Usability Study for
Social Networking Site Interface
Yugowati Praharsi1,2 , Nguyen Thi Bich Thu1, Chiuhsiang Joe Lin3, Hui Ming Wee1* 1
Department of Industrial & System Engineering Chung Yuan Christian University
Chungli (32023), Taiwan 2
Department of Information Technology Satya Wacana Christian University
Salatiga (50711), Indonesia 3
Department of Industrial Management
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology Taipei (106), Taiwan
*weehm@cycu.edu.tw
Abstract
Social networking site (SNS) has received increasing attention among people over the world to connecting and sharing knowledge. Traditional social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook and Friendster are famous for their graphical user interface and ease of sharing knowledge with others in a prompt manner. However, there is no study to investigate the usability of SNSs
interface from the user’s perspective, so that the
interface design can be evaluated whether they satisfy users. To resolve this research issue, this paper adopts
eight functions such as “upload photo”, “look for and add friends”, “edit profile”, “compose new message”, “give a gift to friends”, “confirm invitations”, “write a comment”, and “change the avatar picture”. We conduct
the study under null hypothesis that there is no difference for both SNSs. As a result, we discover that
the function of “upload photo” is quite easy to
understand, quite easy to find the feedback, in normal font size, and the most needed function followed by
function “look for and add friends”. Meanwhile, function “edit profile” was rated as quite easy to execute and
quite easy to see its feedback as well as to “write a comment”.
Keywords- social networking site, usability
1.
INTRODUCTION
Social networking sites (SNSs) have been recognized as an important factor for enriching knowledge or just for sharing pleasure. SNSs are commonly used as an online social networking (OSN). The existence of ethical culture in the OSN encourages users to have stronger
sense of belonging to the SNSs. If users have strong social ties with other users in the SNSs, they will actively share and contribute their knowledge (Chai and Kim, 2011).
SNS facilitate the online community of internet users to share their common interests, hobbies, special events, or politics views (Souza and Dick, 2009). This socialization may include uploading photos, reading the profile pages or notes of other members, and even contacting them. Encouragement to accept social network service for individual is caused by perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, and social presence (Kwon and Wen, 2010, Park and Lee, 2010). A social network service essentially consists of representation of users, usually in the user profile, user social links, and variety of additional services. The main types of social networking services contain category divisions such as former school—year or classmates, work place, and activities or interests.
Several well known SNS’s are Friendster, Multiply,
Facebook and Twitter, which are being the most widely used in Asia. Facebook is popular among college students followed by Friendster (Hoadley et al., 2010, Souza and Dick, 2009). This study aims to investigate the usability of Facebook (Fb) and Friendster (Fs) interfaces under null hypothesis that there is no difference for both SNSs, so that the interface design can be evaluated whether they satisfy users.
2. BACKGROUND
Most of the SNSs design are too intricate, too many variables, and slow improvements. In designing the interface, the designers should think and act like typical user. The major problem in designing an interface is that the designers are so expert in using the software application they have designed; therefore they did not realize that anybody else might have problems for using it.
Communication process represents how designers interpret the product. Designers have to define anything that is contained in their products which users sometimes do not understand (Crilly et al., 2008). Design might be set by aesthetics or usability. If a design is set by aesthetics, it can have fantastic appearance but less comfortable. However, if a design is set by usability, it might be comfortable to use but less attractive. An example temptation for designer is creeping featurism. Creeping featurism is the tendency to add the number of features/functions. Whereas, there is no way that a software application can remain usable and understandable by the time it has all of those special functions and also, each new set of functions adds immeasurably to the size and complexity of the system. Complexity may increase as a square, triple, or quadruple of its features/functions. To overcome this featurism problem, only allow functions that are absolutely necessary and organize this functions to lessen complexities (Norman, 1990).
This study uses the descriptive theory developed by Foley et al. and the cycle of action and evaluation presented by Norman to investigate the usability of social networking sites (SNSs) interface.
An approach in descriptive theory is separating concepts according to levels. There are four-levels of descriptive theory (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 2005):
Conceptual level: This level is the psychological aspect of the user in an interactive application system.
Semantic level: This level describes the meaning of input conveyed by the user and the output of computer.
Syntactic level: This level observes the user actions that convey semantics into the computer instruction to perform certain tasks.
Lexical level: This level is associated with the device dependencies and with the precise mechanisms on how the users specify the syntax.
The approach is easy to explain, compatible with the software architecture, and allows for useful modularity during design. Therefore, the approach is off-troublesome for designersbecause it moves from the top (conceptual level) to down (lexical level) level.
