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To cite this article: Sang Min Ko , Won Suk Chang & Yong Gu Ji (2013) Usability Principles for Augmented Reality
Applications in a Smartphone Environment, International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 29:8, 501-515, DOI:
10.1080/10447318.2012.722466
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Intl. Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 29: 501–515, 2013
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1044-7318 print / 1532-7590 online
DOI: 10.1080/10447318.2012.722466
many types of applications similar to those on desktop computer Meawad, 2010; Thomas et al., 2002; Wiedenmaier, Oehme,
systems. Smartphone applications using augmented reality (AR) Schmidt, & Luczak, 2003).
technology make use of users’ location information. As AR appli-
cations will require new evaluation methods, improved usability
The latest high-end smartphones offer global positioning
and user convenience should be developed. The purpose of the cur- systems (GPS), which allow the user to track their location,
rent study is to develop usability principles for the development as well as geo-magnetic sensors, G-sensors, and digital com-
and evaluation of smartphone applications using AR technology. passes. They also include high-performance processors and
We develop usability principles for smartphone AR applications high-resolution digital cameras and displays. Moreover, these
by analyzing existing research about heuristic evaluation methods,
design principles for AR systems, guidelines for handheld mobile
phones can retrieve information regarding a user’s current loca-
device interfaces, and usability principles for the tangible user tion. These properties of smartphones satisfy the requirements
interface. We conducted a heuristic evaluation for three popularly for an AR system, which needs to recognize objects using a
used smartphone AR applications to identify usability problems. camera by detecting object properties, provide related content
We suggested new design guidelines to solve the identified prob- by obtaining information related to the users’ location informa-
lems. Then, we developed an improved AR application prototype
of an Android-based smartphone, which later was conducted a
tion, and handle many types of data at the same time. Unlike
usability testing to validate the effects of usability principles. the traditional personal computer environment, the AR envi-
ronment requires new considerations for user. AR is usually
used while the user is mobile and subject to many distractions,
unlike the traditional personal computer (Chincholle, Goldstein,
1. INTRODUCTION Nyberg, & Eriksson, 2002). When using AR on mobile phones,
Augmented reality (AR) is a view of a real-world envi- users can be distracted by disordered displays, complicated
ronment that is modified by a computer. It is a subset of execution, inappropriate functions, and inconsistency between
virtual reality (VR) but differs from VR in that it offers a manipulation methods. However, most of these distractions are
greater sense of realism to its users. The difference between manageable (Shneiderman, 2010).
AR and VR is that AR overlaps virtual information with reality, Studies regarding AR usually include precision devices and
whereas VR substitutes reality. This technology offers informa- software technologies for special situations. However, because
tion delivery, acquisition, and application by observing objects. these studies are led by technologies, usability researchers point
Early AR-related technologies were developed and studied for out that they lack of consideration of user convenience and
use with industry, military readiness, surgery training, com- usability (Dünser, Grasset, & Billinghurst, 2008; Livingston,
puter games, and computer-supported collaboration. Research 2005; Nilsson & Johansson, 2006). Existing studies have usu-
on AR-related technology is ongoing as the spread of small ally evaluated the aspects of cognition and performance (Dünser
handheld devices and smartphones increases (Azuma et al., et al., 2008) and have not considered the special contexts of AR
environments (Ullmer & Ishii, 2000).
A preliminary version of this article was published in Korean in In this research, we studied usability principles for
the Journal of Korean Institute of CALS/EC, 16, 35–47, 2011. This
work was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the
smartphone AR applications based on user location infor-
National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of mation. We then conducted heuristic evaluations using these
Education, Science and Technology (2012R1A1A2006949). principles with people in Korea using smartphone-augmented
Address correspondence to Yong Gu Ji, Department of Information applications. Through this evaluation, we developed improved
and Industrial Engineering, Yonsei University, 262 Seongsanno, smartphone AR application prototypes and validated results
Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, 120-749, Korea. E-mail: yongguji@
yonsei.ac.kr
from the heuristic evaluation by conducting usability testing.
