yExploring Potential Usability Gaps when Switching Mobile Phones: An Empirical Study

Abstract

The present study explores potential usability gaps when users switch from a familiar to an unfamiliar mobile phone interface. A within-subject experiment was performed in which nine users familiar with Sony-Ericsson T630 and nine familiar with Nokia 7250 performed tasks on both phones. On average, test subjects spent more time on finishing tasks with an unfamiliar phone than with a familiar one. For two of the four tasks, there was a significant difference in completion time between the first-time Nokia users and the first-time Sony-Ericsson users. The tasks of adding a contact to the address book and sending an SMS to a contact in the address book were performed more quickly by new Nokia users than by new Sony-Ericsson users. The subjective difficulty ranking also showed that first-time Nokia users found the new phone easier to use than first-time Sony- Ericsson users did. Hierarchical Task Analysis is used as a potential explanation, and three other theories that relate to these findings are presented: mental models, habit errors, and emotional attachment.

Affiliations

Software Engineering

IT University of Gothenburg

SE-417 56 Gothenburg

School of Business and Informatics

University College of Borås

SE-501 90 Borås

t2i Lab (www.t2i.se), CSE

Chalmers University of Technology

SE-412 96 Gothenburg

Contributors

Aiko Fallas Yamashita

Wolmet Barendregt

Morten Fjeld

Conference

Publication date: September 2007

Publication date (Print): September 2007

Pages: 1-8

ID: 10.14236/ewic/HCI2007.11

Copyright statement: © Aiko Fallas Yamashita et al. Published by BCS Learning and Development Ltd. Proceedings of HCI 2007 The 21st British HCI Group Annual Conference University of Lancaster, UK

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of HCI 2007 The 21st British HCI Group Annual Conference University of Lancaster, UK

Conference acronym: HCI

Conference number: 21

Conference location: Lancaster, UK

Conference date: 3 - 7 September 2007

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: British HCI Group Annual Conference

Product

Product Information: 1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/HCI2007.11

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

Categories

Series title: Electronic Workshops in Computing