Accepted Manuscript

Perspectives on usability guidelines for smartphone applications: an

empirical investigation and systematic literature review

Naveed Ahmad , Aimal Rextin , Um E Kulsoom

PII: S0950-5849(16)30166-5
DOI: 10.1016/j.infsof.2017.10.005
Reference: INFSOF 5892

To appear in: Information and Software Technology

Received date: 20 September 2016

Revised date: 11 September 2017
Accepted date: 8 October 2017

Please cite this article as: Naveed Ahmad , Aimal Rextin , Um E Kulsoom , Perspectives on usability
guidelines for smartphone applications: an empirical investigation and systematic literature review,
Information and Software Technology (2017), doi: 10.1016/j.infsof.2017.10.005

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 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Perspectives on Usability Guidelines for Smartphone Applications:

An Empirical Investigation and Systematic Literature Review

Author(1): Naveed Ahmad,

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Author(2): Aimal Rextin,

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Author(3): Um E Kulsoom

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Department of Computer Science, COMSATS Institute of
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Information Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
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Abstract

Context: Several usability guidelines have been proposed to improve the usability of smartphone apps.
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These guidelines can be classified into three disjoint sets: platform specific guidelines, genre specific
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guidelines, and generic guidelines. However, smartphone applications are usually developed for multiple

platforms and targeted for a variety of users. Hence the usefulness of existing guidelines is severally
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limited.

Objective: This study aims to develop a comprehensive list of usability guidelines suitable for multiple

platforms and genres of smartphone applications.

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Method: A controlled experiment was conducted, and it highlighted that even popular and established

apps have usability problems. In order to identify different perspectives on usability a systematic

literature review was conducted.

Results: Systematic literature review resulted in 148 studies that proposed a total of 359 usability

guidelines. These guidelines were condensed into 25 guidelines in 7 categories by removing redundancy,

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repetition and similarity through a sequential and iterative process. Finally, usefulness of the proposed

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classification of guidelines is established by mapping these to usability issues identified earlier.

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Keywords: Usability; guidelines; Smartphones; platform; genre; apps

1 Introduction
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Today‘s smartphones are so powerful that some authors believe smartphones are replacing personal
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computers [1-4]. Regardless of the platform and device itself, there are a wide range of mobile

applications related to multiple aspects of our life, such as health [1], business [8, 9], entertainment,
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communication [2, 7, 10], learning [3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 15], and personal data management [16].
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Usability is considered a key factor in achieving customer loyalty [10, 13]. However, designing usable

mobile interfaces is usually difficult due to their limited screen size. Therefore, on smaller screen sizes,
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developers need to make additional efforts to facilitate users in interacting with his/her application.
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To aid developers in making usable smartphone applications various researchers have proposed usability

guidelines. These usability guidelines range from general to very specific that are meant for specific
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applications. Generic usability guidelines include: Nielsen‘s general guidelines [12]; Shneiderman's Eight

Golden Rules of Interface Design [14]; Gerhardt-Powel‘s Cognitive Engineering Principles [15]; and

Weinschenk and Barker classification [17] etc. These set of guidelines were developed for desktop

applications, but due to their generic nature they are applicable on smartphones as well. This limitation

led to various smartphone specific usability guidelines which has two main types. The first type is
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platform specific guidelines that are designed by the vendors such as iOS, Android, Windows and Firefox.

The other type is genre specific guidelines that target a specific category of app such as usability

guidelines for health apps [19, 39] and guidelines for news apps [22] etc.

There are various problems with the existing guidelines for example it is difficult to apply generic

guidelines to mobile apps. Similarly, platform specific guidelines may not be applicable to other

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platforms and the problem with genre specific guidelines is that it is difficult to apply them to other types

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of applications [77]. Another problem with existing usability methods is that they are considered whilst

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evaluating the final product, hence often at a time where only minor modifications are possible. Holzinger

et al., proposed the concept of extreme usability which advocates including usability guidelines from the

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very beginning [171]. Hence we believe that a comprehensive set of usability guidelines for smartphone

apps is needed by combining the three aforementioned types of guidelines.

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In order to address these limitations, we first conducted an empirical study to establish its need. Next, we
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aimed at developing comprehensive set of guidelines by starting from a systematic literature review

(SLR). More specifically, we did the following. We first conducted an SLR to review usability guidelines
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presented by academic researchers. We then reviewed platform specific guidelines by smartphone OS

vendors and finally, we grouped and merged these to form our final comprehensive list of usability
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guidelines. Our main contributions in this paper are the following:

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 A controlled experiment establishing the need of comprehensive usability guidelines for

smartphones.
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 A systematic literature review to compile a comprehensive list of guidelines for smartphone apps

 A comprehensive list of guidelines is developed

The rest of the paper is organized into five sections. We first give a background of our study in the next

study. In Section 3, we discuss our experiment to validate the need for this study. Section 4 discusses

research method used for comprehensive literature review in detail. Section 5 discusses the results of
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literature review and formulates all guidelines found in literature. We then present our final set of

guidelines and explain how we categorize our guidelines. In the end, we give our conclusions.

2 Background

This section explores existing literature reviews addressing usability in smartphone applications. It is

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important to note that the objective of this study is not to provide genre specific guidelines but to use

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these guidelines to bridge the gap between existing platform specific and generic usability guidelines.

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Moreover, this study does not include such studies for smartphone games. This is because some of the

usability guidelines for smartphone games conflict with other mobile applications. For example, when

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designing games controls are unified to increase screen visibility [170], whereas this is contradicting with

the guideline for other applications i.e. to use clear consistent navigation [1, 4, 7, 12]. Similarly, reducing
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the button size is another option to address smaller screens of smartphones [170], but this also contradicts

with another guideline i.e. to provide visible and well-defined buttons [40, 119, 144].
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Some researchers have performed SLRs to identify usability evaluation techniques [44, 53, 167, 168].
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Zapata et al., performed a systematic literature review on empirical studies regarding usability of mHealth

applications [44]. Another genre specific research to evaluate usability techniques was conducted by
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Hussain and Mkpojiogu [167]. Their findings showed that in heuristic evaluation, formal tests and think

aloud are the most commonly used methods for testing usability of m-commerce applications. These
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studies were genre specific and there scope was also limited to usability evaluation.

In comparison to [44] and [167], Harrison proposed a new usability evaluation model for mobile
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applications by studying existing usability models [53]. This research was different from earlier ones

because it was not meant for a specific genre. Another similar research was conducted to identify

usability evaluation techniques for smartphone applications [168]. It identified experimental study, field

study and hands on measurement as the main methods for evaluating usability. Although, these studies
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were generic in nature but they also only covered literature on evaluating usability. Finally, Baharuddin

reviewed literature published (between 2000 to 2012) on factors affecting usability of smartphone

applications [169]. The authors identified 18 dimensions and placed them in four contextual factors,

namely: user, environment, technology and task. These dimensions can be considered as a unified model

for mobile applications. It can be seen that few reviews have been conducted on usability in smartphone

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applications, but none of them aggregate and classifies guidelines published in literature into a

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framework.

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Following sub-section compares and reviews two other comprehensive sources of usability guidelines: 1)

generic usability guidelines; and 2) platform specific guidelines.

