Mobile-based Carbon footprint calculation: insights from a usability study

Human activities have been referred as key contributors to climate change since most of the warming of the climate is the result of increased anthropogenic emission of greenhouse gases from such activities. Through their daily activities, human beings contribute to the emissions of greenhouse gases that principally consist of CO2. For individuals to effectively reduce CO2 emissions from their personal activities and to improve their behaviour towards the environment, it is essential to quantify such emissions. Recently, there has been the emergence of carbon footprint calculators that provide an estimate of the carbon dioxide emissions that an individual is directly responsible for over a given period of time. During the past few years, there has been a decreasing trend of such tools among Internet users and a recognised way to promote adoption of systems is through improved usability. This paper investigates the usability of a proposed carbon footprint calculator called Mau Carbon Footprint and provides recommendations on improving this quality attribute of such tools. In order to achieve the purpose of this paper, a usability study was conducted based on Nielsen’s usability principles. As results, an overall mean score of 3.98 was obtained for the usability of the proposed calculator.

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