Citation: Kureerung, P.;
Ramingwong, L.; Ramingwong, S.;
Cosh, K.; Eiamkanitchat, N. A
Framework for Designing Usability:
Usability Redesign of a Mobile
Government Application. Information
2022, 13, 470. https://doi.org/
10.3390/info13100470
Academic Editors: Sanjay Misra,
Robertas Damaševiˇcius and
Bharti Suri
Received: 13 August 2022
Accepted: 27 September 2022
Published: 30 September 2022
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Article
A Framework for Designing Usability: Usability Redesign of a
Mobile Government Application
Pinnaree Kureerung , Lachana Ramingwong *, Sakgasit Ramingwong , Kenneth Cosh
and Narissara Eiamkanitchat
Department of Computer Engineering, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
* Correspondence: lachana@eng.cmu.ac.th
Abstract:
The existing usability models have been used primarily for evaluation, not for usability
engineering. The models were found to be general for specific mobile applications. They also lack
appropriate guidelines to apply the usability models to m-government applications. Earthquake
information is an example of critical information delivered to citizens via m-government applications.
Usability design is considered a very important key factor to the success of such applications. This
research addresses the challenges in finding the usability factors important to m-government applica-
tions and choosing appropriate factors for specific m-government applications. A questionnaire was
administered to 49 citizens. The results include six usability factors which are learnability, simplicity,
satisfaction, security, privacy, and memorability. Descriptions of the usability factors were later added
to provide a clearer definition for each factor. This paper proposes the usability design framework for
m-government applications. The use of the framework was illustrated based on the user interface
redesign of the EarthquakeTMD application. The main aim was to demonstrate the applicability of
the framework. The quality of the original UI design of the application in the case study was assessed
with a questionnaire which was administered to 57 Thai citizens who lived in the areas affected by
the disasters. Four designers participated in UI redesigning and produced four different UI designs.
The new UI designs were evaluated via two usability tests on two sample groups of representative
users. The first usability test was conducted with 24 participants. Twenty-four test cases were used.
The second usability test was conducted with 351 representative users. After the tests, both sample
groups were given a questionnaire based on the SUS (System Usability Scale). The same two UI
designs by experienced and inexperienced designers who used the framework received the highest
scores: 89.58 and 87.60 on the first usability test. They also received the highest score on the second
usability test: 89.10 and 90.88. The results reveal that the citizens preferred the new user interfaces
designed using the framework. It was found that the scores of the UI designed by inexperienced
designers who used the framework were as high as the scores of the UI designed by experienced
designers, whereas the UI designs from the designers who did not use the framework received
the lowest scores: 63.23 and 54.27 on the first usability testing and 59.34 and 46.53 on the second
usability testing.
Keywords:
mobile government application; mobile application; usability engineering; usability
design factor; user interface design; framework
1. Introduction
Mobile government applications have been increasingly used by federal and local
governments to deliver public services to citizens and involve them in decision-making
processes [
1
]. The use of mobile government applications helps promote communication
and interaction between government departments, agencies, and citizens. Services offered
via the applications range from news, information, contracts, surveys, health, education,
finances, etc. Some types of information, e.g., safety and warning messages, are more
critical than others. Such messages are critical and should be presented to the intended
Information 2022, 13, 470. https://doi.org/10.3390/info13100470 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/information
