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Investigating the Usability and Quality of Experience of Mobile Video-Conferencing Apps Among Bandwidth-Constrained Users in South Africa
In response to Covid-19 and global lockdowns, we have seen a surge in video-conferencing tools' usage to enable people to work from home and stay connected to family and friends. Although understanding the performance and the perceived quality of experience for users with bandwidth caps and poor int...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Computer Science
2023
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| _version_ | 1867613251823468544 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Oosthuizen, Dominique |
| author2 | Densmore, Melissa |
| author_browse | Densmore, Melissa Oosthuizen, Dominique |
| author_facet | Densmore, Melissa Oosthuizen, Dominique |
| author_sort | Oosthuizen, Dominique |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | In response to Covid-19 and global lockdowns, we have seen a surge in video-conferencing tools' usage to enable people to work from home and stay connected to family and friends. Although understanding the performance and the perceived quality of experience for users with bandwidth caps and poor internet connections could guide the design of video-conferencing apps, the usability of video-conferencing applications have been severely overlooked in developing countries like South Africa, where one-third of adults rely on mobile devices to access the internet and where the per-gigabyte data cost is some of the most expensive in Africa. Considering these numbers, we conduct a two-prong study where 1) we measure bandwidth consumption of different Android apps through bandwidth measurement experiments and 2) we conduct interviews with bandwidth-constrained users to better understand their perceptions of mobile videoconferencing apps. The key benefit of this study will be to inform organisations that seek to be inclusive about these tools' relative usability by letting them know about the factors influencing users' quality of experience. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37740 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:33:10.259Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publishDateRange | 2023 |
| publishDateSort | 2023 |
| publisher | Department of Computer Science |
| publisherStr | Department of Computer Science |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37740 Investigating the Usability and Quality of Experience of Mobile Video-Conferencing Apps Among Bandwidth-Constrained Users in South Africa Oosthuizen, Dominique Densmore, Melissa Computer Science In response to Covid-19 and global lockdowns, we have seen a surge in video-conferencing tools' usage to enable people to work from home and stay connected to family and friends. Although understanding the performance and the perceived quality of experience for users with bandwidth caps and poor internet connections could guide the design of video-conferencing apps, the usability of video-conferencing applications have been severely overlooked in developing countries like South Africa, where one-third of adults rely on mobile devices to access the internet and where the per-gigabyte data cost is some of the most expensive in Africa. Considering these numbers, we conduct a two-prong study where 1) we measure bandwidth consumption of different Android apps through bandwidth measurement experiments and 2) we conduct interviews with bandwidth-constrained users to better understand their perceptions of mobile videoconferencing apps. The key benefit of this study will be to inform organisations that seek to be inclusive about these tools' relative usability by letting them know about the factors influencing users' quality of experience. 2023-04-14T09:01:26Z 2023-04-14T09:01:26Z 2022 2023-04-13T13:28:59Z Master Thesis Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37740 eng application/pdf Department of Computer Science Faculty of Science |
| spellingShingle | Computer Science Oosthuizen, Dominique Investigating the Usability and Quality of Experience of Mobile Video-Conferencing Apps Among Bandwidth-Constrained Users in South Africa |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Investigating the Usability and Quality of Experience of Mobile Video-Conferencing Apps Among Bandwidth-Constrained Users in South Africa |
| title_full | Investigating the Usability and Quality of Experience of Mobile Video-Conferencing Apps Among Bandwidth-Constrained Users in South Africa |
| title_fullStr | Investigating the Usability and Quality of Experience of Mobile Video-Conferencing Apps Among Bandwidth-Constrained Users in South Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | Investigating the Usability and Quality of Experience of Mobile Video-Conferencing Apps Among Bandwidth-Constrained Users in South Africa |
| title_short | Investigating the Usability and Quality of Experience of Mobile Video-Conferencing Apps Among Bandwidth-Constrained Users in South Africa |
| title_sort | investigating the usability and quality of experience of mobile video conferencing apps among bandwidth constrained users in south africa |
| topic | Computer Science |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37740 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT oosthuizendominique investigatingtheusabilityandqualityofexperienceofmobilevideoconferencingappsamongbandwidthconstrainedusersinsouthafrica |