Navigation menus in Web applications for mobile devices: issues of access and usability

Author(s)

Humberto Lidio Antonelli

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Carlos.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação (ICMC/SB)
• Defense date: 2015-12-21

Examining board members

Renata Pontin de Mattos Fortes; Ellen Francine Barbosa; Simone Bacellar Leal Ferreira; Luciana Aparecida Martinez Zaina

• Advisor: Renata Pontin de Mattos Fortes

Abstract

The diversity of means to use the Internet, ensured by the growing upcoming of ubiquitous devices such as tablets and smartphones, has promoted research on adaptation of the content that used to be mostly targeted only to desktop platform into this new context now known as the mobile devices. Some of the elements such as the menus are designed to facilitate the usage of the website once they help at finding and using the information that the user looks for. However, most of the menus available on websites do not apply the mobile devices, nor provide users with interaction, which nearly disables the interaction with the mentioned devices. There yet must be added the profile diversity of the web content users. Some of these users, such as elderly people, find limitations that tend to hamper their access to web content on the mobile devices, once aging commonly represents both physical (visual, hearing and motor abilities) and cognitive (attention, memory and reasoning issues) impairment that directly interferes on the usage of the computing devices that do not portray adjustments to such audience profile. This paper aims at investigating the issues related to the adaptation of web contents into the mobile devices. We focused on the menus in order to reduce or eliminate the limitations elderly people could find while using the mobile devices. We initially analyzed different patterns and structure of menus, as well as the guidelines upon accessibility and usability involved in the menus designing process. Based on this analysis, we developed a metamodel that originated the AMenu language, in which all technical data upon accessibility and usability involved in the menus designing process was included. Then, we developed the AMeG tool in order to assess the language created under the development perspective. Based on this assessment, we developed of an adaption mechanism that uses the AMenu language to generate menus adapted to the mobile devices. We then run a study case with elderly people in order to assess the menus generated by the mechanism, based on the comparison with the original ones. The results demonstrated that the participants had a better performance in the interaction while using the menus generated by the mechanism rather than the original ones, since they spent 54% less time performing tasks and made 82% less mistakes compared to the original menus. We also verified a quitting average of 33% among the participants while performing the assigned tasks using the original menus. On the other hand, the results point out that all participants responded better to the approach developed in this study as they all managed to successfully finish all the assigned tasks. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/23966-8 - Navigation menus in Web applications for mobile devices: issues of access and usability
• Grantee: Humberto Lidio Antonelli
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master