As computer based systems proliferate around the world, an increasing number of illiterate and semi-literate people come into contact with systems they do not understand. Unfortunately, these systems are increasingly important in one’s day to day life be it seeking employment through online applications, applying and receiving government services, seeking medical information, or simply becoming aware of current events. With over 774 million people classified as illiterate or semi-literate, there is a need to better understand how to design user interfaces to allow this group of individuals access to online services. This paper presents a study contrasting four different interface design styles providing online assistance for the task of completing an online internship application. 180 subjects in the Republic of Rwanda with low literacy skills were divided into four different groups to complete online task by using one of these interfaces. The results show that semi-literate users’ performance using the online assistance improved significantly and the percentage of completed tasks increased from 52% to 94%. Statistical analysis of the System Usability Scale (SUS) indicates that their average subjective usability score boosted from 39 to 80 using the online assistance.

Usability of Online Assistance From Semi-literate Users’ Perspective / Ahmad, Nadeem; Shoaib, Umar; Prinetto, Paolo Ernesto. - In: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION. - ISSN 1044-7318. - ELETTRONICO. - 31:1(2015), pp. 55-64. [10.1080/10447318.2014.925772]

Usability of Online Assistance From Semi-literate Users’ Perspective

AHMAD, NADEEM;SHOAIB, UMAR;PRINETTO, Paolo Ernesto
2015

Abstract

As computer based systems proliferate around the world, an increasing number of illiterate and semi-literate people come into contact with systems they do not understand. Unfortunately, these systems are increasingly important in one’s day to day life be it seeking employment through online applications, applying and receiving government services, seeking medical information, or simply becoming aware of current events. With over 774 million people classified as illiterate or semi-literate, there is a need to better understand how to design user interfaces to allow this group of individuals access to online services. This paper presents a study contrasting four different interface design styles providing online assistance for the task of completing an online internship application. 180 subjects in the Republic of Rwanda with low literacy skills were divided into four different groups to complete online task by using one of these interfaces. The results show that semi-literate users’ performance using the online assistance improved significantly and the percentage of completed tasks increased from 52% to 94%. Statistical analysis of the System Usability Scale (SUS) indicates that their average subjective usability score boosted from 39 to 80 using the online assistance.
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
Usability of Online Assistance From Semiliterate Users Perspective.pdf

non disponibili

Tipologia: 2a Post-print versione editoriale / Version of Record
Licenza: Non Pubblico - Accesso privato/ristretto
Dimensione 747.84 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
747.84 kB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri   Richiedi una copia
Pubblicazioni consigliate

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11583/2556557
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo