On Development of a SIM-Based Prototype for Enhancing the Usability of Mobile Value-Added Services
الملخص
The advent of Mobile Value-Added Services (VAS) has witnessed widespread adoption in developing regions, notably within East Africa. This surge is attributed to advancements in information and communication technology, 3G/4G proliferation, growth of mobile internet accessibility, and rising smartphone penetration. Despite this progress, a significant segment of the population continues to rely on basic phones. Studies have shown that the text-based applications used on these types of mobile phones still pose significant obstacles in delivering a user-friendly VAS experience. This paper explores the potential for improving the usability of mobile value-added services on basic phones. We employed an action research approach, utilizing quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. Questionnaires gathered feedback on end-user testing, while in-depth interviews with five industry experts provided insights into potential solutions. This multi-faceted approach ensures a comprehensive understanding of user feedback and expert insights, culminating in the design of an intuitive SIM-based user interface prototype. This highly customised prototype prioritises services and functionalities simplify the user experience through improved navigability and accessibility. The effectiveness of this prototype was quantitatively analysed using descriptive statistics, focusing on ease of use, efficiency, effectiveness, and user satisfaction. With an average ease of use score of 85.8%, a geometric mean time on task of 29.43 seconds, and a user satisfaction score of 79.5%, the prototype demonstrates impressive functionality and garners acclaim for improved navigation and information discovery from users and experts. Further, comparative analysis from expert interviews reveald a more nuanced understanding of technology preferences for basic phone usability, contrary to previous studies. Building upon these demonstrably positive results, the paper concludes by advocating for user interface standardisation and recommending user-generated content for a more inclusive VAS ecosystem.
التنزيلات
المراجع
Abdallah, M. M. A., & Al-Rifaee, M. M. (2017). Java Standards: A Comparative Study. International Journal of Computer Science and Software Engineering, 6(6), 146.
Abdinoor, A., & Mbamba, U. (2017). Factors Influencing consumers’ adoption of mobile financial services in Tanzania. Cogent Business & Management, 4. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2017.1392273
Adjei, J., Odei-Appiah, S., & Tobbin, P. (2019). Explaining the determinants of continual use of mobile financial services. Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance, 22(1), 15–31. https://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-09-2019-0074
Al-Amri, R. R., Maarop, N., Jamaludin, R., Samy, G. N., Magalingam, P., Hassan, N. H., Ten, D. W. H., & Daud, S. M. (2018). Correlation Analysis Between Factors Influencing the Usage Intention Of NFC Mobile Wallet Payment. Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences, 10, 215– 228. https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:116415413
Al-Debei, M. M., Dwivedi, Y. K., & Hujran, O. (2022). Why would telecom customers continue to use mobile value-added services? Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 7(4), 100242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2022.100242
Asrar, M. (2018). Secured and usable framework design for mobile financial service. Computer Science, Business. https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:86774721
Bangor, A., Kortum, P., & Miller, J. (2009). Determining What Individual SUS Scores Mean: Adding an Adjective Rating Scale. J. Usability Stud., 4, 114–123.
Berndt, A. E. (2020). Sampling Methods. Journal of Human Lactation, 36(2), 224–226. https://doi.org/10.1177/0890334420906850
Bhatt, S. (2021). An Empirical Study of Factors Affecting Adoption of M- Commerce in India. Precision Agriculture, 3, 2021.
Blechman, J. G. (2016). Mobile credit in Kenya and Tanzania: Emerging regulatory challenges in consumer protection, credit reporting and use of customer transactional data. The African Journal of Information and Communication, 2016(17), 61.
Bolarinwa, S. (2021). The History of USSD and its Entrance into Africa. https://ussd.directory/blog/ussd-works/
Breitinger, F., Tully-Doyle, R., & Hassenfeldt, C. (2020). A survey on smartphone user’s security choices, awareness and education. Computers & Security, 88, 101647. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2019.101647
Brooke, J. (1995). SUS: A quick and dirty usability scale. Usability Eval. Ind., 189. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228593520_SUS_A_quick_and_dirty_usability_scale/citations
Coghlan, D., & Brydon-Miller, M. (2014). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Action Research. Sage Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446294406
Foster, C. (2021). Global transfers: M-Pesa, intellectual property rights and digital innovation. Computers and Society (Cs.CY). https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2108.09781
Gary, S. (2015). Essential Statistics, Regression, and Econometrics (Second Edi). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/C2014- 0- 04762-4
Huang, Z., & Benyoucef, M. (2023). A systematic literature review of mobile application usability: addressing the design perspective. Universal Access in the Information Society, 22(3), 715–735.
