EFFECTS OF GRIP SPAN IN ONE-HANDED THUMB INTERACTION WITH A SMARTPHONE
Open Access
Author:
Sung, Kiseok
Graduate Program:
Industrial Engineering
Degree:
Master of Science
Document Type:
Master Thesis
Date of Defense:
March 30, 2017
Committee Members:
Andris Freivalds, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Keywords:
Product Design Ergonomics
Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether different grip spans affected the touch performance of one-handed thumb interaction with a smartphone. Tapping time, hit count, and thumb-tip displacement were measured while using three mock-ups of an iPhone 5S, 6, and 6 Plus, respectively. In the tapping task, four positions were tested: top-left, top-right, bottom-left, and bottom-right. The results showed that the hit count (F2,14=8.596, p=.004) and thumb-tip displacement (F2,14=11.348, p=.001) significantly decreased as the grip span increased. Thus, I concluded that there existed another problem beyond the limit of thumb length that caused a reachability issue when using a large smartphone. Thus, this should be considered in the user interface design of a large smartphone.
