A Benchmark Comparison of Mouse and Touch Interface Techniques for an Intelligent Workstation Windowing Environment

Abstract

This study presents evidence that a prototype touch interface technology emulating basic interaction techniques of a mouse pointing device is comparable in overall usability to a conventional mousc? for a direct manipulation, graphical windowing software environment. The touch technology prototype involves using either a stylus or finger, with an overlay sensitive to changes in capacitance. Users practiced each technique (mouse,' stylus, finger, keyboard with no mouse), in the context of carrying out office-related tasks on the first of a two day study, and then eight similar test tasks on the second day, in a completely within-subject design. Significant effects for time on task were found for Techniques and Tasks for five practice tasks on the second day of the study. The clearest significant effect was that the stylus technique was faster than the keyboard. A qualitative analysis of errors indicates that there were problems with the precision of pointing using the finger, and to a lesser extent the stylus and mouse. User comments and ratings indicate that the stylus and mouse were preferred comparably, and were preferred to the finger and keyboard techniques.

When Users Want What's not Best for Them

“…A more typical performance-preference dissociation was illustrated in a study by Mack and Lang (1989), who found that although subjects made significantly more precision pointing errors using a stylus and a mouse, they preferred these two input methods over the keyboard-command input method. Bailey (1991) performed a study in which 30 subjects completed a series of tasks in a software application that had either a consistent interface, a moderately consistent interface, or an inconsistent interface.…”

A Comparison of Touch and Mouse Interaction Techniques for a Graphical Windowing Software Environment

“…Such improvements support direct manipulation techniques like dragging, which are prominent in state-ofthe-art graphical user interfaces. A recent study by Mack and Lang (1989; see also Potter, R., Berman, M. and Shneiderman, 1989) found that users could complete realistic office tasks as quickly using the stylus as they could with a mouse, using commercially available applications running under a graphical windowing environment (Microsoft Windows). In this study, touch interactions emulated basic mouse interactions like clicking, double-clicking, and dragging.…”

Pen-based interaction

“…• Finger-operated touch screen g p -Best in speed and worst in accuracy (Albert, 1982) • Stylus(Pen)-operated touch screen -Comparable to a mouse on both speed and accuracy measures (Mack & Lang, 1989) (used with permission of Smart Technology) …”