Evaluating the IRCTC App Through Usability Testing
Role
Usability Audit
User Research
User Testing
OVERVIEW
The IRCTC app is an official mobile application by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC), which provides booking facility of railway tickets online and offers other services related to train travel in India. It is a public sector undertaking with the Government holding majority ownership.
The objective of this study is to evaluate the usability of the app and provide recommendations according to the issues identified.
HEURISTIC EVALUATION
Before testing with users, we conducted an informal review and heuristic evaluation. The purpose of the evaluation was to check the app against existing guidelines to uncover usability issues. This is a quicker, inexpensive and non-intensive method as compared to usability testing.
USABILITY TESTING
Goal
The IRCTC app is a train ticket booking service provided by the Government of India.
We are looking to assess
how quickly and easily users can start using the app.
Tasks
The participants were asked to perform the following tasks.
How would you go about creating a new account?
You got logged out of the app, how would you log back in?
How would you book a ticket on the IRCTC app for this journey?
User Groups
We wanted to understand diverse use cases considering that IRCTC is used by a mass audience.
Pilot Test
A pilot test was conducted before the actual test to catch any mistakes in our process.
The pilot test helped us understand how to correctly capture the user interaction. Initially we attempted to screen record on the participants phone but realized that recording the participants screen from our side was easier to manage. It also asked less from the participant in the actual test.
We were also able to check the task flow and examine the script and observation sheet.
RESULTS
SYSTEM USABILITY SCORE
SUS is a method used to measure usability. It consists of 10 questions with 5 options from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The questionnaire was administered to participants after conducting the usability test.
The average SUS score obtained was 49
The IRCTC app got a grade 5 which is considered awful. This meant that the app has major usability issues which prevents users from achieving their goals. This was consistent with our observations from the testing sessions.
SUMMARY
Based on the above findings, the issues were ranked on their severity to prioritize what needed to be fixed.
