Google Analytics as a tool for usability evaluation of mobile applications
(2015) MAMM01 20151Ergonomics and Aerosol Technology
- Abstract
- In recent years, the market for mobile applications has continuously grown in size, and appears to continue to grow. This means greater competition among app developing companies as the users expect applications with high usability and a great user experience. To assess these properties the companies can perform usability evaluations. However, practicing traditional usability evaluation methods can be both expensive and time consuming. Thus, they may not be feasible for all companies.
This thesis explores the potential for using Google Analytics as a tool to identify usability issues as well as to evaluate user experience by looking at user data from three mobile applications, all with similar functionality. This included identifying... (More) - In recent years, the market for mobile applications has continuously grown in size, and appears to continue to grow. This means greater competition among app developing companies as the users expect applications with high usability and a great user experience. To assess these properties the companies can perform usability evaluations. However, practicing traditional usability evaluation methods can be both expensive and time consuming. Thus, they may not be feasible for all companies.
This thesis explores the potential for using Google Analytics as a tool to identify usability issues as well as to evaluate user experience by looking at user data from three mobile applications, all with similar functionality. This included identifying which usability metrics that were both relevant in this context and could be applied to the data collected by Google Analytics. It is generally recommended that you combine two or more usability evaluation methods to get the best results. Therefore, a heuristic evaluation and user testing was also conducted. The results from Google Analytics were compared to the results from the two evaluation methods.
An extensive literature study resulted in five usability metrics; task success, time-on-task, errors, efficiency, and learnability. These were applied to the data collected by Google Analytics. As a whole, the results provided insufficient evidence to recommend Google Analytics as a tool for a comprehensive usability evaluation. However, there were indications of situations were the tool could prove useful. Both heuristic evaluation and user testing identified usability issues that were not detected by Google Analytics. As a result, it is recommended that either of the two methods should serve to supplement the results from Google Analytics. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8052037
- author
- Sjöberg, Niklas LU and Svensson, Filip LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MAMM01 20151
- year
- 2015
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 8052037
- date added to LUP
- 2015-10-06 15:51:43
- date last changed
- 2015-10-06 15:51:43
@misc{8052037, abstract = {{In recent years, the market for mobile applications has continuously grown in size, and appears to continue to grow. This means greater competition among app developing companies as the users expect applications with high usability and a great user experience. To assess these properties the companies can perform usability evaluations. However, practicing traditional usability evaluation methods can be both expensive and time consuming. Thus, they may not be feasible for all companies. This thesis explores the potential for using Google Analytics as a tool to identify usability issues as well as to evaluate user experience by looking at user data from three mobile applications, all with similar functionality. This included identifying which usability metrics that were both relevant in this context and could be applied to the data collected by Google Analytics. It is generally recommended that you combine two or more usability evaluation methods to get the best results. Therefore, a heuristic evaluation and user testing was also conducted. The results from Google Analytics were compared to the results from the two evaluation methods. An extensive literature study resulted in five usability metrics; task success, time-on-task, errors, efficiency, and learnability. These were applied to the data collected by Google Analytics. As a whole, the results provided insufficient evidence to recommend Google Analytics as a tool for a comprehensive usability evaluation. However, there were indications of situations were the tool could prove useful. Both heuristic evaluation and user testing identified usability issues that were not detected by Google Analytics. As a result, it is recommended that either of the two methods should serve to supplement the results from Google Analytics.}}, author = {{Sjöberg, Niklas and Svensson, Filip}}, language = {{swe}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, title = {{Google Analytics as a tool for usability evaluation of mobile applications}}, year = {{2015}}, }