2.1 Generic usability guidelines US

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Generic usability guidelines are rules of thumb that should be followed by the all UI designers. They are

termed generic as they are independent of type of system being developed, and their use is not only
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limited to developers but also evaluators [128]. Set of usability guidelines which this research considers
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generic include: Nielsen [12]; GerhardtPowals [15]; Shneiderman [14]; and Weinschenk and Barker [17]

guidelines. A total of 11 studies were identified addressing the general usability aspects from which 4
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studies were selected. These studies have comprehensive set of generic guidelines in contrast to others as

they consider only one aspect of usability such as: provide limited options to user [131], provide larger hit
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area [132], building a grid [133], provide simpler solution [134], and make most appealing apps

[135,136]. These studies were proposed for another field [133] but can be useful for app design due to
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their generic nature.

These guidelines were originally developed for desktop applications, and their main focus is the visibility

of the system status, guidance about the terms used, and consistent representation of information. These

principles usually discourage system dependency on user, extra burden on human memory for performing

tasks. These guidelines are combined and summarized in Table 1.

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Table 1: Generic guidelines

Guidelines Nielsen Shneiderman Gerhardt-Powals Weinschenk

and Barker
System status visibility 
Simple and daily life terms   
Exit, undo and redo options   
Content consistency    
Error avoidance  
Object and option visibility 

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Flexibility   
Information relevancy 

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Error message simplicity  
Feedback and guidance   
Logical presentation  

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Simplicity of layout  
Avoidance of memory load  
Information clustering 
Graphics instead of text 
Equitable use
User mental model consideration
Attractive design
Focused and committed interface
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Result aware 
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2.2 Platform specific guidelines

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As already discussed in Section 1, different platforms also specify usability guidelines for developers.

Since the focus of this research was to gather perspectives on guidelines, so while building our
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comprehensive list of guidelines three well-established platforms (iOS, Android, and Windows) and an

emerging (Firefox OS) platform were also included to identify guidelines. One key observation here is
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that these platforms while specifying guidelines do not consider type of applications being developed.

There are also differences among these platforms in terms of usability guidelines.
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Table 2: Usability guidelines by different platforms

Guidelines Windows OS Android OS Firefox OS iOS

Content Relevancy   
Content Logical Order  
Content Priority   
Guidance and Feedback   
Consistent Set of Actions 
Shortcuts 
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Error Handling 
Considering Disabilities 
Provide a Return Mechanism   
Provide buttons for frequent actions 
Provide Filtration Option 
Provide Traversal Mechanism Among Screen  
Font standard 
Provide Large Font For Important Content  
Use Color Contrast to Enhance Readability  
Provide Visual Alerts  

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Colors Guide  
Placement Of Input Area 

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Clear Consistent And Working Icons  
Provide Hidden Controls 
Use Full Screen 

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Use Of Dynamic Font 
Use Of Borderless Buttons For Content Area 
Provide Hierarchies For Information 
Provide App In Both Orientation 
Avoid Setting Change Option For Different User
Provide Edit Option
Start Without Any Delay
Don‘t Ask Rate App Early
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Provide Model Task For Core Functionality 
Provide App Description 

Windows OS [139] provides very generic guidelines in nature. Window OS guidelines are mainly focused
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to content. Guides about the presentation of content, proper feedback to user, and adopt error avoidance

policy for error handling. Android OS [142] mainly focus on the equitable use of app, so their guidelines
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emphasize on the visual data along with textual data, guidance for navigation, and readability. Firefox OS

[141] is an emerging operating system. Their guidelines mainly focus on use of color, sizes and font in
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different area of app and have limited focus on navigation. Similarly, iOS [138] guidelines contains a
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wide variety of guidelines that are more comprehensive than others. It starts from content presentation,

font and color selection, and layout, however the iOS guidelines do not consider error handling and
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navigation.

3 Investigating the Need for a Comprehensive List of Usability Guidelines

In this section, we will investigate if a comprehensive list of usability guidelines is needed. This is done
by a two-step process:
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1. We first conducted a controlled experiment that showed that smartphone apps, even ones with

huge number of users, built using contemporary set of guidelines have usability issues.

2. We then mapped the usability problems found in the experiment discussed above to

contemporary set of usability guidelines

The controlled experiment was conducted to find the usability problems in the selected app, while the

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mapping was done to find out if the discovered usability problems are covered by existing usability

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guidelines. We will now discuss the experiment, its results, and the mapping in more detail below.

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3.1 Experiment: Design and Results

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We first selected our two apps; we wanted two well-known apps because it will imply they are widely

accepted by smartphone users. We also decided that the two selected apps should be from a popular genre
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of apps. We selected two notes taking apps: 1) Evernote; and 2) Google Keep as both have more than

500,000 users.
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Next, we selected participants for the experiment. Our only criterion for selecting participants was that
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they should be familiar with smartphones [34, 35]. A total of 40 participants were selected including

graduate and postgraduate students from a local university. Details of our participants are shown in,
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which shows that just 2 participants didn‘t use a smartphone and just 1 participant was an iPhone user.

Table 3: Details of participants in the experiment

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Category Frequency Count Percentage

Male 25 62%
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Gender Female 15 38%

Undergraduate Students 13 32%
Qualification Postgraduate Students 25 62%
Professional Developers 2 5%
Between 20-25 years 24 60%
Age
Greater than 25 years 16 40%
Smartphone Android phone owners 37 93%
iPhone owners 1 3%
Do not own smartphones 2 5%
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Used similar apps 25 62%

Experience
Have not used similar apps 15 38%

Each participant performed the following sequence of tasks:

1. Add a note with a specified text

2. Set the color of font;

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3. Adjust the font size;

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4. Erase the note;

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5. Undo the erase operation;

6. Save the note with a specific name;

7. Delete the note.

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We designed our study as a within subjects experiment and hence all 40 participants were asked to
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perform the same set of 7 tasks that they needed to perform on both apps.
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3.1.1 Threats to Validity

We now discuss the different threats to validity of this experiment and how we handled them. We will
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first discuss some important threats to the internal validity of the experiment and then we will move to the

external validity. Finally, we will discuss construct and conclusion validity threats. Below we discuss
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internal validity threats:

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1. Ordering Effect: To counter the effect of ordering, half participants first performed the given

tasks on Google Keep and the rest started from Evernote.

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2. Uncontrolled Variation: To minimize uncontrolled variation in the experiment, the experiment

was conducted at the same time of day and at the same location (a lab). Moreover, all

participants used an Android phone provided by us for the same reason. Since a clear majority of

the participants were users of Android phone and all participants used the same Android phone so
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variation due to OS of smartphone was minimized. Any uncontrolled variation due to the OS of

the participant‘s personal phone was negligible as 93% of the participants were Android users. .

3. Experimenter Bias: The research team were neutral about both application as none of the team

members had any association with either of them. Hence this threat was not present.

4. Selection Bias: Selection procedure for participants was random representing both genders and

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mixed experience levels. We can see from Table 3 that although 62% of the participants used a

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similar app, the participants told us that majority i.e. 60% of them use at most a few times a

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month. Hence any uncontrolled variation due the participant‘s usage history was also small.

We now come to threats to external validity. We ensured training validity by giving a demonstration on

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how to add a note in each app to every participant of our experiment. They were also briefed on the

task(s) they had to perform. They were also informed that they could ask any question during the
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experiment. However, the results of this experiment cannot be generalized as the participants were all

students of the same university.

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We now discuss conclusion validity. We did not try different hypothesis and our significance level was
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5%, hence the chance of Type I error is small. Hence our experiment has low fishing and error rate

problem. However, we had a sample of size 40 and the sample was not randomly selected. So this is a
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threat to the conclusion of this test.

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Construct validity is the degree to which an experiment correctly captures the intended measurements.

