A Comparative Study Between Tablet and Laptop PCs: User ... - Umbc

More documents

Recommendations

Info

340 Ozok et al. scale was used, from 1 (strongly disagree) to 3 (neutral) to 5 (strongly agree). These types of scales are deemed appropriate for studies of this nature (Medsker & Campion, 1997). Most of the questions were posed as positive statements, indicating a positive attribute of the medium such as screen brightness being good, the task being easy, and so on. Some questions were deliberately reversed either for measuring the ronbach's alpha coefficient or when measuring a negative aspect of the item (such as the mental effort involved) was deemed more appropriate in the questionnaire. Main empirical findings from the experiment are discussed in the next section. 4. RESUL TS AND DISCUSSION The main goal of this research study is to determine the main differences in user preferences and satisfaction between Tablet PCs, laptop PCs, and pen-and-paper environments. In this section, the differences among the task-specific satisfaction and preference points are discussed among the three media. Differences in the final questionnaire responses concerning overall satisfaction are also discussed. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was primarily used to determine statistically significant differences in satisfaction and preference characteristics. Some questions did not have correspondence in all of the media, for example, screen size questions are irrelevant to pen-and-paper tasks. Therefore, some analyses contained two treatment factors instead of three. The analysis is discussed in a task-by-task manner first. A significant ANOVA result indicates that the scores of at least two media differ from each other with statistical significance. Consequently, for those characteristics with significant ANOVA results, the Duncan's Multiple Range Test was applied on the treatments to determine which treatments were different, meaning which media were different from each other concerning the survey score for the particular task. The ANOVA results for reading, writing/ typing, direct manipulation, and form-filling tasks are discussed in the next sections. 4.1. Reading Task Reading is arguably the most common task performed on a computer environment. For the purpose of determining the user preferences among the different media, a text was presented to the participants in each media to read. To prevent learning effect, the reading tasks were chosen as similar in length (about 20 lines each) but different in content. Following the completion of the reading task in each medium, participants were asked to respond to the reading-related user satisfaction and preference questions. The ANOVA was conducted on nine characteristics of user satisfaction and preferences for the three media. In certain cases, because of the lack of applicability of a characteristic in a medium, an ANOVA was run on two media instead of three. The ANOVA and Duncan's Multiple Range Test results are presented in Table 1. The characteristics that were analyzed include ease of the reading task with the medium, screen brightness of the medium, screen size of the medium, perceived
Tablet PC User Satisfaction and Preferences number of mistakes made using the medium, portability helping while completing the task on the medium, overall ability to do casual reading on a daily basis with the medium, perceived ability to perform the task effectively and efficiently (two separate questions) on the medium, and overall satisfaction ,vith the reading task. Logically, the characteristics screen brightness, screen size, and overall ability to do casual reading on a daily basis with the medium are not applicable to penand-paper tasks, and therefore the pen-and-pencil medium was exc'luded from the analyses for these characteristics. Table 1 indicates that, for the reading task, the ANOVA detected three significant differences among the nine characteristics of user satisfaction and preferences. Subsequent Duncan's Multiple Range Tests indicated that the participants found the screen size significantly worse (F = 4.17, P = .045) with Tablet PCs (M = 4.06) than with laptop computers (M = 4.50), although it should be noted that both scores are very high for a 5-point scale. Similarly, for perceived ability to perform the task effectively, a significant difference was detected (F =2.57, P=.081) between the Tablet PC (M =4.03) and pen-and-paper scores (M = 4.47) and for perceived ability to perform the task efficiently (F =2.79, P = .066) between the same scores (Tablet PC M = 4.00, pen-and-paper M = 4.47). Again, the scores for these items in general are observed as very high. Overall, it can be concluded that although the users indicated slight problems with screen size, efficiency, and effectiveness while reading from a Tablet PC screen, there are no significant problems for participants reading from a Tablet PC screen. Participants gave high scores to reading from a Tablet PC screen. Therefore, this study suggests that reading tasks on a Tablet PC can be conducted just as satisfactorily as on a laptop Pc. 4.2. WRITlNGfTYPING TASK As a task just as common as reading, a large percentage of data entry is commonly done on desktop and laptop computers via the keyboard. Advances in handwriting recognition technology allow users to use natural handwriting on the computer screen, which is achieved by the special magnetism-sensitive surface. Although a few brands of Tablet PCs do not require magnetic pens and allow writing on the screen with a regular, nonmagnetic stylus, most Tablet PCs require a special magnetic pen for the user to be able to write or draw on the Tablet Pc. Tablet PCs also allow special functions with the magnetic pen-for example, repeated scratching on a screen area can allow the text to disappear. The ANOVA and subsequent Duncan's Multiple Range Tests were conducted to determine users' comfort levels and preferences concerning the characteristics of text entry between a laptop PC with a keyboard, a Tablet PC with a magnetic pen, and regular pen and paper. The results of the ANOVA procedure and Dlffican's Multiple Range Test are presented in Table 2. Characteristics of comparison between the media in this writing/typing task induded ease of the writing/typing task with the medium; difficulty in typing or using the stylus/pen (analyzed in two separate questions; one between the regular pen on paper and magnetic pen on Tablet PC screen and one between all three media); overall satisfaction with the writing/typing task; perceived ability to 341
Page 2 and 3: 330 Ozok et al. late '90s. With adv
Page 4: 332 Ozok et al. well in converting
Page 8 and 9: 336 Ozok et al. (1) Tablet PC Task
Page 11: Tablet PC User Satisfaction and Pre
Page 17 and 18: Tablet PC User Satisfaction and Pre
Page 20 and 21: 348 Ozok et al. positive factor con
Page 22: 350 Ozok et al. the magnetic pen/st

A Comparative Study Between Tablet and Laptop PCs: User ... - Umbc

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?