Examining Mobile Tasks and Devices: Developing a User Centric Guideline

As the mobile workforce expands and enterprise applications continue to evolve it is critical for software developers to target appropriate devices for their content. Not all applications are suitable for mobile deployment, for example if an application manipulates large amounts of spreadsheet data, it may result in low adoption rates and poor performance outcomes on a smartphone. This research provides a guideline to identify the most suitable device in yielding successful task performances from the user's perspective. The guideline couples the user's performance requirements associated with specific tasks, to the device whose performance most adheres to their requirements. Developers of enterprise applications can use this guideline to identify the most suitable devices to target for their content thus avoiding low adoption and poor usability associated with their application on unsuitable devices. To demonstrate the use of the guideline the authors applied it to a usability study, which focused on comparing user performance across devices. Application of the guideline resulted in a positive response in terms of improving representational user information required when targeting devices.