The purpose of this experiment is to measure usability of apps. We note that although usability is a
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subjective concept, it is generally agreed that efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction captures this

subjective concept. Although there are many definitions of usability, we adopted the definition that

usability consists of three independent constructs: efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction. Hence we

decided to measure usability in terms of these easily measurable constructs. Below we discuss what each

of these construct means in our context and how we measured it.

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3.2 Results of Experiment

Although there are many definitions of usability, we adopted the definition that usability consists of three

independent constructs: efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction. Below we discuss what each of these

construct means in our context and how we measured it.

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Efficiency is a measure of time taken to complete a task, it is calculated usually as the seconds taken by a

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user to complete a task. We define navigational cost as the number of steps (clicks) required to complete

a task. We first note that the benchmark navigational cost for the 7 tasks above. Here we define

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benchmark navigational cost as the minimum number of steps or clicks required to complete the task. We

found that benchmark navigational cost for Evernote and Google Keep was 17 and 13, respectively. As an

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example, the tasks of the participants can be completed with minimum number of clicks by following the
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flow shown in Figure 1. We saw that users missed the bench mark navigation cost by 4.8 steps (s.d=6.19)

and 1.27 steps (s.d.=2.05) for Evernote and Google Keep respectively. Moreover, only 2 participants
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completed the task in benchmark number of steps for Evernote; while for Google Keep only 3

users completed the task in benchmark number of steps.

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Figure 1 Benchmark navigational cost for Evernote

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Effectiveness refers to the degree to which a user successfully accomplished a task. We observed how

each participant performed on each of the task and noted if he or she could complete a task or not. Almost

41 percent in average for both apps user could complete all the tasks. More detailed results can be seen in

Figure 2.

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Able to Erase and Undo
Thickness Selection

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Color Selection
Unable to Delete

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Unable to Save GoogleKeep
Unable to Rename Evernote
Selected Wrong Note
Sucessfully added note

0 5
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No. of Participants

Figure 2: Effectiveness Measurements. Note the number of participants who could complete a task is shown on the
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x-axis. The a-axis rages from 0 to 20 as a task was completed by not more than 20 users.

Satisfaction measures the level of satisfaction of different users after using an app. To measure
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satisfaction a questionnaire was given to all the participants (Appendix B). This questionnaire was

designed after conducting two focus group studies of 5 mobile phones users each to understand what a
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usable software means to them. The major themes that came up from these discussions was incorporated

as a questionnaire. It included questions on a wide variety of aspects such as the participants‘ perception
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on overall satisfaction, how fun it was to use, the ease of using the software etc. All these questions were

scored on a five point Likert scale from strongly agree till strongly disagree. The internal consistency of
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this questionnaire was tested by calculating Cronbach Alpha, which resulted in a value 0.772, suggesting

that the survey questions have relatively high internal consistency. So, these set of questions can be

reliably used to measure satisfaction. We then added the positive results of the questionnaire are shown

in Figure 3, where Figure 3(a) shows summarizes the participant responses for Google Keep, whereas
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Figure 3(b) shows the same for Evernote. Looking at these figures we can see that although people

considered these apps useful and some even believed that these apps fulfil expectations, but generally

people were not completely satisfied with these apps. An example of this that when participants were

asked whether ―you are overall satisfied with these apps‖, only 40% and 30% participants responded by

selecting ―strongly agree‖ or ―agree‖ for Evernote and Google Keep respectively.

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Figure 3: User Satisfaction of Evernote and Google Keep. We can see that users generally more negative views
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about different aspects of the two-software system. Note that this figure aggregates Strongly Agree and Agree as

Positive while Strongly Disagree and Disagree is aggregated as Negative.

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Statistical significance of experiment results

We now test our hypothesis: “Smartphone apps, even ones with huge number of users, built using
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contemporary set of guidelines have usability issues”. We have already discussed the results of
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satisfaction survey in reasonable depth, so here we will only test the hypothesis on effectiveness and

efficiency. We will first discuss effectiveness and then we will talk about efficiency. Note that we used t-
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test for our hypothesis testing using R.

We define p as the proportional of users who can complete a task. Since our selected apps are generally

considered to be well designed so it is reasonable to assume as our null hypothesis that , i.e. all

users should be able to complete their task. Since not all users in our sample completed the given tasks so
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our alternative hypothesis is that . By testing this hypothesis at significance level we found that

our results are statistically significant for both Evernote (p-value=0.000001) and Google Keep (p-value

=0000001)

Similarly let represent the mean difference between actual navigational cost minus actual navigational

cost. Again, since we selected good quality apps so one would assume that . This leads to the

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following null and alternative hypothesis:

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We applied the right tailed test at significance level and got p-values of 0.000000008 and 0.00005 for

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Evernote and Google Keep respectively. So, null hypothesis for efficiency is also rejected.
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Given the hypothesis tests applied here and the discussion of the satisfaction results earlier, we can

reasonably say that that smartphone apps have usability issues.

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3.3 Mapping
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Several usability problems were identified in the experiment above which were mapped to the guidelines
shown in Table 1 and Table 2 by two coauthors of this paper. The usability problems revealed in the
experiment and the mapping is shown in Table 5.
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Table 4: Mapping of usability problems to guidelines

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Issues Coauthor 1 Coauthor 2

Mandatory registration x 
Absence of label  x
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Resemblance – Similar icons  

Don‘t have proper buttons x 
Additional clicks required  x
Improper closing  x
Unable to locate  x
Lack of guidance and feedback  
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No option to delete notes – only done  x

through long press
User interface issues x x
Option unavailability on same page  
Scrolling in note area x x
Undo option limited x 
Redundant task x x
Don‘t ask before commit x 

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We can see from the table above that coauthor 1 was unable to map 46.67% of usability problems and

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coauthor 2 was unable to map 53.33 % of the usability problems found. Moreover, both felt that the

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existing guidelines are either too high level in case of generic guidelines; or too low level in case of

platform specific guidelines. Moreover, the problems that were matched didn‘t come from a single source

of guidelines.
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It was not easy to map the usability problems found in the experiment to the existing usability guidelines,
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probably because the platform specific guidelines are very low level while the generic guidelines were

very high level as compared to the usability problems discovered. On the whole, the two step process
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indicated that even reputable apps have usability problems. One reason can be that appropriate usability
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guidelines are not available to the practitioner. Hence a comprehensive list of usability guidelines is

needed. However, we note that since mapping was done by two coauthors, hence it is a risk to the
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construct validity of the mapping. In the rest of the paper, we will present how the comprehensive list was

developed, we will then present the guidelines we developed. In the end, we will show that we could map
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all usability problems identified in the experiment to usability guidelines in our comprehensive list
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4 Identifying usability guidelines from literature

In the initial literature search, it was observed that usability guidelines literature is spread across different

genres of mobile applications, and there is a need to consolidate different terms used in literature for

different aspects of usability. Moreover, the result of the experiment discussed in Section 3 also

highlighted usability issues in existing applications further making the case for a comprehensive set of
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guidelines encompassing different genres and platforms. In order to identify usability guidelines in

literature, a systematic literature review following Kitchenham and Charters SLR guidelines [129] was

conducted. Key research question which guided the remaining review process was:

Question: What are the existing usability guidelines for smartphone applications?

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This research question was further decomposed into a search string by identifying keywords from this

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question. Given below is the search strings derived from this research question.

