND CROSS-PLATFORM
Usability testing is having target users to use a product to find faults in the product and
consequently improve its usability(Young, 2019). It is different from the traditional testing done
by the technical software teams, usability testing involves getting feedback from actual users,
taking keen notes, listening or watching as users use a website. For successful comparative
testing, you need three things: a test plan, to find and select participants and to analyze and report
your findings ("Usability Testing | Usability.gov", 2019). We have different types of usability
testing, comparative usability testing involves comparing websites offering similar services to
see which gives customers the greatest ease of use, explorative usability testing users test a
different range of features or products to find the most preferred and usability evaluation is
assessing the degree of ease of use. In this study, I will create a test plan for a food ordering
website prototype I have designed, I will conduct an expert review on another prototype and will
explore strategies for mobile design.
Usability Test Plan
The usability test plan will focus on a food ordering website. The purpose of this test is to
find the usability of a food ordering system. Usability shows the ease of use of an application,
how effective it is and how efficient a user interface is (Travis, 2013).
The product under usability testing is a food ordering system. Users of the website should
access the website, view the different food varieties and order for them with maximum ease. We
will be testing the speed of the website, time taken by users to order food, which tasks do
customers struggle with, do users of the website understand the icons and terms used, do users
have options to choose modes and on what devices do customers have the best user experience
(Alluri, 2012). User experience is the perceptions or reactions from the use of a system or service
(Buley, 2013). A users personal experience with the website should create a connection, a long-

3. CONDUCTING A USABILITY EVALUATION AND CROSS-PLATFORM
term connection with our website. Our goal is for our food delivery system to serve people
across different age and economic brackets, users order in minimal time, increase the number of
orders on our application and have an effective reviewing system.
It is vital that usability testing is carried out on a new website. Testing a product with
actual users exposes you to things you wouldn’t ideally note, even the best developers and
product managers are not a replacement for this, it is easy for an application to lack empathy.
Carrying out usability testing before the development of a product saves time and money as the
feedback iterations are reduced (Winter & Hinely, 2012). It helps in aligning a customer’s goals
to the businesses goals, it’s vital to make data-driven decisions in the development of the food
application.
The testing participants will be twenty people from different groups, we shall have a
combination of young, middle-aged and old people from the middle class. The participants will
test out the application, we will get the results by observation and the feedback given.
Questionnaires shall be used to collect customer feedback. Time taken to make an order will be
observed, having users perform the core tasks, having users perform live transactions, showing
people a completed order and having them recreate and observing it will also be carried out.
The usability testing will ideally take thirty minutes, once with a user, I’ll have them
attempt different activities on the application as I observe and record how they carry them out.
To improve the user experience, user filled questionnaires will give feedback, observation will
also be used to understand the customer experience. 13”, 15”, 17” laptops and a tablet will be
used for the user testing. The quantitative metrics used will be completion rate, time taken,
metrics for satisfaction will include task, recommendations and test level satisfaction (Mifsud,
2015).

4. CONDUCTING A USABILITY EVALUATION AND CROSS-PLATFORM
Expert Review of a prototype
An expert review involves observing a website’s design to identify usability strengths and
problems (Young, 2019). A website prototype is a demo of a website, they’re used for project
planning and to visualize a project. Interaction design principles will be observed in this review,
the principles are from general observation and not as a result of set and clearly defined rules.
The prototype is of a food ordering service named “Varsity Club Online Ordering”. I will
review this prototype following Nielsen’s principles, Nielsen came up with heuristics to be used
in the design of user interfaces. The visibility of the systems deals with how the system
communicates to the users about its state (Harley, 2018). The prototype clearly communicates
this, the users are able to understand what is happening in the backend of the website.
The system is able to clearly match the system and the real world. As a user of varsity
club online ordering, I understand how it functions. The website design clearly shows empathy
from the designer and developer. Users of online services read a lot less than before, to convey a
message a combination of images and well-summarized text has been used.
The online ordering system does not give users total control and freedom. Online
consumers of food should have more control on their orders, users should be able to track their
order, cancel the orders at will, add specifications to it and have more payment options. The
website gives a user a good level of control but users would be more enthused if they can
exercise more control.
Consistency and standards are mandatory for the best user experience. The website
observes a consistent colour, font and images layout. Consistency makes it easier for customers
to make orders, especially subsequent orders. Consistency involves changes being made to be in
line with certain standards. When things follow certain behaviour patterns, users don’t worry

5. CONDUCTING A USABILITY EVALUATION AND CROSS-PLATFORM
about what happens next. The club online ordering can improve their consistency by following
UI guidelines, consistency reduces learning time for users ("Why You Need UI Guidelines?",
2019). A good example of where inconsistent updates made customers leave a product is the case
of snap chat where three million users left after a redesign ("Digital Trends", 2019).
Errors should be prevented, errors can be prevented by careful testing, validations,
careful design and warning the client. The club ordering system has a weak error prevention
mechanism, there aren’t sufficient validations or error messages in place to protect the
customers.
The system has no efficient recognition system, this is because it has no server-side.
Clients have to freshly update the data every time they access the website. The system is
however very easy to use. If it’s anyone’s day on the internet all they will need to do is to read
and follow the simple and clearly defined steps.
The website prototype has observed a minimalistic design, it’s aesthetic value can
however be improved. The aesthetic value can be improved by changing the colours, using
whitespaces and changing the fonts.
The system needs error messages, users can make blank orders and the system will still
complete the transaction. The system also needs a help page for new users, it helps that there is
an option to add comment widget but it would help more if it were a chat web widget or a help
page with frequently asked questions(FAQs).
The website prototype is a good start for a food ordering website, however, for it to
achieve much success the noted changes and others should be made. User experience is key in
making a product successful, once users have a sentimental attachment to a product they’re
bound to use it more often.

