Usability in a car pooling web application : In a carpooling application, how should information be displayed to improve usability with focus on effectiveness and attitude?

Abstract: Usability is one important factor for customers to reach satisfaction. The purpose of this report was to investigate how information should be displayed on a carpooling web application to increase usability, focusing on the aspects of effectiveness and attitude. A market survey indicated that young adults were especially interested in carpooling services, the age group of 18-31 therefore became the target group of this study. After studying existing literature relevant to the research question and creating a prototype, a functional web application was created in two different versions. User tests were then conducted on the different versions to compare how the design aspects of detailed descriptions on buttons, breadcrumbs and different sign-in and register buttons affected usability. The methods used to measure usability were SUS-questionnaires, CTA and Smith’s lostness formula. The results showed that the usability score was higher for the version with less detailed description on buttons, single sign-in and register buttons (instead of multiple), with breadcrumbs. Those results aligned with the time taken by test users to execute each task, as well as the overall comments from the test users. In conclusion, the results from this report confirms that the implemented design aspects improved effectiveness and attitude in regards to usability.