The Improving User Experience Design through Usability Evaluation of Mobile Multimedia Apps

The growing popularity of mobile multimedia applications has significantly increased the demand for superior User Experience (UX) design, which plays a critical role in user satisfaction and application success. This study aims to evaluate the usability of five distinct types of mobile multimedia applications: video streaming, music streaming, Augmented Reality (AR), mobile gaming, and interactive learning. The research employs a mixed-method approach, utilizing Heuristic Evaluation (HE), Usability Testing (UT), and statistical analysis, with data collected from 60 participants in laboratory settings. The key metrics assessed include task completion time, error rates, number of taps, and System Usability Scale (SUS) scores. Results show significant differences in usability across the application types, with music and video streaming apps exhibiting the highest usability, while AR applications performed the poorest in all metrics (p < 0.001). Additionally, high negative correlations were found between objective usability measures and subjective satisfaction (r values ranging from -0.65 to -0.72), indicating a mismatch between users’ perceived satisfaction and actual usability performance. The findings underscore the need for simplified interactions and more intuitive design, particularly for AR applications. This study provides actionable insights for designers and developers, emphasizing the importance of optimizing user interfaces to enhance mobile multimedia experiences. Future research should explore the variability of real-world application usage and further refine design strategies to improve usability in diverse contexts.