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Usability AND (guidelines OR principles OR heuristics) AND (“mobile application” OR “smartphone

applications” OR “mobile apps” OR “smartphone apps”)

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This search strings was used to search relevant literature from multiple digital sources including: ACM
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Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, Springer, Science Direct and Google Scholar. It resulted in a total of 1952

papers including: full papers, short papers, doctoral consortium, editorials, etc. These papers were
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scrutinized based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, mentioned in Table 5. Inclusion criteria were to

include papers written in English, discussing usability guidelines, with potential to answer research
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question, and focus on smartphone applications guidelines. Exclusion criteria excluded all the papers not

written in English, not discussing usability guidelines, not relevant to smartphone applications, related to
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game development, and duplicate papers. The data used for initial scrutiny included paper title, abstract.

This was followed by full text filtration to identify literature with the potential of answering the research
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questions. After applying these criteria, a total of 131 papers were selected. This search process is

summarized in Figure 4.
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Figure 4: Search process

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Following the search process, guidelines proposed, and the context (app genre) in which these are used

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were identified from these 148 selected studies. Since, this information was not explicitly written in any

specific section of these papers so it was extracted through full text filtration. For instance information
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extracted from Kaur and Haghigh (2016) included: its genre (mobile health) and guidelines (provide error

correction, simple error messages, provide simple and homogeneous information, status should be visible,
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consistent design, and provide control to the user so that they can exit or back at any stage). Similarly,

guidelines were extracted from all the studies and this initial search for genre specific guidelines was
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performed by one author. This resulted in a total of 359 guidelines related to different genres. These

results are explained in the following subsection.

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Table 5: Inclusion/Exclusion criteria

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Inclusion criteria Exclusion criteria

All papers published in English language Papers not published in English language
Papers focusing on smartphone app usability, Papers not capable of answering research question
usability issues and guidelines
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Papers capable of answering research question Papers focusing on smartphone game usability,
usability issues and guidelines
All non-gaming apps papers that focus on usability Grey papers i.e. papers without bibliographic
guidelines information
Papers published between 2000 to 2017 Duplicate papers
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4.1 Results of Systematic Literature Review

Most of the literature on usability guidelines consists of papers on genre specific guidelines. It was found

that about 104 studies from total 148 studies proposed the usability guidelines for a separate genre of an

app which is 70 percent of total studies. These studies have focused only on one type of app genre. More

than one study may address a genre e.g. mobile learning studies was found in large numbers as compare

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to others. All genre addressed by these studies are shown in Table 6.

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Table 6: Genre specific papers

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S.no App genre Number of studies Number of guidelines
1 Mobile Learning 18 61
2 Web interfaces 18 53
3
4
5
6
Mobile Health
Mobile commerce
M-News paper
Web Browser
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12
2
5
144
26
6
9
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7 WAP 2 3
8 Mobile email 2 3
9 Context- aware apps 4 7
10 M-Ticket Reservation 2 6
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11 Tourist guide 3 6
12 Smarter touch base interface for children 2 5
14 Cultural info apps. 1 5
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15 Mobile Internet Portal. 3 17

16 Data collection apps. 2 2
17 Meta Data Management 2 6
Total 104 359
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Mobile Health is a very popular genre of mobile apps. Given the penetration of smartphones and their

increased usage potential usage of such apps have increased. Most popular among such type of
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applications are fitness apps and health monitoring apps (heart rate, blood sugar, blood pressure). Most of

the studies found as a result of SLR were related to Mobile Health. In total 26 studies discussed usability
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related to Mobile-health applications [17, 19, 39, 144, 147, 152]. It also included usability guidelines

related to users with different disabilities, including visual impairment [164, 165], and older users [150].

M-learning is enabled through a variety of apps such as: Moodle, mLearn, MDroid etc. Special attention

is required when designing such apps, heeding to this new trend various researchers have proposed
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usability guidelines for m-learning apps. Out of 148 studies selected for this SLR, 18 were related to m-

learning. Mainly, these guidelines concern simplicity, ease of understanding, and fitness of content [7, 9,

10, 11 26, 43, 80, 86, 119]. We also found 16 studies related to web interface apps (newspapers apps,

browser apps etc.) which mainly deal with presentation of data [11, 18, 126]. More specifically, Serm et

al., and Yu et al., emphasize on providing brief information to minimize scrolling [6, 22]. Dharmasiri et

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al., and Shrestha propose guidelines about how to presentation data in a web browser along with

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navigation guidelines [12,109]. Mobile commerce emphasized on highly focused functions, where content

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and features are focused to a target market only [1, 38,68].

Other than these more studied, we also found guidelines related to other genres including: email [93],

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tourist guides [60], data management apps [106], context aware apps [15], M-Ticket reservation [72],

smarter touch interfaces [81], cultural info apps [13], mobile internet portal apps, data collection apps
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[16], and meta data management apps [106]. We used these genre specific guidelines and guidelines

identified in Section 2.1 and Section 2.2 to build our comprehensive list of guidelines.
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5 Perspectives on Usability Guidelines

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There are three different kinds of guidelines discussed in this article. It includes: 1) generic guidelines in
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literature (independent of genre, platform, device discussed in Section 2.1); 2) platform-specific

guidelines (Section 0); and 3) genre-specific guidelines in literature (Section 4.1). Figure 5 shows the
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frequency of guidelines identified from these sources.

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Figure 5: Frequency of guidelines from three sources

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In this section, usability guidelines gathered from three sources are used to present perspectives on

usability guidelines. The need to make this comprehensive list of usability guidelines for smartphone
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developers can be attributed to three reasons. Firstly, total number of guidelines is quite large (359 in

total). Secondly, there is repetition and redundancy in these guidelines. Thirdly, there is similarity in
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various guidelines. So, the number of guidelines is reduced by removing redundancy, repetition and
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similarity following a sequential and iterative process. In order to ensure consistency and accuracy all the

authors were involved throughout this process for defining perspectives on usability guidelines. This
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process is shown in Figure 6.

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Source 1
Combine and
Platform-
eliminate
specific
redundancy
guidelines
Unique Form
Main categories
guidelines categories
Source 2 Combine and
Start Generic eliminate
Final
guidelines redundancy
Taxonomy

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Iteration 1 - Iteration 3
Source 3 Iteration 2

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Identify guidelines Map Sub categories /
Genre-specific Merge and
from all selected guidelines to Guidelines
guidelines check
studies categories

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Figure 6: Process for defining perspectives on usability guidelines

As mentioned above building the list of guidelines was a sequential and iterative process. A sequence of
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steps was followed to identify key usability guidelines categories from Source 1 (platform-specific

guidelines) and Source 2 (generic guidelines). Following this sequential process, seven main categories
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were identified, namely: 1) Navigation; 2) Content; 3) Error handling; 4) Input method; 5) Equitable use;

6) Cognitive load; and 7) Design. An iterative process was deployed to identify guidelines from Source 3
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(genre-specific guidelines). In the first iteration guidelines were selected from individual studies and

redundancies were removed. These redundancies included repetitive and similar guidelines. In second
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iteration, these guidelines were then grouped together. Finally, in iteration 3 these grouped guidelines
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were mapped to categories identified earlier. Details of these iterations are shown in Appendix C.

Following subsections presents main categories of usability guidelines.

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5.1 Navigation

Navigation refers to the mechanism of moving from one screen to another and set of actions to complete a

specific task [1]. Navigation includes the usage of buttons, menu tabs, links and images that leads you

from one point to another within an app to perform set of actions. Various researchers emphasize on the
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importance of navigation for making an app useful [7, 26, 41, 1, 4, 126, 12], but ensuring effective

navigation is a challenging task for mobile devices because of display limitations [9, 13, 26, 29, 30].

