Comparative assignment of WhatsApp and Telegram by using heuristic principles

ABSTRACT
Over the last few years, text messaging has taken the domination in young adults. Messaging via
phones has wide range of both, human and social factors. These Instant Messaging [IM] applications
also offer many other features other than just texting. For example, sending documents, photos, videos,
links and more.

All these features and attributes are making people pulled towards these IM applications more and
more. Despite having these features, people expect more from these IM applications, which leads these
IM applications to compete with each other providing more features or modifying the existing features.
This competition to be the better application amongst the IM applications has led us to do a research
study on which applications has better user experience through a survey evaluation.

Background: Messaging through phones got lot easier when platforms like messages, Telegram,
WhatsApp, etc., were introduced to people. WhatsApp and Telegram gained popularity over iMessages
as iMessages was limited only to IOS. So, technically people preferred WhatsApp and Telegram over
iMessages.

In order, to deduct which application is preferred among WhatsApp and Telegram, a survey evaluation
is done based on Usability Heuristics. Thus, the title of the thesis, “Comparative research of WhatsApp
and Telegram by using heuristic principles.”

Objectives: The prime objective of the thesis is to compare both the applications, WhatsApp, and
Telegram and to find which application has followed the principles of Usability most. The comparison
between these two applications is done via a survey evaluation and the results will be noted.

Methods: The method that has been chosen and used for comparison is survey evaluation. The survey
will be done via google forms, the questions of the survey are based on HCI principles. The survey will
have total of 10 questions. Approximate of 45 users will be given the questionnaire google form to fill
out.

Results: The results from the survey will collected and noted. The results are examined and the
application that has better user experience will be found.

Conclusion: From the study and the survey, it is concluded that WhatsApp has better user experience
than Telegram.

Keywords: Instant Messaging, WhatsApp, Telegram, Survey evaluation, Usability, HCI Principles
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank our Teacher, Mr. EYUEL for continuous support and guidance for our thesis work

Acronyms
HCI Human Computer Interaction

HE Heuristic Evaluation

IM Instant Messaging

UEM Usability Evaluation Methods

INTRODUCTION
WhatsApp, initially started as a messaging application was introduced as an alternative for SMS.

The application now supports various features like, sending and receiving all kind of media text, voice
calls and video calls and voice notes.

The application is built end-to-end encryption.

The application lets the users communicate from anywhere in the world without barriers through
internet. Telegram is a cross-platform messaging application based on cloud.

The application provides all kind of features similar to WhatsApp.

The application gives end-to-end encryption for video calling.

For any application to excel, the functionality of the application plays a crucial role along with usability.
If the application has all the functionalities but lacks a good interface, the users might think before
revisiting the application.

For these reasons, the concept of usability exists.

Usability, the standard attribute which evaluates the ease of interfaces to use for a user.

Usability has various quality attributes, for example Utility.

The term utility refers the design’s functionality raising the question, does it do what users need?
Usability can be described by five quality components.

 Learnability: Learnability defines how easy a user can accomplish a basic task when they
encounter the design for the first time.
 Efficiency: Efficiency explains the ability of a user to perform the task after users learn about the
design.
 Memorability: Memorability defines the proficiency of a user when they return after certain
period of time to re-establish.
 Errors: Errors defines the mistakes made by the users, and the kind of errors that occur and
how they can manage the errors.
 Satisfaction: Satisfaction describes the user experience, how ambient is it to work with design.
These days everything runs on the internet.
Applications like WhatsApp and Telegram have grown so much on people’s day to day life.

From sending messages to calling someone across the globe with ease of internet. People spend an
average of 16 -18.5 hours per month on these applications.

As people are relying so much on these applications, there is a necessity for these applications to
maintain their features intact, so that the users do not shift to other applications.

In a way, WhatsApp and Telegram are rivals to each other as they cater the same needs.

There are few articles comparing both the applications, but all those articles are groundwork giving out
the fundamental differences between the applications, rather than comparisons.

The thesis is in-depth research on the usability of both the applications, WhatsApp, and Telegram, using
HCI principles. Human Computer Interaction is the study, design, and implementation of software to be
used directly with individuals.

The HCI defines how the human is able to interact with computers efficiently.

The interaction is called the user interface. HCI principles are applied to the user interface which gives
an assistance.

Interaction design, often known as user-centered design or HCI, is associated with the goal of making
computer technology as user-friendly and entertaining as possible.

Usability, which is often defined in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and gratification, is a crucial
component of the order to identify the best.

HCI is necessary, since it's required for products to be more efficient, safe, 6 beneficial, and useful. In
long-term, it will improve the user's satisfaction of the experience.

A person with HCI expertise should therefore be involved at all stages of the development of any
system or product. HCI is also essential for avoiding total failure of initiatives or products.

All these above mentions are the reason for considering HCI principles-based evaluation.

