Abstract

VENTER, A.  and  DE VRIES, M.. Usability of virtual tools for participatory enterprise modelling. S. Afr. J. Ind. Eng. [online]. 2023, vol.34, n.3, pp.1-12. ISSN 2224-7890.  http://dx.doi.org/10.7166/34-3-2942.

Participatory modelling (PM) is focused on actively involving enterprise stakeholders and modelling experts in the modelling process. Typically, participants are co-located and encouraged to collaborate to avoid conceptual misalignment. During Covid-19, however, people were forced to reduce significantly their physical interactions, which led to the embracing of virtual tools. However, limited research has been done to evaluate virtual tools for the purpose of PM or participatory enterprise modelling (PEM), and specifically for the ease-of-use or usability of these tools. Many standardised usability questionnaires are available to evaluate the usability of user interfaces or systems. We provide key criteria for selecting an appropriate standardised questionnaire to measure PM tool usability and, as the main contribution, examine in a controlled experiment the usability of an online tool, MURAL, when participants use PEM. We report on the tool's usability, using the selected standardised usability questionnaire, and present insights obtained through interviews and observations.

        · abstract in Afrikaans     · text in English     · English ( pdf )