Usability of Cloud Based Application

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1. BACKGROUND 
“People are required to conform to technology. It is time to reverse this trend, time to make 
technology conform to people [48].” Software has become more complex in terms of features and 
functionality due to integration of various technologies for fulfilling user’s requirements. 
Consequently companies carry out innovations to fulfill these requirements by designing a system that 
is closer and explicable for the users.  The users are increasingly unwilling to face difficulties in those 
applications that acquire user efforts.  Role of usability is to make these products user responsive and 
design these products in a way to satisfy users during their use in an effective and efficient manner. 
The usability issues have augmented in the recent years due to enormous innovation of technological 
products for discussing the human factor. It is not only important in the end user products but also for 
those used in commercial and professional contexts [1]. Main requirements for information 
technology society are to design systems that can universally be accessed by the user and also fulfills 
his/her requirements. Easy and understandable interface creates a close relation between the users and 
web based applications because it is a key point for truimph of an application. The user interface of an 
interactive system consists of all those parts with which users come in contact physically, perceptually 
and conceptually [2]. Usability plays an imperative role in the web industry to make it more valuable 
and also refers as to how a system is usable by fulfilling the user’s requirements as. “Usability is 
being able to do the things you want to, not the things you have to [3].”  
 
Peoples are not very much interested to work on desktop because they spent more and more time on 
the internet [51] and it is very expensive for users to buy such type of suite for offices, especially for 
students in managing their documents files related to academics. Google Docs not only diminishes the 
need for desktop storage memory but also lessens the need for a flash drive to store the data during 
travelling.  Now Google Docs is a great innovation of Google Company for both academic and 
commercial levels is cloud based application [39].  
 
The students use this online free application for different purposes e.g. in writing, editing and to share 
their reports with fellows for collaboration. To safe and organize them in the folder or to create their 
own directory, they can also use their contact list from Gmail for sending in two modes i.e. as 
collaborator or viewer. By using the Google Docs, the users can create new document files that 
support Microsoft Doc format plus other formats. They can also create presentations and spread 
sheets, save and download in different formats. Students specially want to work in a project 
collectively to share their ideas. The integration of technologies is helpful for students by accessing 
them free as Google Docs offer to users. These technologies offer different services and the use of a 
single interface is a major cause to reduce complexity and increase the interactivity by developing 
their interest through offering these services. The design and interface of an interactive system plays 
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an important role for creating familiarity and productivity of a product among the users in the market. 
That is why in designing of an interactive system the developer always has to follow the interactive 
designing principles. [2] 
 
In this paper, the author will discuss student’s requirements for an interactive application, the 
problems and the role of usability to find those problems that students face in Google Docs. Google, 
Yahoo, Hotmail and IBM are continuously attempting to facilitate the users through more 
innovations. Google Docs is a service connected to the concept of Cloud Computing, more about this 
connection will be explained in this report later. The author is going to evaluate these services from 
student’s perspective and to gather the students’ needs and requirements for academic/research 
purposes and how it could be more helpful for them. To evaluate the Google Docs, the author uses the 
Usability as a tool to perform an experiment on students using this application and to find out their 
remarks with usability testing and gather their requirements through interviews and questionnaires.   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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2. PROBLEM DEFINITION/GOALS 
The chapter two comprises of different parts, in the first part the author discusses the student’s 
problems during study and their requirements for achieving their goals. The second part deals with the 
research question that author would investigate in the research report. The third part deals with the 
results and goals, whereas the fourth part is concerned with the outcomes for which the author has 
undertaken this study.     
 
2.1. Students Requirements 
The uses of online applications are very common among students for searching the valuable 
information in their studies because it is a very cheap way for learning and utilizing these services for 
research and development.  They need a consistent resource through which they can easily store their 
data securely and safely and can access it any time/anywhere. Mostly international students face the 
problems to save the collected information for research and education due to limited space at the 
university computers. There is a need for those services through which they can manage their files and 
secure them from risks and threats, connectivity, Lab/server maintenance inside the university, 
viruses, power failure and other damages. Group work is very common among the students according 
to their subjects to collaborate and share their ideas in report writing and for sharing it with their 
teachers for quick feedback rather than using printed copy or sending these via email. There is need of 
web services that can assist them during their educational activities.  Due to the lack of their personal 
resources they can’t purchase expensive books, software and hardware compatible to these softwars. 
So they want reliable, secure, and accessible services that can help them in achieving their goals and 
fulfilling their requirements.       
 