The following principles will be used to compare and analyses the applications, WhatsApp, and Telegram
Directness

 User Control
 Consistency
 Clarity
 Aesthetics
 Feedback
 Forgiveness
 Awareness of human strengths and limitations.
Aim and objectives
The aim of the thesis is to direct how well amongst both applications, WhatsApp and Telegram have
followed the HCI principles of usability.

Objectives:
 Evaluating the applications, WhatsApp and Telegram using HCI principles for usability
testing.
 Creating a questionnaire survey using HCI principles.
 Conducting the survey and gathering the responses via google forms.
 Analyzing the result from the survey to determine which application follows the HCI
principles the most.

Background
WhatsApp
Jan Koum and Brian Acton, two former Yahoo! workers, launched WhatsApp in 2004. Acton and Koum
were both early investors of the iPhone and were aware that the App Store, which had just been
launched, would soon give rise to a completely new sector. Koum spent a significant portion of 2009
creating WhatsApp's backend code and countless painful hours fine-tuning it to account for the specifics
of different foreign calling prefixes. Indeed, Fishman's close pals were the only ones who could use the
program because initial version of WhatsApp regularly broke. Koum briefly considered leaving
WhatsApp and seeking for another employment a few months later. But the situation was averted by
Apple's rather coincidental introduction of push notifications. As soon as a WhatsApp user updated their
status, everyone in their system received a ping

Acton got five of his fellow Yahoo! co-workers to contribute $250,000 as start-up money in October
2009. The app was released in App Store a month later. For the following couple of years, Acton and
Koum would work for no pay. Then, WhatsApp turned into a premium service, purportedly to control
expansion but actually to pay for rising operating expenses. It was firmly established in the top 20 apps
in the American App Store in just two years. The app rapidly expanded after receiving $8 million in
venture capital financing, reaching two hundred million users in February 2013

With the network purportedly adding more than 1 million users every day, WhatsApp supposedly had
over five hundred million users by 2014. Facebook started making plans to buy WhatsApp in February of
the same year after seeing the app's development potential, particularly in emerging regions. Many
questioned why Facebook would spend $19 billion on a firm with only $20 million in yearly revenue
before the deal was finally completed. Simply said, WhatsApp had grown into a credible threat to the
viability of the social networking site, and Zuckerberg was aware of this. Finally, Facebook bought
WhatsApp in 2014.

Telegram
Pavel Durov, a Russian businessman, invented the multi-platform messaging application Telegram on
August 14, 2013, which has no ties to any organizations or governments and was briefly outlawed in his
home country. With an estimated 550 million monthly users as of this writing, it launched for the first
time for Android and iOS in late 2013. Every time one of its more established competitors is involved in a
privacy incident, Telegram's user base is likely to increase

Telegram stands out thanks to its emphasis on encryption and privacy. In addition to official Telegram
applications and web interface, there are a ton of unauthorized clients. Various accounts within the
same device are also permitted, as well as the usage of multiple devices with the same account
(confirmed by SMS). Like most other messaging applications, Telegram's primary features include the
ability to chat with other Telegram users, start group discussions, call contacts, conduct video calls,
share files, and apply stickers. However, it functions differently from many other chat applications due
to a few unique characteristics.

The privacy feature of Telegram is its main selling point, and end-to-end encryption is used to guarantee
it. This prevents anyone not involved in a two-way discussion by seeing what is communicated, whether
they be a business, the government, cybercriminals, or anybody else. However, Telegram does not
employ this encryption in standard conversations; instead, it only applies to calls and its "secret chats"
function. These solely include client-server encryption.

HCI Design Principles The questions of survey evaluation are based on HCI principles.
The following are the HCI principles of Usability which the questions of the survey will be based on,

1. Visibility of system status: The principle, Visibility of system status is very familiar with Newton’s 3rd
law, “For every action, there must be a reaction” but with few changes. Users should always be
informed what is happening in the system while interacting with it. A continuous feedback should be
given to the user within the reasonable time.
2.Match between system and the real world: Users always seek for familiar words, actions, things,
shapes, concepts, images for easy understanding. So, the system must have user’s language for easy
understanding and fast decision making.

3.User control and freedom: The user should be given the ability to perform tasks like, undo or redo for
their unintentional clicks and actions.

4.Consistency and standards: A system should be designed with consistency, where it should never be a
confusion for the user. For example using different words, design, action which eventually derives the
same meaning.

5.Error prevention: The principle suggests that preventing of the error is much better than a good error
message. Prevent the occurrence of an error or a situation which leads to make an unwanted decision,
because if an error occurs while using the system, it is considered to be the designer’s fault, not the
user’s fault.

6.Recognition rather than recall: The users must be provided with cues like options, actions, visual cues,
instructions which helps the user to recognize rather than recall and avoids the memory load. Recall has
lesser cues than recognition that is difficult and eventually will lead to error prone.

7.Flexibility and efficiency of use: The system should be designed in a way where the user should be
comfortable using it even for the first time. Simply, the system should be very easy to adapt and learn
for both experienced and inexperienced user.

