Man Machine System Application: Final individual Report

by: Ilma Mufidah (D10401801)

 

INTRODUCTION

Recently, email becomes important part of people daily life. It is even very important for academics who mostly spent their life in university or other educational environment. As one among five best universities in Taiwan, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology uses its self-developed webmail service to connect its stakeholder. Its email service is known as NTUST webmail. Unfortunately, this email uses old platform and even uses chinese as its main language. In the other hand, NTUST has many international students. Thus, the recent webmail platform and language is questioned in terms of its usability, especially for International student who mostly can not speak chinese. Thus, NTUST webmail service needs to be investigated in terms of its usability to be used effectively and efficiently.

Gmail is one most widely used email based on the data obtained from google trend (2016). It is even exceed the use of ymail and Hotmail which previously reach the highest email usage among many available email services, starts from march 2016. Thus, Gmail can be one good model for current email service, to be compared with NTUST email. In this case, the gmail is expected to be able to describe what is the lack things could be found in NTUST webmail, to increase its usability.

As technology becomes more and more advance, people needs more than just “static” email. Mobile email become widely used as the more apps and androids developed out there. As consequences, every email starts to build its mobile version, even as independent apps such as g mail and ymail. Based on the data obtained by Litmund “Email Analytics” (2016) the use of mobile email increases and 67.2 % people use smartphone (phone or android) to open their email. Generally, 48% of emails are opened in mobile devices. 64% decision makers read their email on mobiles. However, only 11% of email templates are optimized for mobile. Thus, the mobile service email version, especially mobile NTUST webmail service and mobile gmail service, needs to be investigated in terms of its usability.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

The objectives of this research are the following:

• Analyze the NTUST email service using Norman’s Seven Fundamental principles of design analysis towards NTUST email service
• Analyze Questionnaire reliability analysis
• Calculating the usability score of NTUST webmail service and Gmail
• Implementing the independent sample t-test to compare NTUST email vs Gmail usability
• Identify the
• Identify the problem based on Norman’s Seven Fundamental principles of design analysis and The comparison of NTUST email service vs Gmail using independent sample t test
• Giving recommendation of the problem previously found

LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Norman’s Seven Fundamental principles of design

In his book, Don Norman (2013) states his seven fundamental design principles consists of seven important things need to be considered in every design process: Discoverability, Feedback, Conceptual model, Affordances, Signifiers, Mappings, Constraints.

2. QUIS

QUIS stands for the Questionnaire for User Interaction Satisfaction (Kirakowski, 1996). It is known as one among some commonly used measures to assess the usability of a system. As its name, it focuses on the interface of the system. It contains of 4 factors: Overall reaction to the software, Screen, Terminology and System Information, Learning, and System Capabilities.

3. Cronbatch alpha

Reliability is one important aspect of a questionnaire. The reliable questionnaire means the questionnaire that is clearly interpretable by the respondent and won’t lead to miss interpretations. “Reliability of instruments is also an important consideration to ensure that the evaluation measure is consistent in the kind of data it gathers and helps investigate the aspects of a program in a stable manner when repeatedly administered”
(Coggshall, 2007) in (Bhatnagar et al, 2014). Cronbach alpha is one of the most commonly reported reliability estimates in the language testing literature (brown, 2002).

4. Independent Sample t test

The independent sample t test will be used to assess the difference between NTUST email service and gmail. The independent sample t test is expected to compare two independent group means, to see whether the compared group means is significantly different (Bergh, 2011)

METHODOLOGY

Firstly, the NTUST email service will be investigated using Norman’s Seven Fundamental principles of design. Thus, the problem will be found based on that analysis.

Secondly. QUIS will be administered to NTUST students to compare the usability of NTUST mobile email service with Gmail service. Then, the usability score of the administered QUIS is calculated and the mean value will be calculated to know the usability score of NTUST webmail service compared to Gmail service.

Thirdly, the t test will be run to see if the usability scores of NTUST webmail is significantly different compared to Gmail usability score.

Last but not least, the recommendation is proposed based on the problem found in Norman’s Seven Fundamental principles of design analysis result and independent sample t test result.

EXPECTED RESULT

The expected results of this research will be the following:

• Norman’s Seven Fundamental principles of design analysis towards NTUST email service
• Questionnaire reliability analysis
• The usability score of NTUST webmail service
• The usability score of Gmail
• The comparison of NTUST email usability vs Gmail usability using independent sample t test
• Problem identification based on Norman’s Seven Fundamental principles of design analysis and The comparison of NTUST email service vs Gmail using independent sample t test
• Recommendation of the problem previously found

REFERENCES

• Bergh, M., 2011. An evaluation of the safety climate at AkzoNobel Site Stenungsund. Master of Science Thesis [online].
• Bhatnagar, R., Kim, J., & Many, J. E. (2014). Candidate surveys on program evaluation: Examining Instrument reliability, validity and program effectiveness.American Journal of Educational Research, 2(8), 683-690.
• Brown, 2002 “ Shiken:JALT Testing & Evaluation SIG Newsletter” Vol. 6 No. 1. Feb. 2002. (p. 17 – 19)
• http://seopressor.com/blog/10-effective-ways-to-improve-email-click-through-rate
• http://www.emailmonday.com/mobile-email-usage-statistics
• https://www.google.co.id/trends/
• Kirakowski, J. (1996) The Use of Questionnaire Methods for Usability Assesment. Retrieved on December 30 2002 from http://www.ucc.ie/hfrg/questionnaires/sumi/sumipapp.htm
• Norman, D. A. (2013). The design of everyday things: Revised and expanded edition. Basic books.
• Available at: http://publications.lib.chalmers.se/records/fulltext/142447.pdf.