Usability Evaluation of eZ Cash Mobile App: The Case of PlantationWorkers in Nuwara Eliya District, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Smartphones take a very crucial part of users’ lifestyles nowadays. Many of the most popular mobile operating systems today, offer a wide range of applications with multiplefeatures. Usability is the evaluation of the quality and usefulness of smartphone applications. Most of the researchers have focused on adaptability with mobile applications and ignore the user context. Many researches have also discussed improving the usability of mobile apps to help people motivate themselves and achieve desired goals.This paper aims to evaluate the usability of the eZ Cash mobile app with usability principles. The sample was selected by using a convenient sampling method, a survey was conducted using 100 eZ Cash mobile app users. Plantation workers in Nuwara EliyaDistrict, Sri Lanka are the participants in this research. The research was conducted in three steps. At the first step, the literature survey was conducted relevant to the study andidentified the appropriate model and questionnaire for the study. In the second step, a pilot survey was conducted using the questionnaire. Finally, a field survey was conducted by using the refined questionnaire. The researcher uses Cronbach’s alpha value to test the reliability of the questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, Pearson’s coefficient of correlationand simple linear regressions were used to test the hypotheses. The findings revealed that there are significant differences in usability metrics and usability principles as independent variables. According to regression analysis, predictability, synthesizability, familiarity, and consistency positively affect usability metrics and generalizability impact negatively in usability metrics.