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Abstract
The use of applications on mobile devices has reached historic levels. Using the System Usability Scale (SUS), data were collected on the usability of applications used on two kinds of mobile platforms—phones and tablets—across two general classes of operating systems, iOS and Android. Over 4 experiments, 3,575 users rated the usability of 10 applications that had been selected based on their popularity, as well as 5 additional applications that users had identified as using frequently. The average SUS rating for the top 10 apps across all platforms was 77.7, with a nearly 20-point spread (67.7–87.4) between the highest and lowest rated apps. Overall, applications on phone platforms were judged to be more usable than applications on the tablet platforms. Practitioners can use the information in this article to make better design decisions and benchmark their progress against a known universe of apps for their specific mobile platform.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Philip Kortum
Philip Kortum, Ph.D., is a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Rice University in Houston, Texas. His research is focused on usability assessment and measurement, and the human factors assessment of telecommunications, mobile computing and voting system designs.
Mary Sorber
Mary Sorber is a Principal User Experience Researcher at Autodesk in San Francisco, CA. She conducts qualitative and quantitative user research for CAD design software and new products. She is also the founder of NightingaleRx helping to improve the lives of the elderly through better medication management. Mary formerly worked at Cisco Systems, where she conducted UX research on collaboration products.