User performance with mobile and desktop applications

The two main contexts of human computer interaction are stationary and mobile. It is not clear how the different use behavior and form factors of stationary and mobile computers lead to different interaction styles and could affect user performance. Therefore, in this paper we researched the user task performance differences between mobile and desktop devices. Furthermore, as a preparation, we researched common tasks for both system types in focus groups. From these results, we constructed three tasks for our main study which we conducted with 34 participants. We conclude that for our subset of possible comparable tasks no system performed overall better at each of our three tasks. Only for one task containing writing the desktop system performed significant better in regard to task completion time and error rate. Also raised NASA TLX scores for the respective tasks showed no significant difference between mobile and desktop devices with regard on the perceived mental load.

Members: Michael Hebeisen, Jonathan Seibold

Keywords: WIP, user study, performance, applications, apps, mobile, dektop