Many researchers have proposed navigation guidelines to overcome this challenge, which are grouped in

following subsections.

5.1.1 Use clear consistent navigation

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Navigation methods should be simple and clear enough so the user can easily grasp them [1, 4, 7, 26, 41,

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12, 126, 142, 157]. Navigation can be made easily understandable by using a consistent navigation

method throughout the app [1, 4, 7] e.g. using only swipe throughout the app. It is not difficult to see that

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multiple [1, 4, 12, 126], and redundant navigation methods [101, 102, 104] e.g. usage of swipe and

buttons within same screen, create confusion and drastically reduce usability. Providing the navigation
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method that users are using in their daily routine [18, 20, 33, 59, 112], e.g. back button, according to

human mental model are easily predictable and help users to understand navigation well [83, 84, 97].
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Another example of this is using pinch gesture for zoom [147, 149, 150, 154]. Navigation should be easy

enough to help user predict its current position [99].

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5.1.2 Provide visible and well define buttons for easy navigation
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Buttons are one way to provide easy navigation. Buttons should be distinguishable [40, 119, 144, 147,
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150] e.g. buttons with border to make navigation easy. Similarly, it has been mentioned to highlight

previously visited links [154]. Navigation provided through visible [40, 41, 60, 68, 81] and properly
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labeled [81] buttons enhance usability. In this regard, on-screen keyboard can be used [155]. Considering

the limitation of screen size, buttons should be used carefully and overuse should be avoided. Button

placement is also important, as Johnston and Pickrell suggest avoiding unintuitive button placements

[159].

5.1.3 Reduce navigation by providing hierarchies and menu.

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Most of the smartphone apps have complex and multi-layer functionality. To cope with small display area

for such type of apps develop navigation in the form of hierarchies is the best options e.g. hidden menu

[11, 41, 71, 86, 80, 123, 149, 156, 157]. Providing functionality in multilayer, not only, make navigation

easy but also address screen size limitation and increase user understanding [12, 21, 40, 70]. It is also

important to note that on one hand making hierarchies may increase usability but on the other hand deep

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hierarchies result in increased memory load [19,100, 118].

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5.1.4 Minimize scrolling through search button

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Various researchers propose to minimize content on screen, as this results in less scrolling which

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enhances user satisfaction [6, 7, 8, 9, 36, 60, 69, 71, 86, 96, 123, 126,]. Considering limited display area,

it‘s not possible to avoid scrolling at all. So, some authors suggest used of vertical and horizontal
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scrolling [18, 36, 119, 123]. Search can also be used to avoid extensive scrolling [87, 106, 109, 156].

Another option is to focus on the content important to a user [33, 53, 54, 55].
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5.1.5 Provide complete control to user so that they can exit or back at any stage
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When designing apps it is important to make user feel in control. Controlled here is defined as enabling

the user to close or to go back in an app. Inability to deliver this to the user will reduce user satisfaction.
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Various researchers have identified guidelines to exit a certain stage [9, 17, 19, 21, 26, 40 100, 119], to
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exit altogether [4, 41, 68, 72, 118] and back button should be available all the time [15, 142, 156].

Closing mechanism should be easy and available as a button [2, 20, 27, 98, 160]. This is also in
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accordance with the guideline mentioned in Section 5.1.2. Similarly, some researchers argue the

importance of providing undo, redo, and delete option at every stage [4, 9, 81].
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5.2 Content

Content refers to information communicated to user(s). Content includes all expressive material either in

the form of text or multimedia. Some apps do not require much content, but few apps are specifically

content based apps, such as internet portal [2] and newspaper apps [6, 22] etc. Independent to the amount

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of content on an app, it requires special attention from developers. Different researchers have proposed a

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variety of content-related guidelines, which are grouped into following subcategories.

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5.2.1 Do not use object(s) which provide different meanings

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First characteristic of the content is that it should be consistent in term of their meaning [9, 28, 157, 161].

Using multiple terms to convey something similar may challenge user‘s understanding [33]. Different
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objects should be used to show redundant information [17]. Moreover, information should be presented

traditionally, the way people are used to seeing it [19].

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5.2.2 Use terms that are related to real world

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Conveying information in the language used by target audience will enhance users‘ understandability [7,

19, 20, 28, 33, 39, 64, 65, 126, 125, 158, 165]. The language should be simple, friendly and have lenient
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tone [41, 42]. Although, terms used in daily life have a greater influence on app‘s usability, but it is

important to not use terms that are considered negative [9, 28, 38, 69, 80, 86, 119, 81]. It is also desirable
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to use familiar terminology for hyperlinks [154].

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5.2.3 Content should be brief and specific

Considering the limitation of small screen, very limited information should be provided on the screen [1,

3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 19, 42, 60, 70, 72, 79, 126, 142, 152, 154, 161]. At the same time, it is important not losing

the important information, so information should be brief and specific [2, 7, 13, 18, 81, 122, 121, 124].

Overloading mobile screen with lots of information may affect user‘s ability to interpret and understand it

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[1, 42, 60, 72]. Key thing to remember here is that reducing amount of information means, only providing

highly relevant information. In data intensive apps this can be achieved by providing visualizations to

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show historical information [144, 145].

5.2.4 Avoid use of fast moving objects and animations

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Animation is also part of content, but it is important to remember that if the user does not have sufficient

time to read the content than providing it is useless [126]. Provide ample time to read the text [19], and

avoid fast moving objects specifically for older adults [19, 161].
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5.2.5 Visited item should be distinguishable

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All objects used as content should be prominent specifically active/inactive objects [9, 21, 142, 157]. User
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should be capable to identify the object or links s/he has selected or visited [4, 21, 154]. Mark that link or

object with different color so the user can identify it. It is suggested in literature to use black and white as
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a better option to distinguish active and inactive objects [19].

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5.2.6 Provide thumbnail at each page

To accommodate the limited view of mobile devices providing less information is one solution but at

times it‘s not an option. In such cases, summary of the detailed content may be provided at the top in form
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of concise description [6 68], short story format [123] or summary [36]. Thumbnails can used to

summarize information in a very short form [22].

5.3 Error Handling

There is always a chance of error in human developed software. Errors cannot be eliminated at all instead

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they could be minimized by taking some precautionary measures. These measures are referred to as error

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handling.

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5.3.1 Provide error prevention by confirming before commit an action

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Any application that does not deal with errors committed by the user reduce its usability, as users feel that

the app is not handling mistakes from user‘s aspect [142, 156]. Some errors can be avoided by asking
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through alerts before a user can commit an action [160, 161]. This will notify the user about their action,

and may alert them [143, 155]. System should be designed in such a way that it provides alerts [18, 93]
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and feedbacks [17, 40, 119, 79] related to action(s). System should ask before committing any action by

providing conformation specifically for critical actions such as deletion/updating [81, 155].
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5.3.2 Error messages should be simple and easy to follow

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In accordance with the guideline mentioned above (4.3.1), alerts should be simple, short and easy to
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understand [19, 40]. They do not lead to any confusion or difficulty. Select simple brief and

comprehensive sentences for alerts [9], avoiding long and confusing phrase [81, 119,126, 142]. Providing
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only error messages is not sufficient, user should also be guided to recover/fix the error [143]. Hence, it is

important to clearly state actions that can lead to error(s) and provide methods to recover [126].
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5.4 Input Method

Due to small keyboards it is very difficult for user to provide input in mobile devices. Input methods

available for mobile devices are different from desktop devices and require certain level of aptitude. This

problem increases the rate of erroneous input.