Norman has another approach related to the usability study in the context of cycles of action and evaluation. His approach distinguished from the other models, mainly be associated with the user knowledge. The approach is gulf of execution (overcome the mismatch
between the user’s intentions and the allowable actions)
and gulf of evaluation (overcome the mismatch between
the system’s representation and the user’s expectations)
(Shneiderman and Plaisant, 2005).
3. METHOD
The main purpose of this research is to investigate how the usability of Facebook and Friendster is perceived by user with the four levels of descriptive
theories, Norman’s cycles of action and evaluation, and
design concept as communication. There are eight functions that are investigated, such as “upload photo”,
“look for and add friends”, “edit profile”, “compose new message”, “give a gift to friends”, “confirm invitations”, “write a comment”, and “change the avatar picture”.
From this, six questions were developed.
RQ1: What kind of functions is useful for you (Conceptual level)?
RQ2: How do you understand the meaning of each function (Semantic level)?
RQ3: How do you understand the meaning of these symbols/icons (Syntax level)?
RQ4: What is your opinion about the font size, color, and layout design (Lexical level)?
RQ5: How do you execute these functions (Gulf of execution)?
RQ6: How does the function give feedback (Gulf of evaluation)?
3.1. Demographics
The study has been conducted using 19 respondents consisting of 14 males and 5 females. The participants are International students of Chung Yuan Christian University (CYCU) ranging from 20 to 40 years old. All participants have already experienced using Facebook and Friendster. Figure 1 shows the number of respondents in using both SNSs.
Figure 1. The number of respondents for Facebook
and Friendster
Figure 2. Working experience using Facebook and Friendster
Figure 2 presents that most respondents have used Facebook and Friendster for more than 1 year (number 5 in x-axis).Moreover, 1-4 axes show that the respondents have used SNSs for less than 1 month, 1-3 months, 3-6 months, and 6 months-1 year, respectively.
3.2. Procedures
The study used subjective questionnaires associated with eight functions of both SNSs. The detailed dependent and independent variables are shown in Table 1.
As can be seen from Table 1, the independent variable is derived into factors and levels. The first factor is type of software application consisting of Facebook (Fb) and Friendster (Fs). The second factor is functions in both SNSs consisting of eight tasks.
3.3 Statistical Test
Two sided t-test was used to analyze the usability of Facebook and Friendster. The hypotheses are:
H0 : µ1 - µ2 = 0 (there is no difference usability in both SNSs)
H1 : µ1 - µ2 ≠ 0 (there is a difference usability in both SNSs)
In hypothesis testing, if the p-value (or Sig.) < α = 0.05, then we reject the null hypothesis H0 (95% confidence).
Table 1. Dependent and Independent Variable
4. NUMERICAL EXAMPLE
4.1 Four Level of Descriptive Theory
Table 2 shows the perception of the respondent according to the usefulness of the eight functions which is a part of conceptual level test with the scale between 0-1. By considering the mean of those two social network sites (SNSs), it can be seen that the two
functions, “upload photos” and “look for and add friends” are the most useful functions because these are
the most needed.
Table 2. Conceptual Level of the Software Application
Order Functions Mean Sig. (2tales)
Fb Fs
1 Upload photos 0.789 0.632 0.083 2 Look for and add
friends
0.947 0.684 0.021
3 Edit profile 0.632 0.421 0.042 4 Send message 0.579 0.368 0.042 5 Give a gift to
friend
0.158 0.053 0.163
6 Confirm
invitations
0.526 0.158 0.005
7 Write comment 0.684 0.421 0.021 8 Change avatar
picture
0.368 0.263 0.331
By p-value > 0.05, it can be inferred that there are no differences between two SNSs in the functions of
“upload photos”, “give a gift to friend”, and “change the avatar picture”. For both SNSs, “upload photos” are
0 5 10 15 20
Facebook Friendster Others
0 5 10 15 20
1 2 3 4 5
Firendster
Dependent
Variables (y)
Independent Variables (x)
Subjective
Question-naires
Factors
Type of software
application (x1)
Functions (x2)
Levels
(Fb)
Friendster
(Fs)
Upload Photos
Look for and add friends
Edit Profile
Compose new message
Give a gift to friends
Confirm invitations
Write a comment
equally useful while “give a gift to friend” and “change
the avatar picture” are equally less useful.
