Usability of file downloading and uploading applications for smartphones

This work is relevant to smartphone users who often download files from FTP servers. The paper examines the possibility of automated downloading, and presents the prototype, which was programmed during the work and makes this possibility real. For automation it is enough to know at least the name or part of the name of the wanted file, and the servers to be searched (if servers are not public – also username and password), and so is avoided typical (manual) server browsing. The first chapter discusses the ways in which the files are being sent to/from smartphone, and analyses user needs. The second chapter introduces analysis on what graphical user interface is the best for smartphone FTP client, according to Nielsen‘s heuristics. The third chapter offers smartphone FTP client’s GUI and file downloading automation. The fourth chapter describes the prototype of automated Android FTP client, created during this work. The fifth chapter presents the results and conclusions. The paper clarified that the implemented automation can give good results if the user knows reliable FTP servers and searches for fairly unique files. Also, improvements were offered.