Title: Usability analysis of an Indian e-governance software

Authors: K.U. Vipin Kumar; Suresh Subramoniam

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering Trivandrum, 695016, India ' Department of Business Administration, College of Engineering Trivandrum, 695016, India

Abstract: It is apparent from the degree of difficulty with respect to usability of newly launched software that much less has been done to standardise their usability. The purpose of this study is to analyse a 'single window' Indian e-governance software from a usability perspective. Adapted IsoMetrics^S ISO:9241 questionnaire is used as the measurement scale to compare the software usability. Suitability of task, self-descriptiveness, controllability, conformity with user expectation, error tolerance, suitability for individualisation, and suitability for learning are the seven ergonomic design principles used in this study for comparison. Though the ergonomic design principles based independent t-test analysis revealed that usability of the e-governance software taken-up in this study is not significantly different from SAP Human Resource module (SAP-HR), there exists significant difference between the usability of Microsoft Word (MS Word) and the e-governance software which does not meet the ergonomic quality as much that of MS Word.

Keywords: software usability; IsoMetrics^S; ISO 9241; e-governance software; comparison; usability analysis; India; electronic governance; ergonomic design; ergonomics; human-computer interaction; HCI.

DOI: 10.1504/EG.2013.052602

Electronic Government, an International Journal, 2013 Vol.10 No.2, pp.211 - 221

Published online: 21 Mar 2013 *

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