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The purpose of this paper is to explore the relations between usability and aesthetic values to clarify what value users place on aesthetic design as compared to usability and how this is different across cultures.

Smartphone service acceptance and uses were analyzed cross‐nationally, in a comparative fashion, focusing on the differences in the composition of motives in the USA and Korea.

While the results illustrate the importance of both usability and aesthetic values, the two countries show different value preferences, as well as intention and adoption patterns.

In the context of the recent overwhelming move toward mobile technologies such as smart devices, there exists a potential trade‐off between the aesthetic design and the usability in smartphones.

The results of this research suggest practical implications for employing cross‐cultural strategies in the global marketing of smartphones, as well as theoretical implications for cross‐country studies, which are recommended accordingly.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the profile of use of gerontechnology in Spanish older adults considering their age group (60–70; 71–80 and over 80 years) and to discern whether groups of subjects with similar characteristics can be established to ascertain which factors are behind the profile of frequent gerontechnology use.

A quantitative study is presented to understand the profile of use of gerontechnology in Spanish older adults. The sample comprised 497 participants (aged between 60 and 94 years).

The results show that, even though most participants consider technology to be useful in their daily lives, there is still a lack of knowledge on how to use it, especially among older subjects. This highlights the importance of promoting technological cocreation initiatives such as senior living labs.

Other researchers are encouraged to include the voices of older adults using gerontechnology in further studies.

If we want to increase the acceptance of technology by older adults, we must first let them take part in the design of the technologies they will use.

This research provides promising data that should merit attention to contribute to the well-being and quality of life of older adults in a society where currently technology is a key part in every sphere of our daily life.

The value of this research lies in the implications of “aging in place” studies today.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the usability of the mobile library App of Chongqing University and to provide recommendations for improving the experience of App users.

Usability testing, which comprised pre-test questionnaires, accomplishing tasks, and post-test surveys, was conducted in this study. The effectiveness and efficiency of the App, as well as user satisfaction with it, were measured.

The mobile App was proven effective but the efficiency of the App required improvement. With regard to user satisfaction, the factors “clarity” and “usefulness” received the lowest and highest scores, respectively. The descriptions of mobile services were unclear and confused users; nonetheless, the services provided by this App were appealing and useful to the users. Based on the measured user experience, this study proposed several recommendations for enhancing the usability of the App.

An increasing number of domestic and foreign libraries have begun to use mobile Apps to provide new services to patrons. In the future, smartphones are likely to become crucial to the delivery of information services. Given the extensive use of the Super Star Mobile Library system adopted by Chongqing University Library in China, the usability of such a system must be investigated. Improving the usability of the mobile library App can help enhance user experience.

The study aims to explore the buildup of consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) from positive derived experiences. Rewarding experiences with products make a user feel good about their decision to buy and use them. Those feelings get accrued as strong consumer–brand relationship, measured comprehensively by CBBE in marketing literature.

The study is conducted in two phases – exploratory and validation. The exploratory phase involved conceiving a theoretical framework from in-depth literature review. The framework is then validated through a survey-based empirical phase. Smartphones form the context of the work.

The three consumption values used in the study are usability, social value and pleasure in use. Brand equity has been conceptualized and measured as brand association, perceived value, brand trust and brand loyalty. The moderating role of user expertise, as well as lifestyle, was also tested on pleasure derived. Most of the hypothesized relationships between different constructs of experience and brand equity were found significant. Significant evidence for hierarchical formation of brand equity was also established.

Lack of evidence of moderation of lifestyle may be ascribed to the validity of the scale used to measure it in the current context and needs to be updated. The study contributes by conceiving experience as a multidimensional framework based on Holbrook’s typology, besides validating its relationship to CBBE. Hierarchical formation of brand equity is also a novel contribution.

This study provides an indicative guide to marketers with design cues that can provide relevant consumption values in the quest for a positive brand impression. It also provides directions for segmenting the smartphone market based on user expertise for better branding.

The study is innovative by relating experience, conceptualized with Holbrook’s framework and CBBE – something yet to be seen in the literature.

The purpose of the evaluation described in this paper is to determine the usability of the services provided by the EBSCOhost Mobile application.

The methodology employed was usability testing, comprising pre‐ and post‐usability test questionnaires and “think out‐loud” usability tests.

Recommendations are made concerning changes to the interface to ensure greater usability.

In this study, the only mobile device used in the testing of EBSCOhost Mobile was the iPhone 3GS. None of the participants had used or owned a smartphone previously.

