experiment design on interacting with mobile devices

Experiment Design

On Interacting with Mobile Devices

Design your experiment!

• Goal: How does the mobile context affect a person’s ability to navigate the web on a mobile device?

The actual experiment

• Oulasvirta et al. “Interaction in 4-Second Bursts: The Fragmented Nature of Attentional Resources in Mobile HCI, ACM CHI 2005.Link to full text

• Field study• Hypothesis: Competition for attention should be

most pronounced in mobile situations that demand visual and motor capacity. Therefore:– Busy street > Escalator > Café > Laboratory.

Participants and Design

• 28 participants in 2 age groups• Within-subjects design, 4 groups:– Counter balanced route direction

(normal or reverse)– Counter balanced web browsing task order (normal or

reverse)• Focus on events during page loadings– Because you need to keep an eye on the page to

determine when it is loaded, but can also attend to the environment (expect lots of attention switching)

Results

Results

Results: Attentional Strategies