Abstract
As the number of mobile devices has increased, software development teams have focused on releasing mobile applications, allowing users to carry out transactions, access information and improve their lifestyle more efficiently. Nevertheless, even when providing useful means for carrying out daily tasks, users report dissatisfaction or frustration when using these applications. For energy companies, mobile applications that fail to provide both usefulness and ease of use may reduce their adoption and an increase in the company’s workload, as users will require company workers to solve problems they could solve on their own. In this paper, we report how we applied exploratory testing and ad-hoc usability inspection to identify improvement opportunities during the development of a mobile application that would allow users to measure their power consumption, supporting social distancing in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. After identified a set of functional and usability problems, the development team redesigned the application, which was perceived as both useful and easy to use from the point of view of the managers that requested it. Also, we report lessons learned that are useful for practitioners willing to replicate this experience.
Supported by Equatorial Energia.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by AutoLeitura project funded by Equatorial Energy under the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency (ANEEL) P&D Program Grant number APLPED00044_PROJETOPED_0036_S01. Additionally, this work was supported by the Foundation for the Support of Research and Scientific Development of Maranhão (FAPEMA), the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).
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Eduardo, J. et al. (2021). Applying Exploratory Testing and Ad-Hoc Usability Inspection to Improve the Ease of Use of a Mobile Power Consumption Registration App: An Experience Report. In: Stephanidis, C., et al. HCI International 2021 - Late Breaking Papers: Design and User Experience. HCII 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13094. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90238-4_23
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