Vidya Narayan LIS 385T.6 PDA Usability Vidya Narayan The University of Texas at Austin School of Information LIS 382L.15

Vidya Narayan LIS 385T.6 PDAs Ubiquitous ? –Going beyond just a Personal Digital Assistant –Various new and novel applications Data collection GPS Survey tools

Vidya Narayan LIS 385T.6 Displaying Text in PDAs PDA have small screens –Displaying lot of text is tricky –Can methods without scrollbars be used? Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) –Series of single words –Compared to 3-line or 10-line text scrolling

Vidya Narayan LIS 385T.6 Displaying text (contd) RSVP comparable to both 3-line and 10-line scroll at low word speeds but performs much better at higher word speeds

Vidya Narayan LIS 385T.6 Input of text data Traditional PDAs use stylus and touchscreen to input data –Graffiti software used to read cursive way writing Usually needs significant training (of User!) 85%-93% accurate –Use of touchscreen keypad and stylus Extremely slow and cumbersome wpm

Vidya Narayan LIS 385T.6 Input of text data (contd) T9 QWERTY Small pads Large pads

Vidya Narayan LIS 385T.6 Input of text data (contd) T9 (circles) QWERTY (squares) Participants using QWERTY keyboard consistently showed better transcription rates

Vidya Narayan LIS 385T.6 Input of text data (contd) Some of the newest PDAs are offering QWERTY keyboards

Vidya Narayan LIS 385T.6 Combining multiple devices Phone and PDA in one unit Phone and PDA in two units but well connected

Vidya Narayan LIS 385T.6 Combining multiple devices (contd) Increased complex Call handling Increased complex Information retrival

Vidya Narayan LIS 385T.6 Conclusion Usability becoming a key issue in new product design –Designers need to consider user abilities and preferences –Complexity of PDA is ever-increasing What about the novice user?