| Tue, 5 Aug 97 09:10:27 -0400 |
| < Barry Ezell bce4k@virginia.edu> |
I am conducting a systems analysis to develop the best alternative for some combat systems interface. I recall that there has been discussion on HMI, HCI, etc. I am looking for information that will help me compare different alternatives. What comparisons have been made for touch screen versus key board input as an example? Also, there is one definite performance measure: Time
Can anyone help me with locating infomation on this? Also, based on the various expertise, can anyone offer some additional indices of measurement (performance measurements)? Are there some human factors that I must address? Any help is appreciated. Barry
******************************* [:-)] ******************************* * * Barry Ezell * Captain, United States Army * bcezell@aol.com * bce4k@virginia.edu * Graduate Student, Systems Engineering, UVA * 804 975 3525 (home) * Home page: http://watt.seas.virginia.edu/~bce4k/barry.html
| Tue, 05 Aug 1997 22:36:13 +0100 |
| < James Winters jwinters@innotts.co.uk> |
Barry Ezell wrote: Barry I am doing my thesis on HCI for Industrial Applications, and there has been extensive work done on measuring differences between various input devices. Much of the results are inconclusive, but the following is a summary from various studies undertaken over the last decade.
Cursor Mouse JoyStick Trackball TouchScreen Touch Tablet Speed Slow Fast Medium Medium Fast Medium Accuracy High Medium Medium High Low Medium Speed Control Some Yes Some Yes Yes Yes Continuous movement No Yes Some Yes Yes Yes Fatigue Low Medium Medium Medium High MediumIf time is the only crucial measurement you have, then how information is displayed on the screen is much more important than what type of input device you use. Regardless of how the user makes a choice, the longest part of the selection process is deciding where on the screen the required selection is.
For example one study done by Card et al is as follows:
Total Response Time Error Rate Device 1.66 5 Mouse 1.83 11 Joystick 1.91 9 Touch Tablet 2.51 3 Cursor KeysAs can be seen the touch tablet is quite slow, and has a lot of errors. This surprises many people because pointing is such a simple operation, but if one thinks about it, when your big pudding hands are on the screen it makes it obscures other parts of the screen. Generally mouse or trackball input is seen as the best all round solution, but it depends on other factors.
There are several good books available on HCI. Anything by Ben Shneiderman is worth looking at. Human Computer Interaction by Mary Pierce is also a good bet. For a good overview on device selection try Software User Interface Design by Deborah Mayhew.
I hope this has helped a bit, and feel free to ask away. Cheers
-- James Winters jwinters@innotts.co.uk http://innotts.co.uk/~jwinters/ +44 (0)1623 459576