LEE- Endüstri Mühendisliği-Yüksek Lisans

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http://hdl.handle.net/11527/19267

Gözat

Yazar "Coşkun, Muhammed Çağrı" ile LEE- Endüstri Mühendisliği-Yüksek Lisans'a göz atma
  • Öge
    Instrument development to evaluate the usability of OTT platforms
    (Graduate School, 2023-06-23) Coşkun, Muhammed Çağrı ; Gümüşsoy Altın, Çiğdem ; Pekpazar, Aycan ; 507181115 ; Industrial Engineering
    Human beings have begun to experience serious technological developments that started in the twentieth century and have been developing more rapidly since the beginning of the twenty-first century. In the twentieth century, various technologies were only accessible to the elite, but today all kinds of technologies have entered the lives of people of all ages. So much so that almost every action performed by human beings now has a dimension that touches technology. In particular, the introduction of many smart devices, such as smart phones and smart televisions, into people's lives and the fact that people benefit from these technologies have accelerated the transition to digital. Changes in people's needs have been very effective in this digital transformation. In recent years, there have been many technological developments to meet these needs. Thus, the transition to digital has changed the way many different jobs are done, and moreover, it has opened new opportunities for companies. One of the areas of change in this context is watching television, or in today's terms, content consumption, which has become a routine in people's daily lives. In the past, people used to watch black-and-white television channels, but with the development of digital technologies, a new generation of content broadcasting platforms has emerged that can be used on many different devices, such as phones, computers, and televisions. One of the biggest disadvantages of traditional television is that it broadcasts linearly, and another is that it broadcasts only on television, which means that people had to be tied to a place. Therefore, this change in people's needs has found new solutions thanks to technological developments. In this context, the concept of over-the-top (OTT), which is the subject of this study, has started to enter people's lives in the last two decades. OTT differs from traditional television in that it broadcasts over the internet and delivers content to users over the internet. When the OTT concept is examined, it is seen that there is not a single type but many different types. These differences arise from the adoption of different business models. A literature review reveals that there are five different business models: subscription-based, advertising-based, transaction-based, hybrid, and free. Companies that adopt the subscription-based business model offer subscriptions to their users with different payment options, such as monthly or yearly, for a certain fee and offer all content to their users during this period. Companies using the ad-based business model offer all their content free of charge to users, but in order to generate revenue, they show ads to users while they consume content. In the transaction-based business model, companies rent or sell their series or movie contents to users for a certain period of time. Companies that basically operate around these three business models can sometimes adopt more than one business model. The business model adopted by such companies is called hybrid. Apart from the four models, companies that offer their content to their users without any expectation of income have adopted the free business model. When the literature is examined, it is seen that there are some driving forces for users to switch from traditional broadcasting to OTT platforms. In this study, the driving forces are explained in six categories. The first driving force is the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused a change in the lifestyles of all people. The COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, and its impact lasted for a long time. During this time, people had to stay in quarantine and carry out their work at home. However, the long duration of this situation and the fact that people had to spend time at home made many people look for different activities. One of the most important of these activities is consuming content through various OTT platforms. Studies show that this trend has continued after the pandemic. The second driving force is people's desire to increase their comfort level. Traditional televisions, which cannot provide the desire to consume content anywhere and anytime without being tied to time and space, have accelerated people's turn to OTT platforms. The third driving force, technological developments, is one of the most important factors increasing the usage rate of OTT platforms. In fact, the widespread use of 5G technology following 2G and 3G, the cheapening of technological devices such as smartphones, and the launch of campaigns by telecom operators for OTT platforms have enabled OTT platforms to become widespread. The fourth driving force is the rich content that OTT platforms offer to their users. OTT platforms can measure whether content is liked or disliked through various methods, and moreover, they can determine what kind of content is more in demand. Therefore, OTT platforms have an advantage over traditional television in producing content that appeals to users. The fifth driving force is competition among OTT platforms. The high level of competition causes companies to work on different