A Checklist to Evaluate Augmented Reality Applications

Augmented reality applications merge virtual content with the real world, with real-time interaction and they have inherent characteristic, such as the lighting conditions, use of sensors, and the user position. These applications are very different from conventional applications that use mouse and keyboard, so they require a usability evaluation to verify whether they achieve their goals and satisfy users. We developed a checklist to measure the usability of augmented reality applications in a practical manner. This checklist was developed adapting the ISO 9241-11 and Nielsen Heuristics for an augmented reality context, and criteria created by us. Five experts evaluated two applications to test the checklist. In both cases, the evaluation clearly identified key problems in the application design. They also evaluated the checklist. Analyzing the results, we could determine that the checklist appears to be a possible solution to evaluate usability of augmented reality applications.