Factors influencing the usability of icons in the LCD touch screens

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors influencing the usability of icons in the LCD touch screens. In this study, subjects had to fill in the questionnaire and rated questions on 7-point Likert scales. 20 evaluation items were collected from relevant interface design guidelines. A total of 30 subjects, 10 none- experience users, 10 click-experience users (PDA user), 10 touch-experience users (LCD touch screens user), participated in the investigation. As main statistical test, a principal component analysis (PCA) was performed with SPSS/ PC. The results from the principal components analysis showed that the usability of touch icon was affected by seven factors: touch field, semantics quality, dynamics, hit quality, tactility, color quality and shape quality. Among these, touch field was the most important. Finally, the results of correlation analyses indicated that experience related to importance ratings for usability. Especially, subjects show significant difference in the size element (p<0.05). Further, user who has pen-click experience, such as PDA user, still show better performance for touch screen even if they use smaller icon. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.