Wright P, Bartram C, Rogers N, Emslie H, Evans J, Wilson B, Belt S
School of Psychology, Cardiff University, UK.
Ergonomics. 2000 Jun;43(6):702-16. doi: 10.1080/001401300404689.
Small pocket computers offer great potential in workplaces where mobility is needed to collect data or access reference information while carrying out tasks such as maintenance or customer support. This paper reports on three studies examining the hypothesis that data entry by older workers is easier when the pocket computer has a physical keyboard, albeit a small one, rather than a touch-screen keyboard. Using a counter-balanced, within-subjects design the accuracy and speed with which adults over 55 years of age could make or modify short text entries was measured for both kinds of pocket computer. The keyboard computer was the Hewlett Packard 360LX (HP), but the touch-screen computers varied across studies (experiment 1: Apple Newton and PalmPilot; experiment 2: Philips Nino; experiment 3: Casio E10). All studies showed significant decrements in accuracy and speed when entering text via the touch-screen. Across studies, most participants preferred using the HP's small physical keyboard. Even after additional practice with the touch screen (experiments 2 and 3) many entries still contained errors. Experiment 3 showed that younger people were faster but not more accurate than older people at using the touch-screen keyboard. It is concluded that satisfactory text entry on palm-size computers awaits improvements to the touch-screen keyboard or alternative input methods such as handwriting or voice. Interface developments that assist older people typically benefit younger users too.
小型掌上电脑在需要移动性以收集数据或获取参考信息的工作场所具有巨大潜力，比如在进行维护或客户支持等任务时。本文报告了三项研究，检验了这样一个假设：对于年长的工作者而言，当掌上电脑配备物理键盘（尽管较小）而非触摸屏键盘时，数据输入会更容易。采用平衡的被试内设计，测量了55岁以上成年人使用这两种掌上电脑进行简短文本输入或修改时的准确性和速度。配备键盘的电脑是惠普360LX（HP），但触摸屏电脑在不同研究中有所不同（实验1：苹果牛顿和奔迈掌上电脑；实验2：飞利浦尼诺；实验3：卡西欧E10）。所有研究均表明，通过触摸屏输入文本时，准确性和速度会显著下降。在各项研究中，大多数参与者更喜欢使用惠普的小型物理键盘。即便在对触摸屏进行了额外练习之后（实验2和3），许多输入仍包含错误。实验3表明，在使用触摸屏键盘方面，年轻人比年长者速度更快，但准确性并未更高。研究得出结论，要在掌上电脑上实现令人满意的文本输入，有待对触摸屏键盘或诸如手写或语音等替代输入方法进行改进。有助于年长者的界面开发通常也会使年轻用户受益。