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5.4.1 Minimize number of keystrokes while taking input

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As mobile input method are limited and can cause the inaccurate input so avoid taking input unless it is

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very critical [18, 41, 52]. Avoidance may not be the solution, so another option is avoiding manual input

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by providing dropdown menu or list [3, 16, 50, 68, 69, 80, 86, 106, 119, 123]. Multiple ways of input may

also be used to enhance usability, as users with different experience may use different methods [159,
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161]. Although, introduction of data loaded automatically reduce the input limitations, but it does mean to

overuse drop down menus and lists [100]. Especially, for data driven applications it is important to clearly

differentiate between required and optional fields [142].

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5.5 Equitable Use

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An app cannot be considered useful, if it is not equally usable for all type of users. These differences are
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attributed either to users themselves or mobile devices they are using. An app should be capable to cater

these differences to meet usability goal.

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5.5.1 Provide relevant graphical and voice assistance

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Many users have disabilities or develop disabilities with age (elderly people). So, an inclusive app,

equally usable by people with different abilities, should be able to address different disabilities [157, 163].

This can be in the form of acoustic and graphical assistance with text [13, 17, 19, 26, 41, 42, 67, 68, 71,

86. 155] e.g. screen readers may be used for interaction [155]. Multiple researchers have emphasized on
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the use of colors to tackle color blindness [3, 18, 24, 126]. Equitable use is not only mentioned in terms of

making an inclusive app but also in terms of making an attractive app to attract different types of users

[17, 157, 163].

5.5.2 Provide same functionality for different screen orientation and size

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Smartphones allows user to change screen orientation from vertical to horizontal and vice versa.

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Smartphone users, over time, develop a preference for anyone of these orientations, so an app should be

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available in both orientations [8, 39]. It should be adjustable to changing orientations [149]. Moreover,

interface should adapt to different screen sizes [17, 21, 164].

5.6 Cognitive Load US

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Cognitive load refers to total amount of mental effort in working memory. Working memory is the system

responsible for processing information [126], it helps in reasoning, learning and understanding process.
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Instructional design should minimize the cognitive load [4, 10, 19, 81], as higher cognitive load may lead

to error(s) [10]. Similarly, minimizing cognitive load can maximize users‘ satisfaction and performance
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[143].
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5.6.1 Provide little and homogenous information in modules to avoid cognitive load
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To minimize cognitive load, an option is to provide very little and homogeneous [4, 9, 10, 17, 18, 19, 49,

80, 81, 126, 157, 160] information that depict some pattern [80, 21]. Another option is to partition the
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information into modules [25, 27, 30, 69, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 82, 87, 88, 89, 90] and chunks [91, 92, 94,

95, 115, 120] that are related [7, 21 26, 69, 119, 106]. Similarly, hierarchies can also be used to group

similar things together [60]. At the same time it is important to keep menu structure simple [152, 166].

Another aspect is to group information and presenting different groups on different screens [68] or

interfaces [147].
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5.6.2 Similar and minimal steps or actions should be required to complete a task

Not only the information be little and homogenous, but also the actions required to complete a task should

be minimal [2, 10, 17, 18, 31, 69, 81, 164]. This will avoid extra load on a user‘s working memory. An

interface which enables users to complete different tasks in minimal steps is considered usable as it is

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easier to understand [69, 81]. Moreover, these steps should be consistent, simple and focused [7, 14, 80].

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It is also important to help the user in tracking his/her progress through a task [32, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 51,

85, 125].

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5.6.3 System status should be visible through proper feedback

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System should always inform the user, regarding the system status, through proper feedback and within
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appropriate time [4, 10, 17, 43, 66, 79, 81, 86, 108, 110, 126, 142, 143]. It can be achieved through

automated feedback [144]. This is also in accordance with the previous guideline, as it also emphasizes on

guiding the user at each step [10]. It is believed that feedback enhances system status visibility [9, 19, 41
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79, 81,119]. Again, it is important to mention that feedback should be comprehensive, simple, and
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relevant [4, 160, 166]. When designing inclusive apps spoken feedback may be used to enhance usability

[155].
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5.7 Design
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To grasp the user attraction an app should be aesthetically pleasant [157]. The use of color(s) and

object(s) should attract the user. An attractive interface will mean more traction, but it is not limited to
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colors, art work it is also related to integration of app function with its appearance.
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5.7.1 Design should be attractive but avoid using too many colors and animation

To make design attractive colors, graphics and animation should be used rationally [4, 17, 21, 19, 119,

142, 153, 156, 157]. Graphics and animation should be relevant and for relevant assistance [126]. The

goal is to make an easy to learn interface [143], so app users should not be exposed to too many new and

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fancy design elements [145]. For users with visual impairment it is important to use physical landmarks

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such as edges of the screen [155].

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5.7.2 Color contrast of background and front content should be visible

There should be a proper balance between background and foreground content to make an app more

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attractive and useful [152, 156, 157, 159, 162]. Color contrast of background and front content should be
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visible [159, 162], it should enable all types of user to read information presented [19, 21]. Using pure

white colors or changing background(s) may affect readability [19, 126]. Choice of colors should be done

in accordance with app genre [28, 40]. It is important to avoid using annoying colors [142]. An alternative
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is to enable users to configure colors of interface components [155], this is especially applicable for the
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users with visual impairments.

5.7.3 Avoid fancy font styling

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Most of the information in an app is in the form of text, so selection of font style is extremely important.
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It should be selected in a way that it does not hamper the visibility of text [109, 161]. Multiple

researchers have mentioned to not use fancy font styles, as they reduce readability [111, 126]. They
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recommend using simple and standard fonts such as: Arial, Courier, Times New Rom [111,126, 145].

Smaller font size should be avoided [142].

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5.7.4 Design should be consistent and should follow conventions

As has been mentioned earlier as well, consistency is very essential for app usability and this is also

imperative while designing apps. Design should be consistent throughout the app [19,119, 160] and also

follow the conventions [69, 81]. This consistency applies to the use of objects, colors and content [19, 69,

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81, 119]. Design should enable user to easily identify features and options provided in an interface [155].

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5.7.5 Limit number of screens and provide title for each

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An app usually consists of many screens. Each screen should have a unique title, this title should be

informative (conveying content of the screen) and unique [2, 21, 118, 119, 126, 156, 161, 165]. Number

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of screen is also very important, for example, in case of health apps it is recommended to use four screens
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(authentication, home, blog/comments, chat) [71].

5.7.6 Direct physical touch enhance user satisfaction

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Maximize the use of touch interface that enable users to directly touch objects. Various researchers have
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recommended providing an interface where user can directly touch objects in comparison to interacting

through buttons [17, 18, 56, 57, 58, 161]. It has also been reported that this will increase the user
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satisfaction [11, 21, 41]. It is important to ensure interface deals with problems such as fat finger allowing

all users to physically interact with apps [142]. In case of users with disabilities it is important to avoid or
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keep physical interaction as simple as possible [155].

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The proposed classification of usability guidelines is shown in Figure 7. Considering the amount of

literature published on smartphone application usability, it was not easy to identify guidelines from

literature. To summarize, initially 359 guidelines were identified by one author, and as explained earlier

all the authors were involved in the process of defining usability perspectives. However, there is a threat
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to conclusion validity because of human bias in the initial search and the authors‘ subjective opinion in

defining usability perspectives.

