An Empirical Study on the Breadth and Depth Tradeoffs in Very Small Screens: Focusing on Mobile Internet Phones

Recently many people can retrieve information anywhere and anytime using handheld mobile Internet devices. Although there has been much progress in mobile Internet technologies, small size of mobile Internet screen remains as a fundamental limitation causing poor usability. One way to work within this constraint is to organize an information structure with efficient depth/breadth design. This study investigated the impacts of screen size and horizontal depth, a new concept proposed by this paper for mobile Internet, on user’s behaviors and perceptions. Results of a lab experiment showed that horizontal depth and screen size significantly affect the navigation behaviors and perceptions of mobile Internet users.

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