Usability in Mobile Electronic Data Collection Tools: Form Developers' Views
Mugisha, A.; Babic, A.; Wakholi, P.; Nankabirwa, V.; Tylleskar, T.
Studies in Health Technology and Informatics 238: 72-75
2017
ISSN/ISBN: 1879-8365 PMID: 28679890 Document Number: 692139
Mobile Electronic Data Collection Tools (MEDCTs) are created by form developers to collect data. Usability being one of the top quality attributes is of great concern to developers of any interactive applications. However, little is known about the form developers' understanding of usability, how they measure usability and their limitations in designing for usability. We conducted an empirical study where we aimed at getting the developers' views on usability by interviewing 8 form developers. These are creators of forms used for data collection. We found that developers knew about usability, but it was not their main focus during form development. Challenges included constraining deadlines, software limitations and the insufficient communication with the field users to establish the usability needs. Furthermore, the methods used to evaluate the usability of created forms varied amongst developers and these included in-house evaluations and feedback from piloting sessions with end users.