Ilokano To Go: Development and Usability of an Ilokano Vocabulary Mobile App

Abstract

About 90% of the Philippine population living in Hawaii today is Ilokano or are descendants of Ilokano immigrants. Considered the language of the Philippine diaspora, Ilokano, or Ilocano, is currently being offered as a language course at several institutions in Hawaii. The courses follow a structured program, using textbooks that offer lessons and exercises based on real-world experiences. Although the students have a variety of resources available to them, the researcher found no mobile applications developed to learn Ilokano vocabulary. To assist students in their efforts, a mobile language learning application titled “Ilokano To Go” was developed and a usability study conducted. The purpose of this usability study was to develop and evaluate the ease of use of a beginner- intermediate Ilokano vocabulary development mobile app for students at a large university in Hawaii. The study included two iterations of usability testing and examined aspects of usability such as aesthetics, navigability, and usefulness. A pre-survey, usability protocol, observation checklist, and a post-survey helped to identify usability issues in the mobile application. The mobile application was well received by study participants, and changes relevant to its ease of use were made after each iteration of testing.