The effect of the PC experience on the usability of PDAs - make a comparison between Palm Vx and iPAQ Pocket PC on intuitive recognition to use the PDAs, based on laboratory-based usability testing

PC사용경험이 PDA사용에 대한 직관적 인지에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구

The interface design of mobile products has become a hot issue recently as a variety of products are being developed for extended usages. There have been two different views on interface design of mobile products like PDAs(personal digital assistants) or cellular phone. One 치aims that the current interface design of PC cannot be directly applied because mobile products have their own specific functions and requirements. On the meantime, the other argues that an extended application of PC metaphors to mobile products can have advantages because users'PC experiences can reduce the learning efforts and thus contribute to intuitive understanding mobile products. In this research, two types of PDAs, developed according to the aforementioned conflicting philosophies were compared and evaluated, based on laboratory-based usability testing conducted by novice users. The experiment consists of asking subjects to perform identical tasks for the two different types of products. The interaction data collected during usability testing were analyzed in terms of time taken, rate of success of tasks and errors. The experiment shows that there were some meaningful effects of users'experience of PC on the usability of PDAs.