This study compares five input devices (mouse, mousepen, traekball, stylus, and touchscreen) on a series of goal-directed tasks using a drawing program.Striking performance differences are found for the touchsereen when compared with a previous study using a standard, isolated, laboratory task. The study also looks at the impact of device to screen mapping (absolute vs. relative) and device orientation (horizontal vs. vertical). Performance and preference data point towards an advantage for horizontal relative input devim.

This study compares seven input devices (mouse, touchsereen, two trackba.lls, mousepen, touchp@ and joystick) performing a star tracing task. Along with the device comparisons, the diffemtce between moving with the selector button pressed (dragging) or with the button released (pointing) is examined. Recent work has found that dragging is slower and more error prone than pointing when using a mouse, stylus or trackball [1~,3]. In the present study, 28 subjects used all seven input deviees for boti dragging and pointing tasks. Highly significant device differences were found for both speed and accuracy (p's <.001). The touchscreen and mouse WE the~t devius and the joystick and touchpad were the worst. The fastest devices also produced the fewest errors. l%e main effect for the button position was also significant @'s c.005) with dragging being slower and more error-prone than pointing. However, there was a significant interaction between input device and button position. For one of the devices, the mousepen, dragging was actually faster and less error prone than pointing. What is different about the mousepen? Some possibilities are considered along with how these results can be applied to the design of input devices and interaction techniques.