The Need to Integrate Usability Engineering into Agile Process Models for Mobile Applications and Devices Development

Denish Omondi Otieno, Wilson Cheruiyot, Michael Kimwele
2014 International Journal of Computer Applications Technology and Research  
Reliability of an interactive mobile computing device or the lack of it is often reflected in user satisfaction. The rapid proliferation and ubiquity of smart devices in the consumer market has forced the Software Engineering (SE) community to quickly adapt development approaches conscious of the novel capabilities of mobile applications. However, the growth of this new computing platform has outpaced the software engineering work tailored to mobile application development. Designs in Human
more » ... uter interaction (HCI) aim to create interactive products that are easy and enjoyable to use. However, owing the major gaps between HCI and SE in theory and practice, the multidisciplinary nature of HCI and the different value systems of interface users from various backgrounds and experiences, it is highly challenging for designers to create applications which are usable and affordable to such a heterogeneous set of users. Nowadays, users complain about the bad interaction design of mobile platform-based devices. The question is whether this problem is caused by the bad design of products or by the users' ignorance of the logics of HCI design? In this paper we focus on the need to integrate usability engineering in to agile process models for the enhancement of mobile application and devices development.
doi:10.7753/ijcatr0311.1003 fatcat:nntrt67gl5c67hywkogpwinxxi