501
502 S. M. KO ET AL.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW users are provided with additional real-time 3D graphics with
an original view of reality. That is, the system provides ren-
2.1. Augmented Reality dered virtual images to users while maintaining spatial relation
Concepts and Characteristics of Augmented Reality between reality objects and virtual objects followed by the
AR overlaps virtual information with reality, whereas VR user view (Henrysson, 2007). Until the mid-2000s, AR stud-
provides three-dimensional (3D) images based on computer ies remained limited to R&D and trial applications. However,
information. Thus, AR provides a greater sense of realism the appearance of smartphones with highly efficient cameras,
than VR can. Studies on AR began after Ivan Sutherland pub- graphic-processing capabilities, wireless communication func-
lished his 1968 article “A Head-Mounted Three Dimensional tion, and GPS elevated the importance of AR studies (Föckler,
Display.” The term “augmented reality” is reputed to have been Zeidler, Brombach, Bruns, & Bimber, 2005; Miyashita et al.,
used for the first time in the early 1990s by Tom Caudell at 2008; Morrison et al., 2009; Nassar & Meawad, 2010).
Boeing in his system development research of wire assembly
work for flight manufacturers (Caudell & Mizell, 1992).
When comparing the concept of VR to the concept of Augmented Reality in a Mobile Environment
AR, AR is closer to reality because VR can only offer vir- There is no commonly used formal definition for mobile AR.
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tual information to users. There have been many arguments In earlier studies, an AR system referred to a system constructed
for and against the efficiency of AR. In 1994, Paul Milgram on a laptop-based system that provided mobility to users. Later,
differentiated reality from virtuality. He divided AR from aug- the definition expanded to a system constructed on a handheld
mented virtuality (AV) between virtuality and reality. Milgram device. Nowadays the definition of mobile AR has expanded
and Kishino (1994) distinguished “virtuality,” “reality,” and to include other mobile devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, and
“in the middle of virtuality and reality” by using the term the other devices) that have AR systems (Jeon & Lee, 2011).
“reality–virtuality continuum” (Milgram & Colquhoun, 1999; AR services provided in the mobile environment can be
Milgram & Kishino, 1994; see Figure 1). Since then, AR has classified based on their object-tracking methods as similar,
been recognized as an independent field of study.According to marker-based, and vision-based AR methods (Shin, Oh, Suh, &
the concept of the reality–virtuality continuum, users recognize Woo, 2010). The similar AR method identifies augmented loca-
less and less information in reality as they get closer to virtual- tions and visualizes relevant contents by using the sensors of
ity. Mixed reality (MR), which is between virtuality and reality, a mobile device such as GPS or a digital compass. This is
can be roughly divided into two categories: AR and AV. AV is the most common method, because smartphones are usually
distinguished from AR by the fact that insertion and background equipped with digital sensors. The origin of mobile similar
in AV is reflected by the computer-generated environment. AR is MARS (Mobile Augmented Reality System). MARS is
In 1997, Ronald Azuma published a survey on AR and he a mobile tour guide AR service system that provides a vari-
defined AR in 2001 as follows: “An AR system supplements ety of information based on the users’ location and direction
the real world with virtual (computer-generated) objects that through a Head-Mounted Display (Höllerer, Feiner, Terauchi,
appear to coexist in the same space as the real world” (p. 34). Rashid, & Hallaway, 1999). Marker-based AR methods aug-
He also defined three representative properties of AR: the neces- ment digital information by identifying objects and locations
sity of combination between reality and virtuality, the necessity using markers associated with the objects to be recognized by
of interaction in real time, and the necessity of observing the the camera in a mobile device. A disadvantage of marker-based
real world in 3D. To date, the definition of AR by Milgram AR is that the marker cannot be recognized by other sensors
and Azuma is accepted by many researchers and is the most such as digital compasses or GPS. Invisible-marker-based AR
important standard for AR. such as that using infrared marker has been studied as a sup-
The concept of AR can be applied to many fields, but most plement to current marker-based AR problems (Park & Park,
research has focused on human eyesight. Through AR systems, 2010). Vision-based AR methods are ways to augment digital
FIG. 1. Reality–Virtuality Continuum (modified from Milgram & Kishino, 1994; 1999) (color figure available online).
