Science behind user friendliness of agricultural mobile apps: A study on readability

Abstract

With the virtual world buzzing with heavy information load, it is often confusing for 21st century users to decide which information is needful for them. The information givers in order to attract audience, views and make profit margins dump irrelevant information. As a results, users often end up receiving wrong information or even misinterpreting or not comprehending the information. Agriculture sector has not remained untouched by this heavy inflow of information through ICT. The need for right information at right time and at right place is of prime importance in this sector for better and quick decision making by different stakeholders. The introduction of ICT in agriculture in form of mobile phones resulted in shrinking the information gap. The present study was carried out in Pantnagar, Uttarakhand in 2019 to analyse the readability scores of three different mobile apps, viz. Plantix, Kisan Suvidha and Apni Kheti launched by three different organizations and compare them. The results reveal that overall readability score of agricultural apps calculated using Gunning Fog Index is 10.77. The individual average GFI scores of Plantix, Kisan Suvidha and Apni Kheti are 11.27, 11.16 and 9.88, respectively, indicating moderate difficulty level when we take into consideration the end users reading level, who are mostly farmers in this case. The ultimate aim of launching mobile apps in agriculture will be fulfilled directly or indirectly if we take into consideration the readability of the apps along with focusing on user’s reading level.