Comparing the Usability of M-Business and M-Government Software in Saudi Arabia

This study presents a usability assessment of mobile presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), with a particular focus on the variance between M-business and Mgovernment presence. In fact, a general hypothesis was developed that M-business software is more usable than M-government software, with eleven sub-hypotheses derived from Nielsen’s heuristics method. To examine the hypotheses, a true representative sample of thirty-six (n=36) mobile software applications in Saudi Arabia were identified from prior research, representing two main categories: M-business and Mgovernment. Within each category, eighteen (n=18) mobile software applications were carefully chosen for further evaluation, representing a wide variety of sectors. A questionnaire was devised based on Nielsen’s heuristics method; this was tailored to fit the context at hand (mobile computing) to establish a usability checklist (consisting of eleven constructs). A group of thirty-six (n=36) participants were recruited to complete the usability assessment of examining each software application against the usability checklist, by rating each item using a Likert scale. The results herein reveal that mobile interactions in KSA were, in general, of an acceptable design quality with respect to usability aspects. The average percentage score for all heuristics met by the evaluated mobile software applications was 68.6%, this reflected how well the usability practices in mobile presence were implemented. The scores for all usability components exceeded 60%, with five components being below the average score (of 68.6%) and six components being above it. The variance between M-business and M-government software usability was significant, particularly in favor of M-business. In fact, the general hypothesis was accepted as well as seven other subhypotheses, as only four sub-hypotheses were rejected. Keywords—Usability; interaction; heuristics; interface; mobile; Saudi Arabia