Framework for Evaluating the Usability of Mobile Educational Applications for Children

Abstract

Mobile technology is becoming an integral learning tool for children. The Interface of mobile educational applications (apps) should be usable and compatible with the cognitive skills of children in order to provide an effective learning experience. Usability is a key quality attributes to measure the usefulness of application; therefore evaluating usability is a vital task. With the rapid advancement of mobile technology, usability of educational apps for children gains attention of modern researchers. This paper focuses on providing a framework for evaluating the interface of mobile educational apps designed for children. The paper attempts to review the existing interface design guidelines and consequently develop a framework. The framework serves as basis for comprehensive usability evaluation consisting of guidelines, usability characteristics, goals (interface design criteria), questions, usability metrics (objective and subjective) and two evaluation instruments (task list and satisfaction questionnaire). To ensure the effectiveness and reliability of the framework, it was validated by applying the proposed metrics and evaluation instruments in a usability study conducted on two android educational apps for children. Results gathered from usability testing proved that the framework is applicable for evaluation of mobile educational apps for children.