The traditional methods for the development of software and web applications often results in 
difficulties  and are unable to help the users for finding out the desire goals [5]. So the purpose of the 
usability evaluation is to focus upon the usability issues in Google Docs as well as for further 
improvements. [42]  
 
Nowadays most of the companies provide Cloud bases resources/services over the Internet. [8] Today 
the clouding computing is rendering users with services to access hardware, software services and 
data resources while using the internet [6]. In computer science the word “broadcasting” means the 
computing at a remote location inside the cloud, either through your own computer or with any other 
device through the web using an internet connection. "The cloud is a smart, complex, powerful 
computing system in the sky that people can just plug into [7]." Google Apps provide the different 
products like the Gmail, Google Docs, Google calendar, Google talk for the end users to operate these 
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applications on their own computer desktop via internet. The Google Docs is a web based service 
consequently there is no need to download and install them on the computer.  
 
The author is going to discuss, does the Google Docs support the students for academic purpose and 
what are their further requirements for improvements. The author also discusses the role of usability 
to ensure the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction for users regarding this application and for 
other necessities they feel to be in the Google Docs. By applying usability test and evaluation on 
Google Docs the author attempts to locate the student’s interest and desire for the future. The author 
central purpose for this usability assessment is to discover the students pleasure with Google Docs 
system, are they satisfied with it? If not then what are their requirements for making it usable to 
increase their productivity by covering those usability issues. [9]  
 
2.2. Research Question 
1. What are the student’s needs and requirements regarding the Google Docs to use it for 
academic and research purpose? 
 
2.3. Goal/Results 
The goal of this research project is to identify the student’s needs and requirements regarding the 
Google Docs and get their suggestions for improvements by conducting the usability test, interviews 
and Questionnaires. The author also selects these techniques to find out the usability issues in Google 
Docs.  
 
2.4. Expected Outcomes  
Following are the expected outcomes:  
1. Description of Usability and its importance.  
2. Usability evaluation of the Google Docs  
3. Analysis of student’s requirements and usability issues on the basis of usability evaluation 
methods. 
4. Validation of usability evaluation.  
5. Discussion on the results  
  
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3. Methodology 
Methodology means the systematic study of methods, principles or procedures for 
investigations in the concerning discipline the author has selected. This chapter defines the 
method and techniques for usability evaluation of Google Docs. [4] 
 
3.1. Overview 
The approach is to develop a case study on Google Docs is based on mixed methodology. 
This study is carried out in multiple phases. First phase is for literature review in order to 
understand the interface, interaction design concepts & principles and the function of 
usability. Further what is cloud computing, Google Docs and how to select the effective 
procedure for usability test and criteria for evaluation. In this mixed approach author use 
qualitative and quantitative methodology. Let’s see the meaning of qualitative and 
quantitative data “The qualitative research is concerned with studding object in their natural 
setting. A qualitative research is attempted to interpret a phenomenon based on explanation 
that peoples brings to them [10]” and for quantitative “The quantitative researched is mainly 
concerned with quantifying relationship or to compare two or more groups [10].” There are 
number of methods and techniques for usability evaluation but according to the research 
work the author will utilize the Think Aloud Technique and conduct the Questionnaire and 
interviews. In the context of evaluating the Google Docs and its interface assessment, it 
involves requesting the information about a Google Docs from the students. The 
questionnaire is mainly used to gather such information that helps the observer in the 
evaluation. Interviews are structured methods of inquiry which are used to gather 
information about student’s experiences and preferences about the Google Docs. The 
interviews create a close interaction with the users and observer and are helpful for eliciting 
immediate answers to questions that the observer asks during the interview. While the 
usability testing brings the user in close contact with the system and is helpful to find their 
thoughts regarding it. [11] 
 
Figure 3.1 Adopted research methodology.