The effect of tactile feedback on mental workload during the interaction with a smartphone

Abstract

This empirical study examines the adequacy of tactile feedback to present status information about the progress of Internet-based services on mobile devices and possibilities to compensate age-related changes in users performance. Therefore the user experience of mobile browsing was compared using three different vibration signals and two different levels of process times. In this experiment the participants had to perform two tasks simultaneously. The participants experienced six different (combinations treatments) permutations in treatment with regard to ‘vibration type’ and ‘process time.’ The user experience was measured by the Technology Acceptance Model and the subjective mental workload by the NASA Task Load Index using a questionnaire. The experiment revealed that a short vibration signal at the end of a process is capable of increase the user experience. Therefore, ‘perceived enjoyment’ as well as ‘perceived usefulness’ improved. However, the characteristic factor ‘mental workload’ decreased with usage of tactile feedback.