Table 3. Semantic Level of the Software Application
Order Functions Mean Sig. (2tales)
Fb Fs
1 Upload photos 1.632 2.000 0.069 2 Look for and
add friends 1.368 2.105 0.005 3 Edit profile 1.526 1.895 0.031 4 Send message 1.316 1.789 0.008 5 Give a gift to
friend 2.053 2.684 0.024
6 Confirm
invitations 1.474 2.158 0.008 7 Write comment 1.263 2.053 0.002 8 Change avatar
picture 2.211 2.737 0.014
Table 3 shows the semantic level test or how the respondents understand the meaning of each function in the user interface. This helps them to remember steps on executing the function. The participant ability to remember the function is measured from 1 (extremely easy) to 5 (extremely difficult). By looking at p-value > 0.05, it can be inferred that there is no difference in the
function “upload photos” for both SNSs. The
respondents feel quite easy in uploading the photos. Meanwhile, the respondents also perceived quite easy to normal levels for other functions.
Figure 3 presents some icons on Facebook and Friendster applications for those eight functions. In order to test about the syntax level, we asked the participants on how they understand those icons.
Table 4. Syntax Level of the Software Application
Functions Mean Sig.
(2tales)
Fb Fs
Meaning of icons 2.368 3.263 0.003
By looking at the p-value < 0.05 in Table 4, it can be concluded that there is a difference on how the respondents understand the icons.
For testing the lexical level, we observed the users perceived about the font size, color, and layout design of the SNSs. Table 5 shows the result of lexical level test. The participant ability to perceive the function is measured from 1 (extremely terrible) to 5 (extremely wonderful).
Figure 3. Several icons in the Software Application
Table 5. Lexical Level of the Software Application
By looking at p-value > 0.05, it can be concluded that there is no difference on the font size for both SNSs. The font size tends to normal size. Meanwhile, the respondents perceived normal to quite wonderful in color and layout design.
4.2 Norman’s Cycles of Action and Evaluation
In order to know the gulf of execution or the
mismatch between the user’s intentions and the
allowable actions, we investigate the users perceived on how they execute the function. From Table 6, it can be inferred that there is no difference for both SNSs in the
function “edit profile”. Respondents feel quite easy to
execute this function. Meanwhile, the respondents also perceived quite easy to normal at other functions.
x1
x2
Fb Fs
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Order Functions Mean Sig.
(2tales)
Fb Fs
1 Font size
2.684 2.579 0.494
2 Color 3.579 3.263 0.010
3 Layout design
Table 6. Gulf of Execution
Order Functions Mean Sig. (2tales)
Fb Fs
1 Upload photos 1.737 2.211 0.008 2 Look for and
add friends 1.526 2.368 0.002 3 Edit profile 1.895 2.105 0.297 4 Send message 1.421 1.789 0.049 5 Give a gift to
friend 2.579 3.158 0.030
6 Confirm
invitations 1.474 2.579 0.002
7 Write
comment 1.421 2.158 0.005 8 Change avatar
picture 2.263 2.632 0.005
Table 7. Gulf of Evaluation
Order Functions Mean Sig. (2tales)
Fb Fs
1 Upload photos 2.263 2.474 0.360 2 Look for and add
friends 2.158 2.632 0.008 3 Edit profile 1.947 2.053 0.494 4 Send message 1.842 2.263 0.028 5 Give a gift to
friend 2.632 2.737 0.494
6 Confirm
invitations 2.053 2.684 0.055 7 Write comment 2.158 2.368 0.215 8 Change avatar
picture 2.526 2.842 0.111
In order to know the gulf of evaluation or the
mismatch between the system’s representation and the user’s expectations, we observe the participants
perceived about how they could see the feedback after doing execution for each function. By looking at the p-values > 0.05, there are no differences in the functions
“upload photo”, “edit profile”, “give a gift to friend”, “write comment” and “change the avatar picture” for
both SNSs. Respondents feel quite easy to see the
feedback of the function “upload photo”, “edit profile”, and “write a comment”. Meanwhile, the respondents also perceived normal to see the feedback of function “give a gift to friend” and “change the avatar picture”.
5. CONCLUSION
The main goal of this paper was to investigate the usability of Facebook (Fb) and Friendster (Fs) interfaces under null hypothesis that there is no difference for both SNSs, so that the interface design can be evaluated whether they satisfy users. We use the four levels of
descriptive theories, Norman’s cycles of action and evaluation, and design concept as communication to
evaluate the usability. To resolve this research issue, this
paper adopts eight functions such as “upload photo”, “look for and add friends”, “edit profile”, “compose new message”, “give a gift to friends”, “confirm invitations”, “write a comment”, and “change the avatar picture”.
Based on the discussion above, it can be inferred for both SNSs, the respondents are satisfied to the function
of “upload photo” because it is quite easy to understand,
quite easy to find the feedback, in normal font size, and
the most needed function followed by function “look for and add friends”. Meanwhile, function “edit profile” was
rated as quite easy to execute and quite easy to see its feedback as well as to write a comment.
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