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Figure 7: Perspectives on usability guidelines

5.8 Usefulness of proposed list of guidelines

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In this section, we map the usability issues faced by participants during experiment (Section 3), and map

these to the guidelines identified in earlier subsections. These issues were identified by noting the

feedback of our participants and by observing where they are making mistakes. For example, some

usability problems are discussed in detail below, while a more comprehensive list is given in Table 7.
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1. Mandatory registration: Both these apps required registration through email address and a

password. However, most users were irked that it was mandatory. This issue could have been

avoided by following the guideline to minimize input from the user (Section 5.4.1).

2. Absence of label: Notes were added through a ‗plus‘ sign, which was troublesome for some users

as they anticipated a button with a clear label for it. We note that the guidelines mentioned in

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Section 5.5.1 deal with this issue.

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3. Resemblance – Similar icons: Another issue was use of one object for multiple purposes.

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Selecting color and thickness is combined in the same button for Ever note app. Pressing pen icon

opens a hidden menu from which thickness and color can be selected at the same time, labels

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were also missing here. For Google Keep different pen icons are used to present different

categorize, writing, highlighting and marker. Sliding upward provides different colors and
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thickness available for these pens without any label. New users took a lot of time to select desired

colors and adjust thickness. In the proposed list multiple guidelines emphasize on using distinct
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objects 5.2.1, 5.2.2, and 0.

4. Lack of feedback was another issue identified during the experiment, as often users clicked
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multiple time in confusion that icon is selected or not. Although color changed in both apps for

selected items but due to small size of icon color change went unnoticed. Guidelines mentioned in
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Section 5.6.3 highlight the need for feedback.

Table 7 clearly shows that both apps do not provide sufficient guidance and feedback mechanism.
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Different task performed by users, whether it is saving something or changing or closing of apps, are done

without any status information. We also note that the proposed list of guidelines in Section 5 clearly
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specifies guidelines for issues identified during this experiment, and may serve well to enhance usability

of smartphone apps.
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Table 7: Issues Found and Recommendations

Issues Ever note Google Addressed by the proposed list of guidelines

frequency frequency
Mandatory registration 40 40 Input methods (5.4.1)
Absence of label 18 16 Relevant assistance (5.5.1)
Resemblance – Similar 16 18 Content should be consistent and brief (0)

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icons Avoid object provide different meanings (5.2.1)
Use terms that are related to real world (5.2.2)

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Don‘t have proper buttons 8 9 Provide visible and well defined buttons (5.1.2)
Additional clicks required 12 15 Provide similar and minimal steps (5.6.2)
Improper closing 35 38 Provide exit and back mechanism (5.1.5)

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Unable to locate 12 14 Provide title (5.6.1)
Provide thumbnail (5.2.6)
Consistent number of steps (5.6.2)
Lack of guidance and 25 30 System status should be visible through proper
feedback
No option to delete notes
– only done through long
press
12 14
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Provide one click delete option (5.1.5)
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User interface issues 23 20 Make app attractive (0)
Option unavailability on 12 11 Provide hierarchies and menu (5.1.3)
same page
Scrolling in note area 12 10 Minimize scrolling as not needed in app (5.1.4)
Undo option limited 12 13 Provide undo, redo and delete option at every stage
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(5.1.5)
Redundant task 11 10 Visited item should be distinguishable (0)
Don‘t ask before commit 40 40 Ask before commit (5.3.1)
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6 Conclusion
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Usability guidelines are developed to help develop software with minimum usability issues. There are

several usability guidelines that are proposed for smartphone apps. These guidelines can be classified into
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three disjoint sets: platform specific guidelines, genre specific guidelines, and generic guidelines. This

study aimed to develop a comprehensive set of guidelines to serve multiple platforms as well as multiple
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genres. We achieved this through three step process: 1) establishing the need for the proposed list of

guidelines; 2) a systematic literature review to gather guidelines from literature and platforms; 3) forming

perspectives based on the gathered guidelines. The results obtained from the literature review reinforced

the importance of generic set of usability guidelines. We found that about 104 studies from total 148

studies proposed the usability guidelines for a separate genre of an app which is 70 percent of total
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studies. Our systematic literature review resulted in a total of 359 usability guidelines. We note that since

we used expert judgement to identify guidelines from the literature, there are chances of some human

bias.

In future, we would like to validate these guidelines, i.e. develop an app using this comprehensive list and

compare it with another version of the same app that was developed without it. Another area of further

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research is to develop heuristics from this classification. These heuristics would be used to test usability

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of applications based on the proposed classification. Once, these heuristics are developed they could be

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automated. This would facilitate developers in testing usability of their apps, and result in more usable

smartphone apps.

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Appendix A: Proportion of tasks completed

Evernote:

User Select Select Adjust Task

id note color thickness Erase Undo Save Delete performed Proportion
U1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1

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U4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1

IP
U6 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1

CR
U8 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U10 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U13
U14
U15
U16
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
US 1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
7
7
7
7
1
1
1
1
AN
U17 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U18 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
U20 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 6 0.857143
M

U21 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
U22 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
U23 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 6 0.857143
U24 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ED

U25 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 3 0.428571
U26 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
U27 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 5 0.714286
U28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
PT

U29 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
U30 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 3 0.428571
U31 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
CE

U32 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 3 0.428571
U33 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0.428571
U34 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 5 0.714286
U35 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
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U36 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 5 0.714286
U37 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 5 0.714286
U38 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 3 0.428571
U39 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 4 0.571429
U40 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 5 0.714286
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Google Keep:

User Select Select Adjust Task

id note color thickness Erase Undo Save Delete performed Proportion
U1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U6 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1

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U7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U8 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1

IP
U9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U10 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1

CR
U12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U14 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U15 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
U16
U17
U18
U19
1
0
1
0
1
0
1
0
1
0
1
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
US 1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
7
0
3
0
1
0
0.428571
0
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U20 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 3 0.428571
U21 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
U22 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
U23 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 5 0.714286
U24 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
M

U25 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 3 0.428571
U26 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
U27 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 3 0.428571
ED

U28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
U29 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
U30 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 4 0.571429
U31 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
PT

U32 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 3 0.428571
U33 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
U34 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 6 0.857143
U35 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
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U36 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 5 0.714286
U37 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 6 0.857143
U38 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 3 0.428571
U39 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
AC

U40 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 5 0.714286
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Appendix B: Questionnaire

Evaluation of Usefulness of Taxonomy

T
Satisfaction Questionnaire

IP
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Name: ________________________________

Sr.
No.
1
Questions

I am satisfied with it.

US Strongly
Agree
Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree
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2 It is simple to use.
3 It is fun to use.

4 It does everything I would expect it to do.

M

5 I do not notice any inconsistency as I use it.

6 It is very user friendly.

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7 Its look is attractive.

