Mobile Usability: Experiences From Iran and Turkey

Abstract

In this article, a country specific comparative mobile usability study is presented, using Iran and Turkey as the two chosen emerging/emergent nation exemplars of smartphone usage and adoption. In a focus group study, three mobile applications were selected by first-time users of smartphones. In both countries, the music player application was tested, wherein common patterns of accessing and sorting songs emerged. Whereas the Iranian users appeared to be more interested in social networking via use of an SMS service, the Turkish users tended to prefer to apply hierarchies to their own daily personal contacts. The results and analysis establish the existence of country specific issues and concerns, as well as reveal generic usability issues. The article concludes that the source of these issues is most likely due to a combination of certain contextual features endemic to both Iran and Turkey, not only to ethnic, religious, or cultural issues.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to appreciate following people because of their great help and support during the study: Fazin Shariati, Babak Amjadi, and Jenia Baghdanian at the LG Electronics office in Tehran; Rami Kim at the LG Electronics office in Istanbul; Dr. Vahid Choopankareh, Dr. Alireza Ajdari and Jamshid Emami at the Department of Industrial Design, University of Tehran; Professor Özlem Er at the Department of Industrial Product Design, Istanbul Technical University; Mahdi Rahnama and Mahideh Arabpour, students at Department of Industrial Design, University of Tehran; and Elham Ghazi, Sara Rakei, Koray Gelmez, and Ezgi Elvan, students at the Department of Industrial Product Design, Istanbul Technical University.