Issa, T., & Isaias, P. (2022). Usability and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). In Sustainable Design: HCI, Usability and Environmental Concerns (pp. 23–40). Springer.
Karisha, K., Msanjila, S. S., & Shidende, N. (2023). Validation of the usability metrics for evaluating eHealth systems in Tanzania. East African Journal of Information Technology, 6(1), 201– 219. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.37284/eajit.6.1.1500
Kaya, A., Ozturk, R., & Altin, C. (2019). Usability measurement of mobile applications with system usability scale (SUS). Industrial Engineering in the Big Data Era: Selected Papers from the Global Joint Conference on Industrial Engineering and Its Application Areas, GJCIE 2018, June 21--22, 2018, Nevsehir, Turkey, 389–400.
Kazemkhanlou, H., & Boozary, P. (2015). A survey on factors influencing the usage of mobile value-added services; An empirical investigation among Iranian users. IEOM 2015 - 5th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, Proceeding. https://doi.org/10.1109/IEOM.2015.7093834
Krell, N., Giroux, S., Guido, Z., Hannah, C., Lopus, S., Caylor, K., & Evans, T. (2020). Smallholder farmers’ use of mobile phone services in central Kenya. Climate and Development, 13, 1– 13. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2020.1748847
Krell, N. T., Giroux, S. A., Guido, Z., Hannah, C., Lopus, S. E., Caylor, K. K., & Evans, T. P. (2021). Smallholder farmers’ use of mobile phone services in central Kenya. Climate and Development 13(3), 215– 227. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2020.1748847
Kumar, B. A., & Goundar, M. S. (2019). Usability heuristics for mobile learning applications. Education and Information Technologies, 24(2), 1819– 1833. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-019-09860-z
Lakens, D. (2022). Sample Size Justification. Collabra: Psychology, 8. https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.33267
Leon, P. (2022). The Role of Central Banks in Digital Financial Services (SSRN). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4263015
Lewis, J. R. (2018). Measuring Perceived Usability: The CSUQ, SUS, and UMUX. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 34(12), 1148– 1156. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2017.1418805
Li, X., Zhao, X., Xu, W. (Ato), & Pu, W. (2020). Measuring ease of use of mobile applications in e-commerce retailing from the perspective of consumer online shopping behaviour patterns. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 55, 102093. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102093
Lutzi, T., Piovesani, E., & Rotar, D. (2023). Comparative Report (pp. 3–28). Hart Publishing. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781509958948.0009
Malephane, L. (2022). Digital divide: Who in Africa is connected and who is not. Afrobarometer Dispatch No. 582. https://www.afrobarometer.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AD582-PAP18-Digital-divide-Who-in-Africa-is-connected-and-who-is-not-Afrobarometer-Pan-Africa-Profile-12dec22.pdf
Manisha, K. (2013). Platforms Used in Mobile Value Added Services. International Journal of Engineering Innovation & Research, Volume 2, Pg 229- 234. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260126269_Platforms_Used_in_Mobile_Value_Added_Services
Marcus, A., & Wang, W. (2018). Design, User Experience, and Usability: Theory and Practice: 7th International Conference, DUXU 2018, Held as Part of HCI International 2018, Las Vegas, NV, USA, July 15-20, 2018, Proceedings, Part I. Springer International Publishing.
Masaaki, K. (2019). Nigel Bevan and concepts of usability, UX, and satisfaction. Journal of Usability Studies, 14(3), 156– 163. https://doi.org/https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.5555/3532694.3532700
Nielsen, J. (1994). Usability engineering. Morgan Kaufmann.