8.Aesthetic and minimalist design: The system should be designed in a way, where it shows and
provides the required and relevant information to the user to understand what is happening in the
system. The relevant information gets diminished with any irrelevant information. The information
provided can be texts, animations, images, design elements.

9.Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors: No system is designed to display errors, but
it is also not avoidable. So to help the situation, the system must be designed in a way, so even if an
error occurs, the error message should provide the solution in human readable language where the user
can read the error message and be able to find the solution to recover from the error.

10.Help and documentation: A system can be built without any help and documentation but it is not
preferred always. The system should provide help and documentation to the user for various reasons,
even if the system is designed to use without any help. Help and documentation has various forms like,
Popovers, Walkthroughs, onboarding pages, Chatbots.
Scope
The scope of the thesis is limited to the applications, WhatsApp and Telegram. The thesis is a
comparative study on both the applications. The study is done with the help of survey evaluation, to find
which applications has better user experience.

The thesis mainly focuses on the questionnaire based on HCI principles of Usability
Survey questions
The following are the questions that has been created for the questionnaire. There are total of 10
questions, each question referring to the principles of HCI.

 The question, “WhatsApp is better than Telegram in avoiding errors. For example, application
shutting down in the middle of usage” refers to the principle Error Prevention. The principle
states to avoid the error rather than giving the error message. The question states, which
application has better error prevention.
 The question “WhatsApp is easier to navigate than Telegram. For example, searching for a chat,
starting a conversation with a new chat, exiting the application” refers to the principle User
control and freedom, which states that the user should be given certain access in the application
if needed.
 The question “WhatsApp has better icons than Telegram. For example, search bar, send
button, emojis icon” refers to the principle Match between system and the real world, which
states that the application should be similar to the real world for better identification of the
application.
 The question “WhatsApp has less difficulty than Telegram while login, logout session” refers to
the principle Consistency and standards, which states that the application should be consistent,
where the application should not saturate the user.
 The question “WhatsApp has better interface than Telegram. For example, simple backgrounds,
cool tone colours, relevant information” refers to the principle Aesthetic and minimalist design,
which states that the application should have minimal interface.
  The question “WhatsApp is better than Telegram in having continuous feedback. For example,
typing, recording audio, sent and seen identifications” refers to the principle Visibility of system
status, which states that the application should have a continuous feedback given to the user
stating what is happening in the application while using it.
 The question “WhatsApp has better help center than Telegram for users to access” refers to
the principle Help and documentation, which states that the application should provide certain
help to the users while using the application.
 The question “WhatsApp has better understandable language [Human readable language] than
Telegram when an error occurs” refers to the principle Help users recognize, diagnose and
recover from errors, which states that the application should offer error message in human
understandable language to the user, where the user can understand the error message and
be able to recover from the error occurred.
 The question “WhatsApp has better features than Telegram. For example, starred messages,
word search, pin the chat” refers to the principle Recognition rather than recall, which states
that the user should be able recognize the application with an ease even after taking a break
from using the application.
 The question “WhatsApp is easier to adapt than Telegram for even first time, inexperienced
users” refers to the principle Flexibility and efficiency of use, which states that the application
should be designed in a way, where the user shouldn’t need any outside help while using the
application.
Table Comparative assignment of WhatsApp and Telegram by using
heuristic principles

Evaluation option WhatsApp Telegram

Visibility of system status 
Match between system and the 
real world
User control and freedom 
Consistency and standards 
Error prevention 
Aesthetic and minimalist design 
Flexibility and efficiency of use 
Help and documentation 
Help users recognize, diagnose, 
and recover from errors
Recognition rather than recall 
Comparative assignment of WhatsApp and Telegram by using heuristic principles
Conclusion
Evaluation of usability interaction between the applications, WhatsApp and Telegram was done by using
the Human Computer Interaction principles. We choose the survey method to do the evaluation.

The survey is conducted with our group who are familiar with both the applications, WhatsApp and
Telegram and all the users who took participation in the survey were students.

After analyzing the survey responses, WhatsApp has gotten better reflections at every question when
compared telegram. WhatsApp is delivering good user experience when compared to Telegram in the
following HCI principles.

• User control and freedom

• Error Prevention

• Recognition rather than recall

• Match between system and the real world

• Aesthetic and minimalist design

• Consistency and standards

• Visibility of system status

• Help and documentation

• Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors

• Flexibility and efficiency of use Majority of the user’s responses support the application WhatsApp.
Regarding the survey results, WhatsApp follows the above listed HCI principles better than the Telegram
application.

Future works
We can extend this work for future by implementing different methods for this usability testing and
increasing the number of questions and applying different mathematical ways for getting more accurate
results. In future, the following can be implemented:
• Applying different usability evaluation methods.

• Introducing more questions for better analysis.

• Survey can be held with more participants with large number of users.

• Implementing various mathematical calculations for better accurate results.