A study into the usability of 3GPP technical specifications
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Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Perustieteiden korkeakoulu |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2022-08-22
Department
Major/Subject
Human-Computer Interaction and Design
Mcode
SCI3020
Degree programme
Master's Programme in ICT Innovation
Language
en
Pages
66 + 51
Series
Abstract
Technical specifications are documents which provide detailed descriptions of technical requirements for a product, service, system or material. The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration driven organisation which emits technical specifications for cellular telecommunications technologies. This thesis aims to study the main usability issues of 3GPP technical specifications. It also investigates the prevalence of each of the usability issues identified. The research considers two user groups. The first group is that of specifications consumers, who use the technical specifications as part of their daily work tasks. The second is that of specifications producers, who contribute to the creation of the technical specifications. A mixed methods approach is used to answer the research question. Ten interviews are conducted, followed by a survey which over the course of two weeks received 85 responses. The main contribution of this thesis is that it uses scientific research methods to study the usability of 3GPP technical specifications. 29 usability issues are identified from the interview data via an affinity diagram. A subsequent survey investigates the prevalence of each of these issues. The findings suggest that specification producers are mostly hindered by 3GPP governance processes which impact their work and productivity. Specification consumers are more affected by the contents of the actual technical specifications, highlighting pain points such as a lack of illustrations and difficulty understanding the contents of the documents.Description
Supervisor
Lindqvist, JanneThesis advisor
Rao, SiddharthLimonta, Gabriela
Keywords
usability, user research, technical specifications, 3GPP