What about the usability in low-code platforms? A systematic literature review

• Type: Another Publication in an International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2023

Authors

Pinho, D (Author) Other; Ademar Aguiar (Author) FEUP; Amaral, V (Author) Other

Journal

The Journal is awaiting validation by the Administrative Services.

Title: JOURNAL OF COMPUTER LANGUAGES

Vol. 74

ISSN: 2590-1184

Publisher: ELSEVIER SCI LTD

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 0 Citations

Scopus

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00X-PPT

DOI: 10.1016/j.cola.2022.101185

Abstract (EN): Context: Low-code development is a concept whose presence has grown both in academia and the software industry and is discussed alongside others, such as model-driven engineering and domain-specific languages. Usability is an important concept in low-code contexts since users of these tools often lack a background in programming. Grey literature articles have also stated that low-code tools have high usability.Objective: This paper examines the current literature about low-code and no-code to discover more about them and their relationship with usability, particularly its quality, which factors are the most relevant, and how users view these tools. This focus on usability aims to provide a different point of view from other works on low-code.Method: We performed a systematic literature review based on a formal protocol for this study. The search protocol returned a total of 207 peer-review articles across five databases, which was supplemented with a snowballing process. These were filtered using inclusion and exclusion criteria, resulting in 38 relevant articles that were analysed, synthesised and reported.Conclusion: Despite growing interest and a strong enterprise presence in academia, we did not find a formal definition of low-code, although common characteristics have been specified. We found that users have a heightened awareness of usability regarding low-code tools, with some authors performing feasibility studies on their implementations or listing factors that influence the user experience in a given tool. Researchers are considering usability factors unconsciously, and the low-code field would grow if research on usability increased. This paper also suggests a definition for low-code development.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 16