Since the release of the first mobile devices, the usability of on-board applications has been the concern not only of software vendors but hardware manufacturers as well. The academia community later willingly joined the discussion on usability in terms of theory and empirical measurement, having experience and knowledge in desktop settings. At first sight, such a background should guarantee a solid foundation to conduct research on software usability in a new setting. However, a preliminary study on the subject matter revealed methodological disorder in contemporary literature. As a matter of fact, a need emerged to review existing usability definitions, attributes and measures to recognize all associated aspects. In order to fill this void, we conducted a systematic literature review on usability studies indexed by the Scopus database and devoted to mobile applications. The input volume covers 790 documents from 2001 to 2018. The data analysis shows that the ISO 9241-11 usability definition has been adopted in an unchanged form and popularized as the standard by the HCI community. Secondly, in total, 75 attributes were identified and analysed. The most frequent are efficiency (70%), satisfaction (66%) and effectiveness (58%), which directly originate from the above definition. Subsequently, the less frequent are learnability (45%), memorability (23%), cognitive load (19%) and errors (17%). The last two concern simplicity (13%) and ease of use (9%). Thirdly, in the evaluation of usability, controlled observation and surveys are two major research methods applied, while eye-tracking, thinking aloud and interview are hardly used and serve as complementary to collect additional data. Moreover, usability evaluations are often confused with user experience dimensions, covering not only application quality characteristics, but also user beliefs, emotions and preferences. All these results indicate the need for further research on the usability of mobile applications, aiming to establish a consensus in the theory and practice among all interested parties.

Less than five percent of all mobile applications have become successful throughout 2023. The success of a new mobile application depends on a variety of factors ranging from business understanding, customer value, and perceived quality of use. In this sense, the topic of usability testing of mobile applications is relevant from the point of view of user satisfaction and acceptance. However, the current knowledge seems to be fragmented, scattered across many papers and reports, and sometimes poorly documented. This paper attempts to fill this gap by investigating the current state of knowledge by reviewing the previous literature relevant to the research topic and developing a unified view. In particular, the methodological framework is outlined and discussed, including the discourse on settings for laboratory and field studies, data collection techniques, experimental designs for mobile usability testing, and a generic research framework. Therefore, the paper contributes to both the theory and practice of human–computer interaction by providing methodological foundations for usability testing of mobile applications, paving the way for further studies in this area. Moreover, the paper provides a better understanding of the related topics, in particular shedding light on methodological foundations, key concepts, challenges, and issues, equipping readers with a comprehensive knowledge base to navigate and contribute to the advancement of the field of mobile usability.

Communicating mobile security threats and best practices has become a central objective due to the ongoing discovery of new vulnerabilities of mobile devices. To cope with this overarching issue, the goal of this paper is to identify and analyze existing threats and best practices in the domain of mobile security. To this extent, we conducted a literature review based on a set of keywords. The obtained results concern recognizable threats and established best practices in the domain of mobile security. Afterwards, this outcome was put forward for consideration by mobile application users (n=167) via a survey instrument. To this end, the results show high awareness of the threats and their countermeasures in the domain of mobile applications. While recognizing the risks associated with physical and social factors, the majority of respondents declared the use of built-in methods to mitigate the negative impact of malicious software and social-engineering scams. The study results contribute to the theory on mobile security through the identification and exploration of a variety of issues, regarding both threats and best practices. Besides this, this bulk of up-to-date knowledge has practical value which reflects in its applicability at both the individual and enterprise level. Moreover, at this point, we argue that understanding the factors affecting users intentions and motivations to accept and use particular technologies is crucial to leverage the security of mobile applications. Therefore, future work will cover identifying and modeling users perceptions of the security and usability of mobile applications.

Context: Widespread use of agile software development (ASD) methods can be observed nowadays. Non-functional requirements (NFRs) are often reported to be a problematic issue for agile projects, since ASD methods tend to neglect NFRs while focusing on incremental delivery of functional features. Despite that, only very few studies have explored the requirements engineering practices used in ASD and dedicated particularly to NFRs. Objective: We aimed to identify and investigate the practices used in industrial ASD projects to identify, elicit and document NFRs. Method: We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) and used its findings to prepare an interview guide. We then conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with 10 experienced practitioners. Results: The SLR revealed a number of strategies related to the timing of NFR identification as well as 13 elicitation practices and 20 documentation techniques. At least some of these findings show discrepancies between ASD theory and practice. The interviews provided a more in-depth understanding of the practices used, and their context. The main findings from the interviews include: practitioners’ attempts to start identifying NFRs early in the project, a lack of elicitation techniques aimed at NFRs only, and different choices about documentation techniques, including the additional techniques introduced to cope specifically with NFRs. Conclusions: It was not confirmed that requirements engineering activities related to NFRs are perceived by ASD practitioners as a problem, as they developed effective practices to deal with this issue. Moreover, our findings show that different approaches to NFRs can be used and give satisfactory results.

[Context] The goal of security is to protect digital assets, devices, and services from being disrupted, exploited or stolen by unauthorized users. It is also about having reliable information available at the right time. [Motivation] Since the inception in 2009 of the first cryptocurrency, few studies have been undertaken to analyze and review the state-of-the-art research and current developments with respect to the security of cryptocurrencies. [Purpose] We aim to provide both theoretical and empirical insights into the security landscape, in particular focusing on both technical solutions and human-related facets. [Methodology] We used an integrative review which could help in building science and scholarly research, the basis for conceptual and empirical models. [Results] Successful defense against cyberattacks depends on technical measures on the one hand, as well as on self-education and training with the aim to develop competence, knowledge, skills and social abilities, on the other. [Contribution] Our findings provide a comprehensive review for the major achievements and developments of the recent progress on the security of cryptocurrencies. [Future research] Since there is increasing interest in adoption of the current solutions within the central bank digital currencies, the future research should explore the development and inception of effective measures against social engineering attacks, which still remain the main concern.