User Experiences and Usability Evaluation of COVID-19 Application

Tawakkalna is an application developed by the Saudi Arabian government to manage the spread of COVID-19 in the country. Even now that the pandemic is under better control, Tawakkalna continues to offer numerous services to its users. People of all age groups, including children and adults, rely on the application on a daily basis. It is important to evaluate the perceived usability of the Tawakkalna (COVID-19 KSA) application. Accordingly, this study aims to evaluate its perceived usability from the perspective of users belonging to all age groups and to identify whether any particular age group is facing difficulties with using it. The study used two existing and well-known questionnaires: The System Usability Scale (SUS) and the Usability Metric for User Experience (UMUX). The study performed descriptive and inferential statistical analysis to present an in-depth understanding and comparison of the survey results. A total of 395 responses were received. The SUS score is 71.1. The UMUX score is 72.0. The results indicate that, overall, the SUS and UMUX scores support each other and grade Tawakkalna’s perceived usability as good. The results also indicate that the mean rank of the UMUX score is higher for the 18-30 age group than for all the other age groups. In addition, children under age 12 and adults greater than age 50 face challenges while using Tawakkalna. Finally, this study presents recommendations to improve the application’s usability.