HCC: Small: Contextualized and Automated Usability Testing for Mobile Applications

本研究的目的是通过集成情境化和自动化技术来推进移动应用程序的可用性测试。与传统的桌面环境不同，移动用户体验在很大程度上依赖于受用户环境（如物理位置、交通方式、社会环境和任务意图）的影响。这个项目的新颖之处在于一个基于模型的可用性测试方法，它定量地集成了用户上下文。预期结果包括：1)通过联合建模用户认知、应用状态和用户上下文，建立一个新的自动化可用性分析框架，提高日记研究的有效性；2)为移动应用开发的一套可操作的可用性规则；3)基于仿真的自动化可用性检查开发工具包。该项目解决了一个新兴的研究主题和一个紧迫的实际可用性问题，并有望产生技术解决方案以及教育材料。该项目解决了快速增长的移动应用行业的实际需求。软件工件将通过开源技术转移提供给研究社区和行业从业者，这可以显著降低移动可用性测试的成本。拟议的研究将与PI教授的三个新课程模块相结合。将招收妇女和少数民族学生参加研究和教育活动。所有的课程材料都将在网上提供。

The objective of this research is to advance usability testing of mobile applications by integrating contextualized and automated techniques. Unlike the traditional desktop environment, mobile user experience is heavily influenced by user context such as physical location, transport mode, social surroundings, and task intention. The novelty of this project is a model-based usability testing approach that quantitatively integrates user context. The expected outcomes include: 1) a new framework of automated usability analysis to improve the effectiveness of diary studies by jointly modeling user cognition, application state, and user context; 2) a set of operationalized usability rules developed for mobile applications; and 3) a simulation-based development toolkit for automated usability inspection. This project addresses an emerging research theme and an urgent practical usability problem, and is expected to produce technology solutions as well as educational materials.This project addresses a practical need of the fast-growing mobile application industry. The software artifacts will be made available to both research communities and industry practitioners through open source technology transfer, which can significantly reduce the cost of mobile usability testing. The proposed research will be integrated with three new course modules taught by PI. Women and minority students will be recruited to participate both research and education activities. All the course materials will be made available online.