An Investigation of Placement of Textual and Graphical Information Using Human Performance and Eye Tracking Data

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of a human-machine system (HMS) experiment, which was conducted to explore how to combine textual and graphical information in an interface. Specifically, this paper explored how the location of textual and graphical information would influence response time, accuracy and eye movement. We also explored the effectiveness of three different configurations (9, 16, and 25 points). Our findings suggest that if the accuracy was the highest priority, the textual information should be placed at the left side of the screen and the graphical information should not be placed at the center of the screen. If a quicker response time was the highest priority, the graphical information should not be placed at the corners and bottom right margins. Finally, if an interface includes both textual and graphical elements, graphical information could be placed at corner and margin areas and textual information could be placed at corner areas to facilitate the efficiency of information processing. From the perspective of response accuracy and response time, the 9-point configuration was most appropriate for the calibration process.