Mapping usability heuristics and design principles for touchscreen-based mobile devices

Touchscreen-based mobile devices (TMDs) are one of the most popular and widespread kind of electronic device. Many manufacturers have published its own design principles as a guideline for developers. Each platform has specific constrains and recommendations for software development; specially in terms of user interface. Four sets of design principles from iOS, Windows Phone, Android and Tizen OS has been mapped against a set of usability heuristics for TMDs. The map shows that the TMDs usability heuristics cover almost every design pattern with the addition of two new dimensions: user experience and cognitive load. These new dimensions will be considered when updating the proposal of usability heuristics for TMDs.