Careless touch: a comparative evaluation of mouse, pen, and touch input in shape tracing task

This short paper is a work-in-progress report on an experimental, exploratory comparison and evaluation of three input methods (mouse, pen, and touch-input) in a line-tracing task. A method to compare the original shape and user-generated version is presented. Measurements of user efficiency and accuracy showed that participants replicating a particular shape using touch-input performed the worst in terms of accuracy but were the fastest in comparison to the remaining input methods. No effect of controlled visual feedback was observed. Additionally, subjective operational biases were observed that, together with input method and expected shape related issues, might strongly affect the results.

[1]  Daniel J. Wigdor,et al.  Direct-touch vs. mouse input for tabletop displays , 2007, CHI.

[2]  S. Pinker So How Does the Mind Work , 2005 .

[3]  Shumin Zhai,et al.  Beyond Fitts' law: models for trajectory-based HCI tasks , 1997, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[4]  Abigail Sellen,et al.  A comparison of input devices in element pointing and dragging tasks , 1991, CHI.

[5]  Robert Pastel,et al.  Measuring the difficulty of steering through corners , 2006, CHI.

[6]  D. Norman,et al.  User Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction , 1988 .

[7]  I. Scott MacKenzie,et al.  Extending Fitts' law to two-dimensional tasks , 1992, CHI.

[8]  Luciano da Fontoura Costa,et al.  Shape Analysis and Classification: Theory and Practice , 2000 .

[9]  Xiang Cao,et al.  Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff in Trajectory-Based Tasks with Temporal Constraint , 2009, INTERACT.

[10]  F ATTNEAVE,et al.  The quantitative study of shape and pattern perception. , 1956, Psychological bulletin.

[11]  Xiang Cao,et al.  Effects of Multimodal Error Feedback on Human Performance in Steering Tasks , 2010, J. Inf. Process..

[12]  I. Scott MacKenzie,et al.  Performance differences in the fingers, wrist, and forearm in computer input control , 1997, CHI.

[13]  Xiangshi Ren,et al.  An investigation of subjective operational biases in steering tasks evaluation , 2010, Behav. Inf. Technol..

[14]  W. Hockley Analysis of response time distributions in the study of cognitive processes. , 1984 .

[15]  Donald A. Norman,et al.  User Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction , 1988 .

[16]  Patrick Baudisch,et al.  Understanding touch , 2011, CHI.

[17]  Allison Druin,et al.  Differences in pointing task performance between preschool children and adults using mice , 2004, TCHI.

[18]  P D MCCORMACK,et al.  THE POSITIVE SKEW OBSERVED IN REACTION TIME DISTRIBUTIONS. , 1964, Canadian journal of psychology.