Single Item Search on PDAs: Effects of Font Size & Menu Style By Ketan Babaria, Sasha Giacoppo, Ugur Kuter
Desktop Vs PDA Desktop 13” or larger High resolution: 1280x1024 pix PDA 3” – 4” diagonally Low resolution: 240x320 pix
Previous Font Size Results
Hypotheses 1) Detailed View searches take longer, with more errors, than List View searches 2) There is a critical point where font size decreases item selection time and increases error
Independent Variables Font size Small font (10 pt) Medium font (12 pt) Large font (14) Menu type Expanding Detailed (Scrolling) Item distance 1/3 down the list 2/3 down the list
Task Design 3x2 interfaces (6 total) Detailed small, detailed large etc Expanding small, expanding large etc For each interface users were given the name of the food item and then they had to search for that item.
Interfaces – Expanding Menus
Expanding Menus – Cont’d
Interfaces – Detailed Menus
Detailed Menus – Cont’d
Dependent variables Item selection time Number of errors Subjective satisfaction
Results
Significant reduction in performance fo expanding menus Small font size had maximum errors No significant difference in errors using medium and large font size Interaction between distance, font size, and menu type High correlation between task time and “screen clicks”
Conclusion Don’t make font sizes too small More selection errors Scrolling menus better than expanding Less navigation Requires less cognitive effort of the user