Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society (한국산학기술학회논문지)

The Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society (한국산학기술학회)
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Exploring User Perceived Usability Characteristics of Applications on Smart Phones: A Grounded Theory Analysis of User Reviews

사용자 관점에서 본 스마트폰 애플리케이션의 특성에 관한 연구

  • 이정우 (연세대학교 정보대학원) ;
  • 임헌혁 (경희대학교 예술디자인대학) ;
  • 김주형 (서일대학교 광고디자인과, (주)아이엘디자인) ;
  • 강선주 (연세대학교 정보대학원) ;
  • 김민선 (협성대학교 유통경영학과)
  • Received : 2012.01.09
  • Accepted : 2012.02.10
  • Published : 2012.02.29
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Abstract

The market penetration of the smart phones has brought significant changes to the related industries. As the mobile phone market as well as the smart phone application market are growing rapidly, competition among small-size application developers has become severe. However, due to the severe competition and expensive market entry costs, the developers argue that it is necessary to develope the applications from the perspective of the users. However, studies on application development from the users' perspectives are still in the early stages and they have not provided various approaches. Therefore, based on the Open Coding method of Ground Theory, this study collected data on applications review from related communities and blogs of Korean web portal sites, and identified indices which users consider important when they use the applications. In addition, we conduct a comparative analysis between those indices by calculating their frequency of exposure. As a result, a total of 30 sub-categories of indicators such as amusement, controllability, versatility and ease of use appeared to be predominant to users and those lower categories were grouped into five categories; sensibility, design, technology, price, and social skills. The results of this study suggest to the application developers the guidelines of user oriented design and development. It can be used to develop the evaluation tool for application usability.

스마트폰의 본격적인 보급은 이후 관련 산업 전반에 큰 변화를 가져왔다. 휴대폰 시장은 물론 스마트폰 애플리케이션 시장 역시 급격하게 성장하며 애플리케이션을 개발하는 소규모 개발사들 간의 경쟁이 심화되고 있다. 그러나 경쟁의 심화와 높은 시장진입 비용으로 인해 애플리케이션 개발사들은 사용자 관점에서의 접근을 바탕으로 한 애플리케이션 자체의 품질제고가 필요하다는 주장을 제기하고 있다. 그러나 스마트폰 애플리케이션 사용자 관점에 대한 연구는 아직 초기단계로 다양한 접근에서 이루어지지 못한 실정이다. 이에 따라 본 연구에서는 근거이론의 개방형 코딩방법에 따라 국내 포털사이트의 관련 커뮤니티와 블로그를 대상으로 애플리케이션에 대한 리뷰 데이터 수집을 진행하여 사용자들이 애플리케이션 사용시 중요하게 고려하는 지표들을 도출하였다. 아울러 각 지표들이 노출되는 빈도를 계산하여 지표간의 비교분석을 하였다. 연구결과 사용자들은 애플리케이션 사용시 유희성과 통제가능성, 다양성, 사용용이성 등 총 30개의 하위범주에 속하는 지표들을 중요하게 생각하고 있었으며 하위범주들은 5개의 상위 범주로 분류되었다. 상위범주는 감성, 디자인, 기술, 가격, 사회성의 다섯가지로 구성된다. 본 연구의 결과는 애플리케이션 개발사들에게 사용자 니즈를 바탕으로 개발을 할 수 있는 디자인과 개발의 가이드라인을 제시하고 있으며 추후 심화 연구를 통하여 실제 애플리케이션들의 사용성 평가 도구 개발의 근거로 활용할 수 있을 것이다.

Keywords

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