Usability of hybridmedia services - PC and mobile applications compared

Abstract

The aim is to present results of a usability test of a prototype of a context-based personalized hybridmedia service for delivering product-specific information to consumers. We recorded participants' eye movements when they used the service either with a camera phone or with the web browser of a PC. The participants' task was to search for product-specific information from the food product database and test calculators by using both a PC and mobile user interface. Eye movements were measured by a head-mounted eye tracking system. Even though the completion of the tasks took longer when the participants used the mobile phone than when they used the PC, they could complete the tasks successfully with both interfaces. Provided that the barcode tag was not very small, taking pictures from the barcodes with a mobile phone was quite easy. Overall, the use of the service via the mobile phone provides a quite good alternative for the PC. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.