A Study of the Effect of Thumb Sizes on Mobile Phone Texting Satisfaction
Vimala Balakrishnan and Paul, H.P. Yeow
Journal of Usability Studies, Volume 3, Issue 3, May 2008, pp. 118-128
Article Contents
Theoretical Framework
User satisfaction in texting, based on the standard mobile phone keypad design, was identified as the dependent variable whereas keypad design factor(s) was the independent variable (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Standard ISO 12-key keypad design
The keypad design factors identified are listed below:
- Size: size of the keys for texting and navigating
- Simplicity: the overall simplicity of the keypad design
- Shape: shape of the keys (square, rectangle, oval, etc.)
- Space: existing space between the keys
- Layout: arrangement of keys (4 x 3, QWERTY, etc.)
- Texture: tactual satisfaction related to key texture and material (soft, hard, coarse, etc.)
These factors were obtained from studies conducted to identify mobile phone design features that are critical to users' satisfaction (Ling et al., 2007; Han et al., 2004; Yun et al., 2003). Other studies that have reported on issues related to some of these features are problems related to tiny keys (Kurniawan et al., 2006; Soriano et al., 2005) and problems related to key size and space between the keys (Balakrishnan et al., 2005; Ornella and Stephanie, 2006). None of these studies took finger or thumb size measurements into consideration.