Pre-Testing the Chinese Version of the System Usability Scale (C-SUS)

Abstract

Background: Given many advancement in technology, information & communication technology (ICT) in education for enhancing effectiveness of teaching and learning has become a widely applied and discussed area. Usability is central for the success of any instructional design product or learning materials, including any educational websites, learning management system, mobile devices, and wearable technology. The System Usability Scale (SUS) is one of the commonly used questionnaires for usability rating. Objectives: With the increasing interest in usability studies and user experience research, there is a need to officially translate it into Chinese and also to validate the translation. The aim of this paper is to describe the process of translating the original System Usability Scale (SUS) from English into Chinese (C-SUS), and to evaluate its reliability and validity in the college students. Methods: This study consisted of two phases. In phase one, the SUS was translated into Chinese by a group of translators and experts in education using Brislin’s (1970, 1986) translation and back-translation method. Both semantic equivalence and content validity were assessed. In the second phase, the psychometric properties of the C-SUS were tested with two studies and with convenience samples of 125 (study 1) and 104 (study 2) college students recruited from a private university in southern Taiwan. Reliability was assessed by internal consistency and construct validity was tested using exploratory factor analysis. Data analyses was performed using SPSS 23.0 to assess reliability and validity. Results: The sematic equivalence and content validity index of the Chinese version of SUS were satisfactory. Results also indicated that the Chinese version had a high level of equivalence with the original English version and demonstrated a high internal consistency. Exploratory factor analysis revealed the presence of two factors supporting the conceptual dimension of the original instrument. Conclusion: The study provides initial psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the SUS and supports it as a reliable and valid instrument to measure usability for design products and services for Chinese speaking individuals.