Nkgau, T., Seipone, T., Segole, W., & Makhura, O. (2016). Simulation of a Mobile-based USSD System for TB Contact Tracing. Proceedings of the Fourth IASTED International Conference Health Informatics (AfricaHI 2016), 170– 176. https://doi.org/10.2316/P.2016.837-005
Nyaketcho, D. (2014). STK implementation in SMS banking in M-pesa-Kenya, exploits and feasible solutions. https://concordia.ab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Doreen-Nyaketcho.pdf?x97066
Oktaviani, S., Wiguna, C., & Priyanto, A. (2022). Application of System Usability Scale (SUS) method in testing the usefulness of information system Student Creativity Program (PKM) based on website. In AIP Conference Proceedings (Vol. 2658). https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0107302
Oladele, D. A., Iwelunmor, J., Gbajabiamila, T., Obiezu-Umeh, C., Okwuzu, J. O., Nwaozuru, U., Musa, A. Z., Tahlil, K., Idigbe, I., Ong, J., Tang, W., Tucker, J., & Ezechi, O. (2023). An Unstructured Supplementary Service Data System to Verify HIV Self-Testing Among Nigerian Youths: Mixed Methods Analysis of Usability and Feasibility. JMIR Formative Research, 7, e44402. https://doi.org/10.2196/44402
Paelo, A. (2019). Regulating for the growth of mobile financial services: A case study of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Competition and Regulation for Inclusive Growth in Southern Africa, 421–448.
Paz, F., Huaracha, A., Paz-Sifuentes, F.-A., Moquillaza, A., Lecaros, A., Falconi, F., Aguirre, J., & Tapia, A. (2023). Comparing Two Sets of Usability Heuristics in a User Experience Evaluation: A Case Study in an E-Commerce Mobile Application. International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, 69–81.
Perrier, T., Yu, S., & Anderson, R. (2016). UW-Pesa: A Mobile Money User Experience Experimentation Platform. Proceedings of the 7th Annual Symposium on Computing for Development. https://doi.org/10.1145/3001913.3006650
Rama, G., & Sarvan, K. K. (2022). Challenges Faced by The Mobile Banking Users In India. International Journal of Economic Perspectives, 16(11 SE-Articles), 157–169. https://ijeponline.com/index.php/journal/article/view/293
Riasat, H., Batool, T., & Iqbal, S. (2022). Review and Comparative Studies on Mobile Operating System.
Robb, G., & Vilakazi, T. (2016). Mobile Payments Markets in Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe: A Comparative Study of Competitive Dynamics and Outcomes. The African Journal of Information and Communication, 17, 9–37. https://doi.org/10.23962/10539/21630
Rowan, P., & Mazer, R. (2016). Competition in mobile financial services: Lessons from Kenya and Tanzania. The African Journal of Information and Communication. The African Journal of Information and Communication, (17), 39- 59. https://doi.org/10.23962/10539/21629
Shneiderman, B., & Plaisant, C. (2010). Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-computer Interaction. Addison-Wesley.
Sowon, K., Luhanga, E., Cranor, L., Fanti, G., Tucker, C., & Gueye, A. (2023). The Role of User-Agent Interactions on Mobile Money Practices in Kenya and Tanzania. Human-Computer Interaction (Cs.HC). https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2309.00226
Trukenbrod, A. K., Backhaus, N., & Thomaschke, R. (2020). Measuring subjectively experienced time in usability and user experience testing scenarios. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 138, 102399. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2020.102399
Wang, K., & Lin, C. (2012). The adoption of mobile value‐added services: Investigating the influence of IS quality and perceived playfulness. Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, 22(2), 184–208. https://doi.org/10.1108/09604521211219007
Weichbroth, P. (2020). Usability of mobile applications: a systematic literature study. Ieee Access, 8, 55563–55577. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2981892
Weld, G., Perrier, T., Aker, J., Blumenstock, J. E., Dillon, B., Kamanzi, A., Kokushubira, E., Webster, J., & Anderson, R. J. (2018). Information access through basic mobile phones in rural Tanzania. Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1– 12. https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173707
الحقوق الفكرية (c) 2024 James Wafula, Simon Msanjila, PhD, Frederick Chali, PhD
هذا العمل مرخص حسب الرخصة Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
