Comparison of cognitive modeling and user performance analysis for touch screen mobile interface design


Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, Bilgisayar ve Öğretim Teknolojileri Eğitimi Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2014

Öğrenci: NİHAN OCAK

Danışman: KÜRŞAT ÇAĞILTAY

Özet:

The main aim of this thesis is to analyze and comparatively evaluate the usability of touch screen mobile applications through cognitive modeling and end-user usability testing. The study investigates the accuracy of the estimated results cognitive model produces for touch screen mobile phone interfaces. CogTool application was used as the cognitive modeling method. Turkcell Cüzdan application, which is suitable for the implementation of both methods, was chosen as the mobile application. Based on the feedback given by the developer of the application, 8 tasks were determined, considering the most widely used actions and critical operations on the application. 10 people who had not used the application before were selected and user tests were conducted in a usability laboratory. Since CogTool gives skilled users’ performance prediction, the test was performed twice. CogTool predictions were compared with the second test results. The results obtained from CogTool were analyzed step by step, and tasks were compared on the basis of step time and total task completion time. This study reveals that CogTool gives approximate estimations with actual user performance on touch screen mobile phone application interfaces. However, if there are special cases in the tasks such that users are very accustomed to the steps or decision-making is involved in the tasks, the “Think Operation” in CogTool should be changed appropriately or it should be deleted. In addition, this study shows that performing cognitive modeling method requires one third of the time needed for conducting end user tests. Furthermore, the results reveal that CogTool can be used for measuring some factors which affect user satisfaction level.