The Factor Usability on Location Based Services in the Retail Environment

The Factor Usability on Location Based Services in the Retail Environment

GBC, Opatija 03.10.2013 Roxane Koitz 1

Graz University of Technology

Institute of Business Economics and Industrial Sociology Head of Institute O. Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Ulrich Bauer

www.bwl.tugraz.at

The Factor Usability on Location Based Services in the Retail

EnvironmentRoxane Koitz

Iris Uitz

Global Business Conference Summer 2013Opatija, Croatia



Agenda

• Theory Location Based Services



Initial Situation

Swiss Retailer• Mobile Applications

• Shopping Lists• Nearest Store • Customer Loyalty Program

• Improve Experience with Location Based Services (LBS)

Location Based Services• User Location• Types:1

• Information-directory Services• Tracking and Navigation Services• Emergency Services• Location Based Advertising

• GPS, WiFi/ Bluetooth, Inertial System 1

Dhar, S.; Varshney, U. (2011)



Consumer Technology Acceptance Model2

2 BRUNER II, G.C.; KUMAR, A. (2005), S.554.



Usability Testing“A process that employs people as testing participants who are representative of the target

audience to evaluate the degree to which a product meets specific usability criteria.” 5

• Task List• 10 to 12 Participants• Preference / Performance Data• Usability Issues

• Criticality = Problem Severity + Frequency of Occurance

• Automated Remote Usability Test5 RUBIN, J.; CHISNELL, D.; SPOOL, J. (2008), S.21.

Ranking Problem Severity Frequency of Occurance4 Task failure ≥90%3 Serious problem 51–89%2 Minor hindrance 11–50%1 No problem <= 10%



aisle411

• Goal: • Remote Usability Test of LBS-App aisle4116

• Participants: • Pilot Study• 28 Smartphone User(Android, iOS) • Within the US

• Test Environment:• Walgreens Stores

• Data Collection:• Online Survey

6 aisle411.com



TasksTask ID

Task 1 Download the application to your smartphone

Task 2 Create a new shopping list (Aspirin, Water, Sugar, *)

Task 3 Find a Walgreens near you

Task 4 Navigate to Aspirin („Check-in“, Show Map, Tick off Aspirin)

Task 5 Scan the Barcode



Data Collection

Online Survey:

• General• Age• Education• Gender• …

• Tasks• Completion• Comprehensibility• Errors• Commentsund• Task Specific Questions

• System Usability Scale (SUS) 7

• Complexity• Ease of Use• Consistency• …

7 Brooke, J. (1996)



Participants

No schooling com-pleted, or less than 1

year

High school graduate (or equivalent)

Some college (1-4 years, no degree)

Bachelor's degree Master's degree Doctorate degree 0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Participants

femalemale

n = 28

15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-440

2

4

6

8

10

12

Age (in Years)

n = 28



Results

Task 1_x000d_(Download)

Task 2_x000d_(Shopping

List)

Task 3_x000d_(Walgreens

Store)

Task 4_x000d_(Navigation

Aspirin)

Task 5_x000d_(Barcode)

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

100% 100% 96% 96% 93%

4% 4% 7%

Task Completion

Completed Not Completedn = 28

ID Description Criticality

T5.1 Barcodescanner icon unclear. 6

T2.1 Creation of shopping list confusing. 5

T4.1 Aspirin Location incorrect. 5

T2.3 Buttons are not responding. 4

T3.1 Store Location incorrect. 4

T4.2 Several locations for same product. 3

T2.2 Brands not included in database. 3



“The app aisle411 was intuitive concerning…“

Strongly Agree - 1 2 3 4 Strongly Disagree - 5

-10%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Task 2Task 3Task 4Task 5



System Usability Scale1 2 3 4 5

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Strongly Agree Strongly Disagree



Conclusion

LBS in Retail:• Easy enough• Core Functionalities Comprehensive

• Shopping List• Navigation

• Accuracy of Navigation• Icons

Future Research: • Usability Test Prototype • FUN



Graz University of Technology

Institute of Business Economics and Industrial Sociology Head of Institute O. Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Ulrich Bauer

www.bwl.tugraz.at

Thank You




Location Based ServicesMethods:• Global Positioning System (GPS)• Mobile Network• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)• Wireless Local Area Networks • Bluetooth

Indoor:• Inertial System• Infrastructure

(z.B. HAIP8)

8 http://geta.aalto.fi/ (15.12.2012)

http://geta.aalto.fi/





Additional Participant Comments• Ticking off of products unclear

• No real navigation

• Device‘s position not shown

• Automatic ticking off

• More detailed product position within aisle

• Rearrangement of shopping list according to products’ positions

• Product’s photo

• Asking an employee easier



Mobile Marketing

“A whole generation of consumers is online and moving to mobile – that is how they receive their information, that’s how they get their product information, that’s where they get their offers.”9 - Bruce Pryor, Vizepräsident des Marketings bei Zavers

Location Based Advertising:10

• Pull Advertising• Push Advertising

• Applications:11

• Location Triggered Notifications• Location Branded Application• Check-in Based Contests and Games

9 GOLDMAN, S. (2010), S.470.10 UNNI, R.; HARMON, R. (2007), S.30.11 MOBILE MARKETING ASSOCIATION (2011), S.6.



Remote Usability Testing

Moderated Remote UT

Automated Remote UT

FIDAS, C. et al. (2007), S.154f.