Do size and structure matter to mobile users? An empirical study of the effects of screen size, information structure, and task complexity on user activities with standard web phones 论文

摘要

Abstract The small screens of mobile Internet devices, combined with the increasing complexity of mobile tasks, create a serious obstacle to usability in the mobile Internet. One way to circumvent the obstacle is to organize an information structure with efficient depth/breadth trade-offs. A controlled lab experiment was conducted to investigate how screen size and information structure affect user behaviours and perceptions. The moderating effects of task complexity on the relationship between screen size/information structure and user navigation/perceptions were also investigated. Study results indicate that both information structure and screen size significantly affect the navigation behaviour and perceptions of mobile Internet users. Task complexity was also found to heighten the influence of information structure on user behaviour and perceptions. The paper ends with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications, among them a key implication for mobile Internet businesses: for corporate intranet systems as well as m-commerce transaction systems, the horizontal depth of information structures should be adapted to task complexity and anticipated screen size. Acknowledgements The present research has been supported by a research grant from the Korea Research Foundation [KRF-2003-042-B00045]. The authors are grateful to Dr. Joonah Park, Jeun Kim, and Soyoung Kyung at the HCI Lab, to Enah Kim and Sujin Kim at Widerthan.com, and to the editors and reviewers at AMCIS 2003 and the BIT special issue on HCI in MIS. Notes The GVM is composed of a mobile application download platform that uses an OS independent black box. The GVM system consists of three parts: The GVM Server Solution, the GVM Module, and the GVM SDK. For more details, visit ShinjiSoft Corp. at http://www.shinjisoft.com Detailed information about the LG Cyon CX-300V can be found at http://www.cyon.co.kr/job/product/feature.jsp?svci = 10&pmd = CX-300DV In the pilot test, all subjects found correct answers within 10 minutes. Most subjects in the main test also spent nearly 10 minutes per task, making comparison between the groups in terms of time taken less meaningful.