strategies and compete on price and content quality, and therefore these developments favor the user. The final driving force is the concept of binge-watching. This concept, which has emerged in recent years, means watching several episodes of a series at once. In particular, companies such as Netflix, which releases all episodes of a season on the same day, have led to the development of this concept. This behavior, which is also quite common among young people, is associated with OTT platforms and affects the increase in their usage rate of OTT platforms. In this context, the fact that people of almost all ages have started to use OTT platforms has led to the emergence of many usability problems. In research on usability, researchers have interpreted usability in different ways. In some studies, usability has been referred to as efficiency and satisfaction, but it has also been referred to as learnability. The concept of usability, which is also examined in standards such as ISO 9241 and ISO 9126, has been the focus of companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Apple, and they have published guidelines for developing user-friendly interfaces. However, with the emergence of various design approaches, usability evaluation has become essential. As a result of the literature review, usability evaluation methods have been divided into three main categories: inspections, testing, and inquiry techniques. The methods related to inspection, where the focus is on expert evaluation, consist of heuristic evaluation and cognitive walking methods. There are many methods within testing methods. In usability evaluation, methods such as field work, laboratory work, and remote testing can be used, while testing methods can also include think-aloud and focus group studies. In the last class on inquiry techniques, different scales could be used. Examples of these methods are the system usability scale and the questionnaire for user interaction satisfaction. As a result, researchers have many options for evaluating usability. Within the scope of this study, a survey was developed to evaluate the usability of OTT platforms that provide web-based services. In this study, which started with literature research, Google, Microsof, IBM, Apple TV guidelines, WCAG 2.1, WCAG 3.0, ISO 9126, and ISO 9241 standards were examined in detail to determine the factors affecting usability, and categorical structures were tried to be created. In this study, in which a method consisting of six stages was followed, the Apple TV manual played the main role. First, the Apple TV manual was analyzed line by line to create a conceptual structure, and all sentences that could be related to usability were collected. Using open and axial coding technique, the collected statements were grouped together according to their similarities and divided into categories that were thought to represent them. These categories were accessibility and customization, account management and user features, brand perception and identity, data entry and search, design and layout, help and support, navigation, privacy and data protection, and streaming and content delivery. Then, in the second stage of the study, a face validity check was conducted. The aim of this stage, in which all criteria were evaluated by expert, was to eliminate the ambiguity and semantic problems of the collected criteria. Three accredited employees participated in the face validity check. Following this stage, a pilot test was carried out with 26 real users, again to eliminate the ambiguity and semantic problems of the criteria. In the final stage of this phase, a content validity check was conducted with the participation of 30 users. In this stage, PSA and CSV indices were calculated to measure the extent to which each criterion corresponds to the categorical structure. As a result of this part, final changes were made to the criteria pool, and the third stage of the method was started. In the third stage, explanatory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to evaluate the measurement properties of the prepared scale. In the exploratory factor analysis stage, 650 users evaluated the Netflix website. Then, using the IBM SPSS 25 program, factor loadings and Cronbach's alpha values were calculated. In the next stage of confirmatory factor analysis, a new survey was conducted with 600 participants. The convergent and discriminant validity was tested by using IBM SPSS 25 and IBM SPSS Amos 25 programs. The Cronbach's alpha values, average variance extracted (AVE), composite reliability (CR) values and goodness of fit and badness of fit indices were calculated. Nomological evaluation was also made at this stage. The extent to which the nine factors are explained by the independent variables (brand loyalty, intention to continue use, and satisfaction output) frequently used in the literature was calculated. When the results were analyzed, it was seen that the nine factors explained the variables of brand loyalty, intention to continue using, and satisfaction to a great extent. As a result, this study will be a very good guide for designers who will design interfaces for web-based OTT platforms. In this study, which can be used to evaluate the usability of any designed OTT web interface, the criteria of the questionnaire can be used as a checklist, or design improvements can be made by considering categorical structures. In addition, the methodology followed in this study can be used by researchers to develop scales for the evaluation of different platforms for usability evaluation.