USABILITY FOR AUGMENTED REALITY APPLICATIONS 503
information by identifying the properties of objects and track- insufficient training regarding how to evaluate AR experiences,
ing them after identification. These methods have the advantage how to design experiments, how to select and apply proper
of being able to track objects by recognizing them without a methods, and how to analyze the results from experiments.
marker but have the disadvantage of being difficult to imple-
ment because they require real-time image processing and
augmentation. Usability Features of Augmented Reality Applications
Smartphone AR applications are used in providing location- We studied existing research on AR applications and cat-
based services (LBS), which make use of the location infor- egorized existing problems into four different categories. The
mation of the mobile device. Virrantaus et al. (2001) defined studies reviewed involved smartphone AR applications, which
LBS as “services accessible with mobile devices through the provide services based on users’ location information and the
mobile network and utilizing the ability to make use of the usability problems of these applications.
location of the terminals” (p. 66). These characteristics of Augmented reality interacting with a small display device.
smartphone AR applications have some limitations. In the There have been many studies regarding improving usability
marker-based AR method, the marker should be installed addi- while reading and interacting with small-display devices (Jones,
tionally. In the vision-based AR method, there are some tech- 2006). Gabbard and Swan Ii (2008) performed user tests on
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nical limitations such as real-time video processing and object information expression for implementing AR in a mobile envi-
recognition. ronment. They observed problems due to the small size of the
One of the currently best-known applications is called Layer. displays on mobile devices. They found that in the expression
This application provides LBS through smartphones and is of information over reality, a small display gives too much
used worldwide in iPhones and Android phones. This applica- information compared with the small size (Gabbard & Swan
tion augments digital contents related to camera images using Ii, 2008). To implement AR, actual reality and the augmented
location and direction information (Shin et al., 2010; Vaughan- digital contents should be expressed on the display. There exists
Nichols, 2009). Each layer refers to a function such as allowing the possibility that AR may be too complex for current mobile
users to search for a coffee shop nearby. It also allows users to devices because the interface might have too many contents and
create custom layers and share them with other users. menus to manipulate.
Multimodal interface. AR is closely related to tangible user
interfaces (TUIs) while still maintaining properties of a graphic
2.2. Usability of Augmented Reality Applications user interface (GUI) for the purpose of information searching
Related Studies and transmission (Nilsson & Johansson, 2006). For users to use
Swan and Gabbard (2005) compiled usability research on AR applications on their smartphones, they will need to acquire
AR and found that only 14.3% (38 papers out of 266) mentioned reality information and track objects with their smartphone
user-centered design in the perspective on human–computer cameras to obtain images. Therefore, consideration of various
interaction (HCI) and only 7.9% (21 papers out of 266) had user interfaces, including GUI and TUI, will be necessary.
conducted experiments in terms of general-use users (Swan & Limited manipulation. According to Henrysson (2007), the
Gabbard, 2005). Swan and Gabbard categorized user-centered typically studied AR methods have distinguishing features.
experiments related to AR into three categories. The first cat- Virtual information in these AR systems could be manipu-
egory included experiments of which the main purpose was lated with both hands with the use of a head-mounted display.
to understand the recognition and perception of users’ AR However, in a smartphone environment, one hand is required for
operations. The second category of experiments was those mea- holding the device and the other hand is used for manipulating
suring the task performance of users during use of specific the display (Henrysson, 2007). Therefore, it will be necessary to
AR applications. The last category of experiments included develop new interaction methods for mobile devices that make
those seeking to interact and communicate with AR users. use of one-handed manipulation.
They pointed out that there is a lack of research regarding User on the go. In the process of conducting tasks such as
user interface and interaction from a user-centeric point of searching for directions, users’ recognition and attention could
view. They also pointed out the necessity for additional studies be dispersed because of the properties of location-based ser-
regarding AR. vices described by Chincholle et al. (2002) as “user on the
Dünser expanded on Swan and Gabbard’s work even fur- go” properties. They also studied how smartphones can pro-
ther. He examined the AR-related studies that had been done vide location-based services, and pointed out that mobile users
up until 2007 (Dünser et al., 2008). Only 10% of 161 stud- do not have sufficient patience to learn new operating systems
ies had conducted user-performed AR experiments. This review (Chincholle et al., 2002). Location-based services should not
also found that there were only 41 studies on actual usability, obstruct the ongoing tasks (e.g., driving, walking, etc.) of users.
excluding studies on recognition and perception point of view During these activities, time is an extremely important factor to
and performance. The authors pointed out that the lack of the user. Therefore, the manipulation of location-based services
studies regarding the AR user experience has led to there being should be simple.
