Reexamining Usability Dimensions: The Case of Social Media

Abstract

This study aims to reexamine some traditional usability principles in the context of social media. The instrument was based on 14 items of usability dimensions (i.e. learnability, flexibility, and robustness) proposed by Dix et al. [1], we employed exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to contextualize them into the suitability of social media usability. Using 54 responses from active users of Facebook and Twitter, this study revealed five new usability dimensions of social media: interactivity, intuitiveness, conformability, adaptability, and forgiveness. The findings substantiate some claims that usability is context-specific: culturally variant and dependent upon the product under examination.