Incorporating Heuristic Evaluation (HE) in the Evaluation of Visual Design of the Ecotourism Smartphone App

Tanalachimi, Ganapathy and Mohd Kamal, Othman and Abdulrazak Yahya, Saleh (2021) Incorporating Heuristic Evaluation (HE) in the Evaluation of Visual Design of the Ecotourism Smartphone App. Journal of Visual Art and Design, 13 (1). pp. 18-34. ISSN 2338-5480

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Abstract

Heuristic evaluation (HE) has proven to be important in developing computer systems but has not been incorporated into the development of ecotourism smartphone applications. This results in usability issues that significantly affect the user experience (UX), as discussed in the literature. This study reports the application of HE in the design and development of the Niranur Agro Farm (NAF) ecotourism smartphone app to improve the UX. Eight experts participated in this study, utilizing the SMART mobile usability heuristic developed for mobile applications and a severity rating scale to determine usability issues. The HE findings indicated 22 usability issues. One issue was rated 4 (catastrophic), four issues were rated 3 (major problem), twelve issues were rated 2 (minor problem), and five issues were rated 1 (cosmetic). Although there were some issues rated 4 and 3, most issues were considered minor (1 and 2 on the scale). The results indicated that it is crucial to incorporate HE into the design and development of the ecotourism smartphone app to minimize the usability issues faced by users. It further validated that utilizing a specific heuristic for smartphone apps ensures that all usability issues are correctly categorized and remedied.

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