504 S. M. KO ET AL.
3. DEVELOPMENT OF USABILITY PRINCIPLES FOR applications as discussed in section 2.2. To do so, we collected
AUGMENTED REALITY APPLICATION usability principles by reviewing and analyzing existing studies
In this study we developed usability principles for in order to develop suitable usability principles.
smartphone AR application and conducted a heuristic eval- The purpose of this study is to develop suitable usability
uation to identify usability problems. Then, we developed a principles for smartphone AR application services based on
prototype and conducted a usability testing to validate the users’ location information. We collected existing usability
effects of usability principles. The research framework of this principles from the studies of Atkinson, Bennett, Bahr, and
study is illustrated in Figure 2. The research framework can be Nelson (2007); Dünser, Grasset, Seichter, and Billinghurst
divided into two phases. (2007); Gong and Tarasewich (2004); and Kim et al. (2007).
In Phase 1, we collected usability principles through the lit- See Table 1. Atkinson et al. (2007) reorganized the heuristic
erature review and conducted an expert meeting to discuss the evaluation methods of four authoritative researchers (Nielsen,
collected usability principles. Next, we classified usability prin- Shneiderman, Tognazzini, and Tufte) and developed a mul-
ciples through the principle component analysis. In Phase 2, we tiple heuristics evaluation table. They identified overlap and
conducted heuristic evaluation of smartphone AR applications combined conceptually related concepts in order to simplify a
using the classified usability principles developed in Phase 1. comprehensive set of heuristics. We considered this study as
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Then, we implemented an improved prototype of a smartphone an adequate preliminary study of heuristic evaluation involv-
AR application, which later was conducted a usability testing. ing smartphone AR and usability principles. In our study, we
selected 12 usability principles, including software–user inter-
action, learnability, and cognition facilitation (Atkinson et al.,
3.1. Usability Principles for Augmented Reality 2007).
Application Dünser et al. (2007) investigated general HCI principles
In this study, we present principles for new forms of usability related to AR application design. They found that AR-related
evaluation by considering the properties of smartphone AR studies have been primarily technology driven and may focus
TABLE 1
Collected Usability Principles
References Usability Principles
Atkinson et al. (2007) Cognition facilitation, Consistency, Defaults, Error management, Graphic design, Help and
documentation, Learnability, Navigation and exiting, Software-user interaction, System-real
world match, System-software interaction, User control and software flexibility
Dünser et al. (2007) Affordance, Error tolerance, Flexibility in use, Learnability, Low physical effort, Reducing
cognitive overhead, Responsiveness and feedback, User satisfaction
Gong and Tarasewich Allow for personalization, Consistency, Design dialogs to yield closure, Design for “top-down”
(2004) interaction, Design for enjoyment, Design for limited and split attention, Design for multimodal
interfaces, Design for multiple and dynamic contexts, Design for speed and recovery, Enable
frequent users to use shortcuts, Error prevention and simple error handling, Offer informative
feedback, Reduce short-term memory load, Reversal of actions, Support internal locus of control
Kim et al. (2007) Accuracy, Arrangement, Attractiveness, Consistency, Controllability, Direct manipulation,
Durability, Ease, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Error indication, Familiarity, Feedback, Graspability,
Learnability, Match between system and real world, Pleasantness, Predictability, Prevention,
Safety, Simplicity, Size, Subject satisfaction, Tolerance principle, User control
USABILITY FOR AUGMENTED REALITY APPLICATIONS 505
TABLE 3
Results Obtained From a Principal Component Analysis With
Varimax Rotation
Factors
Principles 1 2 3 4 5
Multimodality .884
Enjoyment .819
Familiarity .817
Visibility .789
Hierarchy .681
Defaults .619
Recognition .905
Predictability .886
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Learnability .880
Consistency .853
Error management .870
Help and .853
documentation
User control .744 FIG. 3. Structured usability principles.
