Identifying and improving usability problems of cryptocurrency exchange mobile applications through heuristic evaluation

Abstract

Recently, blockchain is noted in many service areas as it is expected to overcome the limitations of the centralized system. Since one of the main features of the blockchain service is utilizing cryptocurrency, cryptocurrency exchanges have an important role. However, there has not much research on the usability of the cryptocurrency exchanges. This study aims to discover the usability problem of KDEX and Bithumb. Four experts conducted a heuristic evaluation based on ten heuristic evaluation items. Twenty-six usability problems were found in KDEX and eighteen in Bithumb. The derived problems were classified by design elements through open card sorting. This study explains derived usability problems and presents guidelines to improve the usability of the two cryptocurrency exchanges based on derived problems. The results of this study can be used to improve the usability of the cryptocurrency exchange.