Digital literacy is a fundamental human factor to consider when designing digital interfaces for products or services: it should determine the degree of complexity that an interface should have according to the user base, but it shouldn’t be a blocker for innovative design opportunities. In the existing literature many usability and UX principles support design processes with digital literacy in mind, but few of them are able to provide actionable UI solutions and best practices ready to implement: is this enough? Is there room for elaborating a smart process to outline practical UI guidelines for designing with the mindset of users with low digital literacy in mind, and consequently to improve digital products’ usability? The purpose of this thesis is to put into practice a solid method for elaborating practical UI guidelines to support products’ usability by inexperienced users, but also to provide educational solutions potentially able to improve people’s digital literacy. This method is based on qualitative usability tests supported by quantitative data, carried on users with low digital literacy while using two digital marketplaces, innovative C2C platforms capable of solving people’s primary needs. From the tests it was possible to deeper understand attitudes and mindsets of inexperienced users, drafting the first versions of the guidelines. These guidelines were put into practice through redesigns of user flows and interactions of the two marketplaces, which have been tested with the same users to understand their impact on the usability: after this validation it has been possible to outline the definitive guidelines. The method has proved to be solid and successful, capable of proposing valid guidelines and of consolidating or questioning some UX principles found in the existing literature. Both the method and the resulting guidelines proved to be potentially scalable on different digital products other than marketplaces, expanding the potential coverage of this research with future investigations. Furthermore, results of this research demonstrated how digital literacy is not an immutable human factor, determined only by people’s cultural, age or educational attributes, but is rather strongly linked to individuals’ daily experience and exposure to digital interfaces. This was proved by the fact that some solutions demonstrated to potentially improve people’s digital literacy, making them capable of discovering and understanding better digital UI’s patterns and interactions, opening relevant opportunities to further investigate the educational role of digital design.
La digital literacy è un fattore umano fondamentale da considerare quando si progettano interfacce digitali per prodotti o servizi: dovrebbe determinare il grado di complessità che un’interfaccia dovrebbe avere in base agli utenti di un prodotto, ma non dovrebbe ostacolare l’opportunità di proporre soluzioni progettuali innovative. Nella letteratura di riferimento esistono molti principi di UX e usabilità che supportano i processi di design tenendo in considerazione la digital literacy, ma pochi di essi sono in grado di fornire soluzioni di progettazione concrete e best practices da applicare nell’immediato: esiste l’opportunità per elaborare un processo efficace per delineare linee guida pratiche per la progettazione di UI tenendo conto delle attitudini e necessità degli utenti con bassa digital literacy e, di conseguenza, per migliorare l’usabilità dei prodotti digitali? Lo scopo di questa tesi è mettere in pratica un metodo valido per elaborare linee guida pratiche per la progettazione di interfacce digitali mobili, per migliorare l’usabilità dei prodotti da parte di utenti inesperti, ma anche per fornire soluzioni educative potenzialmente in grado di migliorare il livello di digital literacy delle persone. Tale metodo si basa su test di usabilità qualitativi supportati da dati quantitativi, effettuati su utenti con bassa digital literacy mentre utilizzano marketplace digitali, innovative piattaforme C2C in grado di risolvere i bisogni primari delle persone. Dai test è stato possibile approfondire comportamenti e attitudini di utenti inesperti, redigendo le prime versioni delle linee guida. Queste linee guida sono state messe in pratica attraverso il redesign di alcuni fussi d’uso e di interazioni dei due marketplace, che sono stati testati con gli stessi utenti per comprendere il loro l’impatto sull’usabilità: dopo questa validazione è stato possibile delineare le linee guida definitive. Il metodo si è rivelato solido ed efficace, capace di proporre linee guida valide e di consolidare o mettere in discussione alcuni principi di UX presenti nella letteratura esistente. Sia il metodo che le linee guida stesse si sono rivelati potenzialmente scalabili su diversi prodotti digitali diversi dai marketplaces, ampliando la potenziale copertura di questa ricerca tramite indagini future. Inoltre, i risultati di questa ricerca hanno dimostrato come la digital literacy non sia un fattore umano immutabile, determinato solo dalle caratteristiche culturali, età o di scolarizzazione delle persone, ma sia piuttosto fortemente legato all’esperienza quotidiana degli individui e alla loro esposizione alle interfacce digitali. Ciò è stato provato dal fatto che alcune soluzioni hanno dimostrato di poter migliorare potenzialmente il livello di digital literacy delle persone, rendendole in grado di scoprire e comprendere meglio i pattern e le interazioni delle UI contemporanee, aprendo rilevanti opportunità per indagare ulteriormente su altre pratiche di design educativo.
Impact of digital literacy on mobile user interfaces. A process for outlining UI design guidelines for people with low digital literacy
Landra, Alex
2020/2021
Abstract
Digital literacy is a fundamental human factor to consider when designing digital interfaces for products or services: it should determine the degree of complexity that an interface should have according to the user base, but it shouldn’t be a blocker for innovative design opportunities. In the existing literature many usability and UX principles support design processes with digital literacy in mind, but few of them are able to provide actionable UI solutions and best practices ready to implement: is this enough? Is there room for elaborating a smart process to outline practical UI guidelines for designing with the mindset of users with low digital literacy in mind, and consequently to improve digital products’ usability? The purpose of this thesis is to put into practice a solid method for elaborating practical UI guidelines to support products’ usability by inexperienced users, but also to provide educational solutions potentially able to improve people’s digital literacy. This method is based on qualitative usability tests supported by quantitative data, carried on users with low digital literacy while using two digital marketplaces, innovative C2C platforms capable of solving people’s primary needs. From the tests it was possible to deeper understand attitudes and mindsets of inexperienced users, drafting the first versions of the guidelines. These guidelines were put into practice through redesigns of user flows and interactions of the two marketplaces, which have been tested with the same users to understand their impact on the usability: after this validation it has been possible to outline the definitive guidelines. The method has proved to be solid and successful, capable of proposing valid guidelines and of consolidating or questioning some UX principles found in the existing literature. Both the method and the resulting guidelines proved to be potentially scalable on different digital products other than marketplaces, expanding the potential coverage of this research with future investigations. Furthermore, results of this research demonstrated how digital literacy is not an immutable human factor, determined only by people’s cultural, age or educational attributes, but is rather strongly linked to individuals’ daily experience and exposure to digital interfaces. This was proved by the fact that some solutions demonstrated to potentially improve people’s digital literacy, making them capable of discovering and understanding better digital UI’s patterns and interactions, opening relevant opportunities to further investigate the educational role of digital design.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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2022_04_Landra.pdf
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/187976