8 I needed to learn a lot of things before I could get
going with this app.
PT
CE
AC
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Appendix C: Iterations – during taxonomy construction

Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3

Provide flat navigation
Repetition of navigation should be avoided at every page
Use consistent navigation
Provide consistent gesture navigation
Avoid using complex navigation
Navigation should help the user to locate their current position Use clear consistent navigation
Navigation should be clear
Navigation should meet the user mental model

T
Navigation should be easy to understand
Extra and bolder navigation cues should be provided

IP
Clear navigation should be provided
Provide navigation through back buttons
Menus and buttons should be clearly labeled that help user
navigation and information memorization

CR
Provide physical buttons
Provide submenu and hidden buttons to increase display
Provide clickable link on each page to navigate to internet Provide visible and well define
use the buttons for navigation or performing some actions it buttons for easy navigation
increase usability but button‘s look should be real
Menus and buttons should be clearly labeled that help user
navigation and information memorization
Button‘s look should be real
Provide displayable menu sub menu and button
Minimize hierarchical structure
US
AN
Keep navigation simple narrow and straight forward
Provide functionality in multilayer format
Use step by step navigation
Keep navigation simple narrow and straight forward
Use linear navigation and navigation bar
Use navigation tree in depth five and in breath five stages Reduce navigation by providing
M

Provide dropdown menu for each action hierarchies and menu

Navigation
Use tree view navigation
Provide vertical navigation
Reduce navigation by providing hierarchies and menu
ED

Minimize number of steps in navigation

Use simple hierarchies for navigation.
Providing navigation in vertical form enhance the view
Add search option to avoid extensive scrolling
Reduce vertical scrolling
PT

Support searching and browsing of content in group Minimize scrolling through

Provide double scrollbar for top to down and left to right search button
navigation
Minimize or avoid scrolling
Provide complete control to the user so that they can exit at any
CE

stage
Back and exist options should be available
Navigation should be clear that help user to locate their current
position
Provide a back button and home screen button at each
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page/screen
Back button should be available at each stage
Provide dialogues for exit Provide control to the user so
Ensure presence of back button that they can exist or back at
Provide navigation through back buttons any stage
If user actions is delayed provide exit mechanism
Provide once click cancel button at each stage
Provide a back button
User should be able to move back forth and exit at any stage
Provide clear closing mechanism
Provide undo, redo, and exit at every stage
Provide one click delete input
Delete option should be available
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Provide appropriate way for backward navigation

Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3
Provide consistent terms to convey same meanings
Use different objects for redundant information Do not use objects which
Use elements according to conventions provide different meanings
Use self-explanatory icons
Do not use text or names of buttons links and menu which
contradict any religion or society
Language of interaction should be match to real world
Use real world language
Use natural and easily understandable language
User should take few minutes to understand working of app
Write user familiar terms

T
Writing style of the content should be simple and informal Use terms that are related to
Use simple and friendly language real world

IP
Unique and well known term should be used that are easily
understandable
Use simplified text format
Use easily understandable daily routine language

CR
Language should be simple and clear
Provide gestures that are related to daily life
System should me matched to real world
Provide small and consistent information
Avoid unnecessary information
Provide only useful and relevant content.
Provide only location based information
Reduce the amount of information so the user can easily
interpret
Keep interface simple by providing less information
US
Content should be consistent,
Content
AN
Don‘t provide content in table brief and specific
Displayed content should be simplified
Provide accurate content
Layout should be concise
Place most important information or link at the top
M

Content related to main functionality should be accessible all

the time
Provide ample time to read information
Avoid use of fast moving
Avoid use of fast moving objects and animations
objects and animations
Content should not all be in color and avoid moving text
ED

Disable inactive objects

Highlight selected text Visited item should be
Visited link should be marked with different colors distinguishable
Distinguish selected item from others
Provide thumbnail of each page at start
PT

Provide news in short story format

Provide thumb nail design instead of list view Provide thumbnail at each page
Provide summarized information with few keystroke
Provide thumbnail of information with detailed information
CE

Ask user before execution of action

Provide conformation massages but that are necessary
Provide error prevention by confirming before commit an
Provide error prevention by
action
confirming before commit an
provide alerts and feedbacks related to action
action
AC

Provide guide in form of tutorial at state of the app

System should warn user about critical information
Provide warnings for errors
Error messages should be simple and easy to follow Error
Provide error prevention and simple error handling method Handling
Everyday language should be used for alerts and feedback
Provide clear and simple error massages
Display error message in user understandable language and Error messages should be
solution as well. simple and easy to follow
Provide concise error messages to recover
Malfunctioning should be clearly stated and procedure for
recovery of error should be stated
Everyday language should be used for alerts and feedback
Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Minimize the number of keystrokes while taking input

Avoid taking textual input
Provide summarized information with few keystrokes
Minimize input, use list selection instead of text input
Provide fastest data entry method
Provide default input value
Avoid taking manual input from users Minimize the number of Input
Limit keypad input keystrokes while taking input method
Reduce number of strokes to take input
Input should require minimal keystrokes
Data should be loaded automatically whenever needed
Provide data automatically, whenever possible, instead of
entering by user

T
Avoid login unless it is not a critical action
Provide visuals with text

IP
Provide graphical assistance
Provide voice annotation
Provide same functionality for each user

CR
Provide visual, textual and auditory feedback
Use pictures to explain content instead of text
Provide relevant graphical and
Provide information in audio form
voice assistance
Provide non-speech information
Use an avatar by combining multiple modals to represent a user Equitable
with different emotions use
Provide sound with each button that notify the user
Do appropriate use of graphic symbols
The older adult should not be expected to double click
Provide both orientation
Accommodate different screen sizes
US
AN
Provide same functionality for
Application should be available in both orientations
both types of orientation
Page/interface should be fit to the display area
Provide mechanism of recognition rather than remembrance
Content should be broken into easily understandable chunks to
avoid cognitive load
M

Divide content in partials

Provide homogeneous information to avoid cognitive load
Visuals should be provided in grouping to show relationship Provide little and homogenous
Content should be organized in modules or units information in modules to avoid
Provide widgets in non-overlapping groups cognitive load
ED

Partition information on separate pages

Provide content in meaningful group
Learning content should be in small files
Provide little information to avoid cognitive load
Similar steps or actions should be required to complete a task
PT

Minimal number of steps should be required to perform a task

Provide consistent set of actions and commands
Avoid repetitive actions Cognitive
Avoid continued actions Similar and minimal steps or load
CE

Minimize number of steps to complete a task actions should be required to

Action should be simple and focused complete a task
Provide information about user‘s current state and number of
remains steps to complete a task
Minimize number of steps to perform an action
AC

User should take few minutes to understand working of an app

Provide user guidance at each step
System status should be visible
Provide appropriate feedback to the user
System should provide feedback in form of alerts System status should be visible
Provide feedback during and after completion of a task through proper feedback
Provide feedback at each stage/step
Provide informative feedback
An online help tutorial should be provided
Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3
Design should be attractive but don‘t use too many colors Design should be attractive but
Make attractive design considering all users don‘t use too many colors and Design
Graphics should be relevant and not for decoration animations
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Animations add to good design but avoid using too many

animations
Don‘t use pure white and changing background
Use high contrast colors for text and background to ensure
readability
Color contrast should distinguish between types of content Color contrast of background
Background should not be pure white or change rapidly in and foreground content should
brightness be visible
Black colors is considered as repulsive
Don‘t use red color in heath apps
Blue and green tones should be avoided
Select the font that do not hamper the visibility of text
Use standard styles

T
Use san serif type font i.e. Helvetica, Arial of 12-14 point size
Avoid fancy font styling
Avoid using fancy font types

IP
Use following fonts for web apps to provide easy viewing:
Arial, Time New Roman, Courier New
Design should follow conventions
Use elements according to conventions

CR
Design should be consistent and
Use consistent colors throughout the app
should follow conventions
Applications should follow convention and should provide
consistent set of actions
Provide title of screen
Each screen should display title

US
Limit number of screens and
Provide a unique title to each page
provide title for each
Provide informative title
Use minimal screens
Try to maximize direct physical touch
Direct physical touch enhance
Provide direct touch
AN
user satisfaction
Interface should be responsive to user touch and selection
M
ED
PT
CE
AC