User Experience Improvement (MSMEs and Buyers) Mobile AR Using Design Thinking Methods

Purpose: This research aims to improve the User Experience (UX) of Augmented Reality (AR) mobile applications for MSMEs and buyers through the Design Thinking method. This research solves the problem of suboptimal UX in AR-based mobile applications. This study hypothesizes that the application of Design Thinking can result in significant improvements in the UX of AR mobile applications, which is evidenced by an increase in heuristic evaluation scores. Methods: The Design Thinking approach (Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test) is implemented. Data were collected through interviews, observations, and heuristic evaluation questionnaires. Result: Initial heuristic testing showed several usability problems in the developed AR mobile applications, such as Help and Documentation (H10), Recognition Rather than Recall (H6), and Error Prevention (H5). After the application of the Design Thinking method and design iteration, the heuristic testing showed that the results of the evaluation comparison before and after the improvement showed a high effectiveness of the corrective actions taken, with an average decrease in severity score of 37% based on the Nielsen scale (0–4), indicating that the most critical and major issues were successfully reduced to cosmetic or minor levels. Novelty: This research contributes in the form of a practical framework to improve the UX of AR mobile applications for MSMEs and buyers by utilizing the Design Thinking method. The results of this research can be a reference for developers in designing user-friendly AR mobile applications.