An evaluation study on the effect of shopping mall mobile application on user experience

Abstract

Today, smartphones have become a vital part of people. Many mobile applications have been developed and presented to users to provide accessibility to people. Mobile applications of shopping malls have also emerged for this purpose and have various features such as informing their users about campaigns, opportunities, and events, accessing store information about various activities in the shopping mall, and navigation in the environment. When the application stores of IOS and Android-based operating systems (App & Play Store) are examined, it is observed that the scores, number of votes, and number of downloads of these applications are at a low level. Based on this, the problems affecting the user experience and usability in these applications were investigated. The success of an application or a product depends on the usability of the product's interface and the extent to which the product's experience can satisfy the user. The fact that users can easily use an interface and enjoy the experience makes the application successful. Since there has not been any study on mobile applications of shopping malls in the literature, a lack of literature has been observed in this field. Based on the feedback received from the participants during the study, the applications were not recognized at all by most of the participants resulted in the lack of promotion of these applications and inadequate usability. This research is a case study. The mobile applications of 4 shopping malls in Istanbul, Turkey were analyzed comparatively. After this analysis, qualitative and quantitative data were obtained. While making a comparative analysis between the applications, general discussions about the shopping mall applications were made according to the participant's statements. In the first part of the thesis, the aim, scope, structure, and research questions of the study are mentioned. The second part of the thesis includes data from the literature on the concepts of user experience design, user interface design and usability. First, the definition of user experience design is made, and its process is mentioned. The relationship between user experience and other experiences in the literature has been examined and its common points with customer experience have been mentioned. Secondly, the definition, process, elements, and principles of user interface design are mentioned. Finally, the definition of usability, usability in mobile applications and usability evaluation methods are mentioned. In the third part of the thesis, the relationship between the shopping mall and the customer is examined and the informative systems in the shopping mall are mentioned. First, definitions from the literature on customer experience, satisfaction and loyalty are presented. Afterward, signages, touch-screen kiosks, websites and mobile applications for information and guidance purposes were mentioned to improve the user experience in the shopping mall. In the fourth part of the thesis, research methods and test equipment are mentioned. Before starting the study, Istanbul, the most populated and developed city in Turkey, where the researcher lived, was determined as the target city. The mobile applications of the shopping malls in this city were researched and a checklist including the features of these applications was created. By looking at the data in this checklist, the mobile applications of the 4 shopping malls with the most features were selected and the study was carried out through these applications. While selecting these applications, the level of development of the shopping malls was also considered, and since user tests will be carried out, the ease of transportation was also considered. The study was planned to be conducted with 20 participants and was designed so that 5 participants would experience each shopping mall application. Each participant participated in a study consisting of 2 phases. The first phase, the user test, was carried out at the desk, and at this stage, the participants were asked to use the mobile application belonging to a shopping mall and to perform the tasks assigned to them. At this stage, the mobile phone screen will be recorded with an external camera. In addition, since the opinions of the participants were needed, the thinking aloud method was used, so a voice recording was taken. Participants filled out a PSSUQ (post-study system usability questionnaire) about it after using the app. In the field test, which is the second phase, the developers were asked to use the mobile application they used in the first stage, in a shopping mall environment. Participants were given specific tasks and asked to use these applications' wayfinding features. No video recording was made during this process, but the audio was recorded using the thinking aloud method. After the tasks were completed, a semi-structured interview was held with the participants and their opinions about the application experience were taken. In the fifth part of the thesis, the data obtained from the user test and field test are analyzed and the results are presented.