Assessing the Usability of Personalised-Multilingual AAC 'Mysuara' Mobile Application
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37134/bitara.vol17.sp.7.2024Keywords:
'MySuara', PACMAD, AACUQ. Usability, AACAbstract
The 'MySuara' app is a personalised augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) mobile application designed for Malaysian special education classrooms, offering multilingual support and a unique dual-screen modelling feature to enhance teacher-student communication. Besides, it allows the customisation of symbol sets to meet individual student needs, providing a personalised solution for teachers and caregivers. This study aims to assess the usability of the 'MySuara' mobile app using a developed questionnaire, as usability is quantifiable and crucial for user satisfaction. Conducting such evaluations can unveil flaws in the system and reveal user demands, which is vital for successful app development. Usability testing is essential during development to ensure high user satisfaction and successful app usage. However, limited usability models exist for assessing mobile application features. Therefore, 'MySuara' was evaluated using a questionnaire developed based on the Mobile Learning Application Usability model and the People at the Centre of Mobile Application Development (PACMAD) model. Two questionnaires adapted from Parsazadeh et al. (2018) and Marcial et al. (2018), were combined to create the augmentative and alternative communication usability questionnaire (AACUQ) for 'MySuara' app. The PACMAD was deemed the most suitable for evaluating 'MySuara' due to its tailored focus on mobile application usability, encompassing attributes identified as crucial factors impacting usability. The AACUQ usability questionnaire comprised eight attributes: effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, learnability, memorability, error handling, cognitive load, and timeliness. Permissions were secured from the authors before integrating the questionnaires, with adjustments made by removing unsuitable items and modifying others. The AACUQ, comprising 40 items on a five-point Likert scale, was administered via Google Forms, including a consent form, demographic section, and questionnaire for participant response. Fourteen participants, 12 special education teachers and two speech therapists, voluntarily participated in the survey. Data collection occurred after participants tested the 'MySuara' app. Overall, participants expressed satisfaction with the app, with mean values for each attribute above average. The study discusses limitations and implications, concluding 'MySuara' is suitable for its intended purpose.
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Copyright (c) 2024 Kalaimathi Rajagopal, Low Hui Min , Siti Mastura Baharudin
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