Usability Measurement of Mobile Applications with System Usability Scale (SUS)

Abstract

The mobile application market is expanding with the diversity in mobile devices, and competition among the mobile application developers becomes fierce. Usability of the mobile applications is crucial to gain a competitive advantage under these circumstances. This study aims to reveal the difference in terms of usability of four of the commonly used mobile applications (WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, and Mail). Furthermore, this study investigates the difference in terms of usability between iOS and Android operating systems. To measure the usability of the mobile applications, a System Usability Scale (SUS) with an adjective rating scale is applied to the young 222 participants, using the applications on their mobile phones. The result of the study shows that usability of all applications is satisfactory and above the standards. The comparison of mobile applications with each other shows that, WhatsApp has the highest usability score, whereas Facebook has the lowest one. In addition, according to the results, there is no significant difference between operating systems in terms of the usability of mobile applications.