Personalization .652
Feedback .925 element follows established usability principles (Nielsen &
Direct manipulation .707 Mack, 1994). There are some studies that validate effectiveness
Responsiveness .701 of heuristic evaluation, organize usability principle, and con-
Low physical effort .282∗ duct a heuristic evaluation with experts to suggest applicability
Context based .822 on the result of the study (Desurvire, Caplan, & Toth, 2004;
Exiting .816 Hvannberg, Law, & Lárusdóttir, 2007; Kostaras & Xenos, 2007;
Navigation .603 Kurniawan & Zaphiris, 2005; Sutcliffe & Gault, 2004; Tan,
Availability .603 Liu, & Bishu, 2009; Tang, Johnson, Tindall, & Zhang, 2006).
∗
We developed usability principles specialized for the evalu-
Remaining principles after adjustment. ation of smartphone AR applications. As Law and Hvannberg
(2004) pointed out, expertise is required to avoid omitting
The usability principles classification system is shown in problems or having failed deliveries when the usability eval-
Table 4. uation is completed by someone unfamiliar with the process
(Law & Hvannberg, 2004). Therefore, it is necessary to classify
heuristic evaluations using general-use heuristic evaluations.
3.2. Validation for the Developed Usability Principles In this study, we defined evaluations that were found by experts
From the obtained usability principles from this research, we to be “heuristic evaluations.” Usability principles refer to prin-
investigated the usability problem of smartphone AR applica- ciples developed for the evaluation of smartphone AR applica-
tion based on heuristic evaluation. Moreover, we proposed a tions. We also conducted heuristic evaluations of smartphone
prototype by applying improvements from usability problem AR applications using the 22 usability principles developed in
obtained by heuristic evaluation. Then user-based evaluation the previous section.
was conducted to validate the research. The validation of this For the heuristic evaluation, we selected three applications
research was done based on previous research methodology that provide services based on users’ location information.
which mostly conducted heuristic evaluation and user-based These three applications use AR technology now in use in
evaluation of the improvements obtained from the evaluation Korea. The applications have been developed for both Android
(Allen, Currie, Bakken, Patel, & Cimino, 2006; Rau & Liang, and iOS. They are all recently launched, popular applications
2003). in Korea that provide various functions based on users’ location
information. These three applications are free downloads from
Heuristic Evaluation With Developed Usability Principles Android Market (Google Play) or iTunes. They provide search
Heuristic evaluation is a usability inspection method that services, share information, and provide AR functions based on
helps to identify usability problems. This is an informal method search information. Some applications provide SNS functions
that involves usability specialists’ judge where each dialogue such as finding and recommending related people through
USABILITY FOR AUGMENTED REALITY APPLICATIONS 507
TABLE 4
Usability Principles Developed for the Evaluation and for the Development of AR Application
Principles Definition
User-Information Defaults The initial establishment should be operated easily by the users. Also, the
frame designating the input space and the instances related to the form of
input should be provided.
Enjoyment An aesthetic design including colors should be used to provide exciting
experiences to users.
Familiarity Not only familiar metaphors and icons but also user-centered languages
should be used.
Hierarchy If the quantity of information is large, the information should provide a
phased design to the users to make it easier to utilize.
Multi-modality A modality such as sound as well as a visual screen should be provided
when information is provided.
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pattern analysis. They also provide linkage to smartphones properties of popularly used AR applications. We selected three
and social commerce. According to Android Market, these applications for Android and iOS (OVJET, ScanSearch, and
three applications have been downloaded at least 1 million Qook Town).
times and possibly up to 10 million times. This study focused According to previous studies three to five evaluators were
on conducting a heuristic evaluation of the functions and sufficient to find the majority of usability problems (Faulkner,
508 S. M. KO ET AL.
2003; Nielsen & Landauer, 1993). With this in mind, we As a result of heuristic evaluation, we drew 208 prob-
choose seven participants (five male, two female; average age = lems from the three applications. After exclusion of duplicated
29.1) who have used smartphones and had at least 2 years problems, 96 problem lists remained. The importance of each
of work experience in the field of UI design or usability problem was estimated by scoring its seriousness: 3 (serious), 2
evaluation. (normal) and 1 (trivial). The top problems of the applications in
We applied usability principles specialized for smartphone order of importance are as shown in Table 6.
