A Study on Identifying, Categorizing and Reporting Usability Bugs and Challenges

Abstract

To assess the quality, acceptability and user experience of interactive applications, usability is one of the most integral quality attributes. However, significant number of usability bugs are being experienced by the end users of interactive applications thus creating a gap between users and technology. To bridge this gap and to overcome those usability bugs and challenges, it is significantly important to clearly identify the those usability bugs along with the gaps and challenges causing them. This research study aims to identify the usability bugs being experienced by users of interactive applications and proposes a categorization taxonomy for the identified bugs. Moreover, to reach the cause of emergence of usability bugs, the study attempts to identify and report the usability gaps and challenges in existing usability practices. Furthermore, this study performs a mapping between the identified gaps and challenges in existing practices to that of the recommendations to address the identified gaps. Index Terms—Usability, interactive applications, usability bugs, user experience, user satisfaction, usability testing, user interface.