Libraries are increasingly turning to the Mobile Web to offer new services to their patrons. Smartphones are likely to become central to the future delivery of information services.

Security technology on mobile devices is increasingly more important as smartphones are becoming more versatile and, thus, store more sensitive information. Among the three indispensable factors of owner authentication technologies on mobile devices, security, usability and system efficiency, usability is considered the key factor. This paper aims to challenge the limits of usability on mobile device authentication technology with respect to input size.

This paper introduces one tap authentication as a novel authentication method on mobile devices. A user just has to tap the screen of a smartphone once, and he or she will be authenticated.

One tap authentication is proven possible in this paper. The average equal error rate among 10 owners against 25 unauthorized users is as low as 3.8.

This paper focuses on verifying the possibility on one tap authentication. However, the application to various environments, such as when standing or walking or on a train, is not explored.

This research explores tap authentication with a single tap for the first time in the field. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the minimum number of taps required in tap authentication has been 4.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of smartphone apps in fostering effectual thinking. The paper considers both the effectual development of entrepreneurial ideas and the associated change in entrepreneurial confidence and perceived entrepreneurial skills of students at a UK Higher Education Institution.

The research was conducted with 60 first year undergraduate management students who had not previously undertaken enterprise education. Students were divided into three groups: the first was given a process-based briefing on developing entrepreneurial ideas; the second the process-based briefing and an additional method-based briefing on developing entrepreneurial ideas; while the third the same process-based briefing and use of the smartphone application as a method-based learning tool.

The results show the value of method-based teaching and the potential value of smartphone based learning tool to support independent method-based learning. Compared to the process-based approach, the method-based approach is shown to have an increased effect on the development of entrepreneurial ideas, as well as increasing entrepreneurial confidence and entrepreneurial skill of the participants.

Implications for the future development of enterprise and entrepreneurial education are presented, referring to factors which enable entrepreneurial ideas to be developed and how pedagogical approaches shape this.

The study adds to the emergent literature on enterprise education by evidencing the need to develop new approaches and identify in what ways these may be informed by a more effectual approach.

This paper aims to investigate accessibility and usage of mobile smartphones by Arabic-speaking visually impaired people in Saudi Arabia.

In total, 104 participants with visual impairments were interviewed about their use of mobile phones with the following questions: What is the most commonly used mobile phone? What is the popular domain for which they use mobile phones? What are their favorite applications? What accessibility challenges do they usually face while using mobile phones? How often do they use the Internet via mobile phones and what are the reasons behind that?

This research is the first study with such magnitude to investigate smartphone usage by Arabic-speaking visually impaired people. The survey has revealed that Arabic-speaking visually impaired people utilize mobile phones in different ways and strategies. Getting assistance in performing daily tasks and navigating independently are two of the most common uses for mobile phones.

Based on the findings, the authors are going to propose some guidelines to developers to improve smartphone accessibility, application design and Internet usage to improve accessibility for visually impaired people.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a balanced study group consisting of 152 participants interact with, operate, customize, and control their smartphone applications.

This work uses a qualitative research methodology involving an online user study questionnaire, supported by e-mailed user screenshots and online conversations.

In terms of smartphone age, 72 per cent of the participants’ smartphones were less than two years old. This high level of churn rate was anticipated and will please retailers and marketers alike. This study found that the majority of smartphone users regularly arrange their app icons and that their categorization principle was based primarily on application associated functionality and frequency of use. This group of users seemed less concerned about the risks of privacy and security, and even when they had lost or had their smartphone stolen, few (5.2 per cent) had suffered from fraud, in contrast to the general perception of risk.

This is one of the few studies to have investigated the area of smartphone use from the users’ perspective, leading to important insights into application user behaviour and icon arrangement, and as well as alternative possible implications for launcher design.

The continuous development of mobile platforms provides the opportunity to integrate and improve existing applications or to introduce new features to make life better. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of mobile platforms in civilization (museums) and present the design and the implementation of a mobile application that satisfies various design criteria. Through this application the visitor can navigate and tour virtually in the museum through a smartphone. In addition, features have been included in the application that make it easier for a user to visit the museum. First, we present the operating parameters and the aesthetic presentation of the application, which delimits usability and ease of access through the interfaces of a smartphone. Then we highlight the cloud features that were exploited in the application. Then, an extended evaluation of the mobile application is presented, that proves its high applicability and user acceptability.