AR environments (domain specific). Experts conducted The three applications had six common problems out of
heuristic evaluation using an evaluation form that included the top ten problems. The six common problems are shown in
the seven attributes suggested by Cockton and Woolrych in Table 7.
2001. Prior to the evaluation, we carried out an orientation so In this study, we presented design guidelines to improve
the experts would understand each usability principle and the the problems analyzed from the experts’ problem lists. These
evaluation form (see Table 5). design guidelines were made based on the cause of the prob-
lems along with context and related usability principles. The
completed guidelines are as in Table 8.
TABLE 5 The purpose of this study was to develop usability principles
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Forms for Organizing the Problems for smartphone AR application properties based on previous
usability-related studies. To accomplish this, we reviewed pre-
1 Divisions of the problem numbers
vious HCI usability studies and smartphone environments. Our
2 Simple explanation of the problems
study also referred to studies that applied previous usability
3 Difficulties expected for the users
principles to mobile devices. To understand the TUI properties
4 Specific problem situations (context)
of AR, we reviewed studies of TUI usability and smartphone
5 Problem factors
GUIs. We developed usability principles that will take on two
6 Usability principles which should be applied
roles in the application development process. One role will
7 Seriousness of problems (serious, normal, trivial)
be to determine the direction of smartphone AR application
TABLE 6
Final Usability Problem Lists and Obtained Measurement of Importance Drawn From Heuristic Evaluation
Applications
TABLE 7
Detailed Information: Common Factors in the Top 10 Problems
The Reason for the Related Usability
Problem Description Expected Difficulties Problem Context Problem Principles
Problem 1 – Shows the duplicated It is difficult for users to When there are more than Providing information Context-based, Error
Duplicated results on the screen. confirm or tab the two results in the same without considering the management, Hierarchy,
expression of hidden information. direction. complexity of Low physical effort,
information information Visibility
Problem 2 – Only limited name Tabbing is required to When the users require Insufficient options or Context-based,
Providing limited information is provided access the essential additional information functions for indicating Personalization,
information when the users see the information and from the search result additional information Visibility
result of searching for difficulties are expected (e.g., distance) (e.g., distance, grade)
positional information. when moving.
Problem 3 – Absence of explanation The users should operate When the users want to Developers used Consistency, Error
Unfamiliar icon and familiarity of icons. the application step by operate the menus or unfamiliar icons or management,
expression step because they don’t functions (such as didn’t consider the Familiarity, Help and
understand the meaning selecting search touching environment documentation,
of icons. category) which doesn’t have the Learnability,
mouse-over function. Navigation,
Recognition, Visibility
509
Problem 4 – The problem of It is difficult for the users When expanding the The application is not Availability,
Expanding the expression and function to expand the searching search range because provided with adequate Context-based,
range of searching supporting the range, find a function, or the users are not icons, functions, Familiarity,
expansion of the operate the function. satisfied with the result. expression methods or Learnability,
searching range. function for expanding Personalization,
searching range Recognition,
Responsiveness,
Visibility,
Problem 5 – Help Misallocation of Help The users have trouble When the users are Contents are insufficient Error management, Help
menu menu and problem of with finding the location curious about or want to or Help menu is located and documentation,
content. of Help menu and try a specific function. in the ‘option’ menu. Hierarchy, Learnability,
comprehending the
contents of it.
Problem 6 – Absence of functions and Menus are tilted on the When user wants to The function of moving or Context-based, Defaults,
One-handed options for one-handed one side. That makes it operate with only one magnifying the menu is Low physical effort,
operation operation. difficult to operate the hand (especially the left not provided. Personalization,
menus and makes the hand) in mobile Visibility
icons too small to environment.
operate.
510 S. M. KO ET AL.
TABLE 8
Guidelines for Improving the Top 10 Problems
No. Problem Guideline
1 Duplicated expression Use an active way of expressing information to obtain hidden information by only
of information operating the camera.
2 Providing limited Provide additional information about what users want from the result of positional search.
information Provide it according to the number of search results or according to the user option.