6. CONDUCTING A USABILITY EVALUATION AND CROSS-PLATFORM
Exploring Strategies for Mobile Design
Converting my webpage from a web-application to a mobile application will require that
I understand the different needs of mobile users (Agrimbau, 2019). To convert the website to a
mobile application I have three options to make it a native, hybrid or a mobile web application.
A mobile web application is the easiest and cheapest route to convert the web app into a mobile
application. Mobile web apps are limited to some services, it does not have the best hardware
integrations with the phone, getting some services needed for our food application such as
location, push notifications and device integrity can’t be found while using this strategy.
For our food application using a hybrid application is the preferred route, they run on the
android or iPhone hardware but use web technologies, HTML, CSS and javascript. Hybrid
applications access the hardware like camera, memory card, read-only memory, random access
memory and other core phone features. A hybrid application is preferred as developers don’t
have to rewrite all the code. Native applications require a lot of work, recreating everything,
rewriting all the code, redesigning every page, basically redoing every aspect. It also needs one
to find developers skilled in Java-Android and iOs development technologies. Hybrid
applications can be used on both play store and an app store with just a few changes on the code,
unlike native which require a whole new code.
There are challenges faced when converting to a mobile web application, some HTML5
features don’t work on mobile devices, those include autoplay in video and transitions in CSS.
For our food application having customers have a better view or a good view of the food, they’re
ordering will be a challenge. It is also much harder to have a web application because of the wide
variety of mobile devices, we have mobile devices that are huge and those that are small, it’s
even more complicated now with the introduction of foldable phones, with irregular viewing

7. CONDUCTING A USABILITY EVALUATION AND CROSS-PLATFORM
sizes. Users will have a preferred medium for ordering food, it is only natural, our goal is to
make sure that they love whichever medium they select. In these times, however, people are on
mobile phones more than on any other devices, it is paramount to make this platform the most
easily accessible. Users won’t have the wide viewing angles of the various features on our
application on a mobile phone. To convert to a mobile web application needs an understanding
of the functionalities especially those not available. Our food ordering system will need to be
very fast, users of mobile phones are not patient with slow websites, it will be key to work on
using lighter images, content delivery network and caches to make the mobile web applications
fast.
Choosing the right and simplest javascript framework is vital for this. The food ordering
mobile system has to be user-friendly, intuitive and effective (Abrosimova, 2019). Human
factors are vital in the testing of this application, the human factors will be ease of navigation in
the mobile web app, ease of checkout after ordering food, security measures to secure the
website, environmental measures and if it’s fit for usage (Shacklet, 2016).
To make this mobile web application usable beyond our geographic boundaries, we will
make application usable in different languages, employ maps and location privileges, based on
location of the user it gives an option to change to the users’ native language. Merchants should
have auto-sign up on the food ordering system to make it easily accessible globally, there
shouldn’t be physical interference.
It will be challenging but mandatory for our food ordering website to have a mobile web
application or a hybrid or native android application. For a start, I will have a mobile website
application, in addition to using a mobile-first design approach in the web design, I will ensure
that all the HTML5, Javascript and CSS features on the mobile web application are compatible.

8. CONDUCTING A USABILITY EVALUATION AND CROSS-PLATFORM
With the constant and rapid evolution of mobiles, it is important to continue developing to fit the
new requirements of the operating systems and mobile browsers.
References
Abrosimova, K. (2019). How to Turn a Website Into a Mobile App. Retrieved 15
December 2019, from https://yalantis.com/blog/how-to-turn-a-website-into-a-mobile-app/
Agrimbau, T. (2019). Developing Mobile Web Applications: When, Why, and
How. Retrieved 15 December 2019, from https://www.toptal.com/android/developing-mobile-
web-apps-when-why-and-how
Why You Need UI Guidelines?. (2019). Retrieved 14 December 2019, from
https://uxdworld.com/2018/04/09/why-you-need-ui-guidelines/

9. CONDUCTING A USABILITY EVALUATION AND CROSS-PLATFORM
Snapchat Users drop 3 Million | Digital Trends. (2019). Retrieved 14 December
2019, from https://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/snapchat-re-design-drops-users-second-
quarter-2018/
Harley, A. (2018). Visibility of System Status. Retrieved 14 December 2019,
from https://www.nngroup.com/articles/visibility-system-status/
Young, N. (2019). What is usability testing?. Retrieved 13 December 2019, from
https://www.experienceux.co.uk/faqs/what-is-usability-testing/
Usability Testing | Usability.gov. (2019). Retrieved 13 December 2019, from
https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/usability-testing.html
Travis, D. (2013). The 1-page usability test plan. Retrieved 13 December 2019,
from https://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/usability_test_plan_dashboard.html
Alluri, A. (2012). USABILITY TESTING OF ANDROID APPLICATIONS
(Postgraduate). San Diego State University.
Buley, L. (2013). Where UX Comes From | UX Booth. Retrieved 13 December
2019, from https://www.uxbooth.com/articles/where-ux-comes-from/
Winter, J., & Hinely, M. (2012). Examining Correlations in Usability Data to
Effectivize Usability Testing. E-Informatica Software Engineering Journal, -1(-1). doi:
10.2478/v10233-011-0028-y
Mifsud, J. (2015). Usability Metrics – A Guide To Quantify The Usability Of Any
System. Retrieved 13 December 2019, from https://usabilitygeek.com/usability-metrics-
a-guide-to-quantify-system-usability/