Comparison of mobile input methods

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an experimental study that compared the usability of four different input methods in the context of smart phones with touch screen property. Twenty users were asked to fill in a questionnaire with four different input methods which were radio button, text field, spinner and button. Time required to fill in the questionnaire and the errors occurred were recorded. Overall, radio button was found to be the fastest by causing no error while text field was found to be the slowest input method and more error prone. In addition, participants were asked about their perceived performance before and after filling in the questionnaire. These results were compared with their actual performance. Most of the users could not predict their performance before use and many of the participants still could not make correct predictions about their own performance after use.