3 Unfamiliar icon Design the icons with familiarity and consistency based on the analysis of widely used
expression icons. Support the users with a simple explanation about the icons.
4 Expanding the range of The function of expanding searching range on the initial screen should be provided
searching intuitively and should react promptly to user actions. It also has to provide option
storage function about what users want on the range search.
5 Help menu Considering the unfamiliarity of augmented reality, Help menu should be provided with
1 level menu and should be divided into many steps for the users to remember easily.
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6 One-handed operation Location and size of the menus and icons should make one-handed operation possible.
Initial menus and icons should be placed where they are back-camera reachable while
adjusting the location and size of the menus and icons.
development. The other role will be to evaluate the design and aspect: how they express information to users. This prob-
usability of smartphone AR applications. lem occurs when providing too much information on a small
We conducted heuristic evaluations of the three most-used smartphone screen. For the usability testing, we developed a
smartphone AR applications in Korea by applying the devel- user interface improved prototype. This prototype was based on
oped usability principles. As a result we found problems cor- guidelines designed to solve the problem of duplicate informa-
responding with the properties of the AR applications. The tion (Problem 1) and to solve the problem of providing limited
problems we found usually involved operation of the device information (Problem 2).
with one hand or displaying too much information on a small To reduce duplicate information (Problem 1) we designed
screen. We concluded that a lack of systemic and flexible the prototype to not require any additional tapping opera-
information and options for users brought out these problems. tions. We provided bar-shaped duplicate search results as the
We also found a lack of explanation in help menus and a lack of camera spontaneously moves around the center of the screen.
cognitive support for users. We concluded that these problems To improve the problem of providing limited information
occurred because the AR applications were designed based on (Problem 2), we made a distance indicator on the bar as shown
previous application development design principles. in Figure 4. In addition, we provided a distance-indication
setting on the basic search results screen. We provided a man-
ual distance indicator to users so that they can use prototypes
Improving AR Application Prototype With
Heuristic Evaluation Results
We then attempted to validate our smartphone AR appli-
cation usability principles. We developed an improved AR
application prototype of an Android-based smartphone based on
the developed design guidelines in order to conduct a usability
testing. Twenty participants were recruited for this test using
both iOS and Android applications.
Some limitations existed with regard to developing a new
prototype including cost, time, and the proficiency level of
developers with Android SDK. Specialists drew two represen-
tative problems from the heuristic evaluation and developed
an improved prototype to accept the realistic problems previ-
ously shown and to reflect the result of the heuristic evaluation.
Among the common problems of smartphone AR applica-
tions, Problem 1 (duplicated expression of information) and FIG. 4. Distance display function of the prototype (color figure available
Problem 2 (providing limited information) have one common online).
USABILITY FOR AUGMENTED REALITY APPLICATIONS 511
TABLE 9
Applications for the Usability Testing
Operating Screen
Prototype
whenever they want and provide distance information when the service AR application in a mobile environment. To control for
search result is not sufficient (Figure 4). the ordering and learning effects, we designated different search
As shown in Table 9, we selected iOS application A, Android objects for each application. We also designed the number of
application B, and the developed prototype in the environment search results to be similar to make the evaluation fair for both
of Android OS for use in this research. applications.
The questionnaire for the usability testing was divided into
Usability Testing With AR Application Prototype two phases. The first phase of this questionnaire was admin-
istered before the experiment took place. We developed a
There were two types of task scenarios for the participants
pretask questionnaire regarding participants’ personal back-
(see Table 10). Each was designed for Problems 1 and 2, which
grounds with regard to smartphones. The second phase of the
were drawn from the heuristic evaluation. Each scenario design
questionnaire was designed to be asked after processing each
considered frequently used tasks when using the place-based
of two tasks. In this phase, the definitions of usability princi-
ples were established. These usability principles were related
to Problems 1 and 2 and included visibility, personalization,
TABLE 10 context-based, error management, hierarchy, and low physical
Tasks for the Usability Testing effort. We also developed an additional questionnaire composed
Task 1 Search the nearest () from here. Then input text of of eight questions. This questionnaire included two questions
the name and distance. from Lewis’s After Scenario Questionnaire, which should be
Task 2 Find () and make a phone call after confirming the processed after finishing the usability testing scenario (Lewis,
location on the map by using the detailed 1991).
information. The usability testing was conducted by providing a scenario-
based task to the participant. After providing the scenario-based
512 S. M. KO ET AL.
TABLE 11
Results Obtained From the Usability Testing
M of Rating Score (SD)
task to the participant, the test was conducted by observa- principles and total sum, F(2, 38) = 24.93, p < .001, that
tion of and the questionnaire from the participant. Twenty depended on application. No difference was found in the case
people participated in this test. The participants were under- of context based. There were significant differences both on the
graduate students, graduate students, and company employees satisfaction about the usefulness of the task, F(1.56, 29.540) =
(10 male, 10 female; average age = 27.05). These participants 15.777, p < .001, and satisfaction about the elapsed time to
included 12 who had previously used AR applications on their finish the task, F(2, 38) = 27.91, p < .001. After analyzing
smartphone. the effects of sex and possession of smartphones, no meaning-
Each participant was asked to fill out the pretask question- ful main effect was found. The average, standard deviation and
naire on their personal smartphone background after listening to the result of analysis through the Tukey examination of each
the outline and the method of the experiment. The participants question item are presented in Table 11.
were then asked to answer six questions based on the usability As a result of postexamination using the Tukey test, error
principles related to Problems 1 and 2. They were then asked to management and hierarchy appeared to have meaningful differ-
answer eight questions including two questions from the After ences between application B and the prototype using average
Scenario Questionnaire. While conducting this experiment, the scores. However, there was no significant difference between
observer was asked to record the elapsed time and any errors application A and application B or between application A
(Lewis, 1991). and the prototype. This result can be interpreted to mean
The explanation of the experiment required about 10 min that the composition of application B, which is based on an
on average. Progression and response took 5 min each. It took Android environment, is lower than application A or the pro-
about 40 min to finish the entire experiment. Because this was totype, which are both based on the iOS environment. In the
a comparison experiment, we randomly chose the sequence of case of context based, there was no significant difference
the task progression order of application. between application A and application B. In terms of task
time, satisfaction with application B appeared to be higher
than with application A. This result was expected because
Results of Usability Testing there is no function to indicate distance on the search result in
We conducted a repeated analysis of variance to analyze the application A.
results of the questionnaire. The Greenhouse-Geisser method For all the question items except satisfaction about the
was applied to revise the assumption violation of sphericity. elapsed time to complete the task, it appeared that users were
As a result of applying a one-way analysis of variance by using most highly satisfied with the applications in the order of
application as an independent variable, there was a meaningful prototype, application A, and application B. There were signif-
difference in visibility, F(2, 38) = 24.51, p < .001; personal- icant differences between prototype and applications A and B
ization, F(2, 38) = 28.35, p < .001; error management, F(1.53, except from context based, which showed no significant differ-
29.323) = 6.496, p = .007; hierarchy, F(2, 38) = 6.58, p = .004; ence between the three aspects. In addition, difference between
low physical effort, F(2, 38) = 18.17, p < .001, of usability application A and B was not encounter.
USABILITY FOR AUGMENTED REALITY APPLICATIONS 513
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Simulation & Education Conference, 89.
Milgram, P., & Colquhoun, H. (1999). A taxonomy of real and virtual world
Sang Min Ko is a Ph.D. student in the Department of
display integration. Mixed Reality: Merging Real and Virtual Worlds, pp. Information and Industrial Engineering at Yonsei University,
5–30. Korea. His research interests include Haptic Interface,
USABILITY FOR AUGMENTED REALITY APPLICATIONS 515
Multisensory Interaction, Eye-Tracking, and Augmented Yong Gu Ji is an Associate Professor in the Department
Reality. of Information and Industrial Engineering at Yonsei University,
Won Suk Chang received a master’s degree from the where he directs the Interaction Design Laboratory. He received
Department of Information and Industrial Engineering at his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University.
Yonsei University, Korea, in 2011. His research interests His research interests include Usability, Emotional Design,
include Augmented Reality and Mobile Interaction Design. Accessibility, and Elderly in HCI.
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