Drag-and-drop versus point-and-click mouse interaction styles for children

• Authors: Kori M. Inkpen
• Venue: ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI)
• Year: 2001

This research investigates children's use of two common mouse interaction styles, drag-and-drop and point-and-click, to determine whether the choice of interaction style impacts children's performance in interactive learning environments. The interaction styles were experimentally compared to determine if either method was superior to the other in terms of speed, error rate, or user preference, for children. The two interaction styles were also compared based on children's achievement and motivation, within a commercial software environment. Experiment I used an interactive learning environment as children played two versions of an educational puzzle-solving game, each version utilizing a different mouse interaction style; experiment II used a mouse-controlled software environment modeled after the educational game. The results were similar to previous results reported for adults: the point-and-click interaction style was faster; fewer errors were committed using it; and it was preferred over the drag-and-drop interaction style. Within the context of the puzzle-solving game, the children solved significantly fewer puzzles, and they were less motivated using the version that utilized a drag-and-drop interaction style as compared to the version that utilized a point-and-click interaction style. These results were also explored through the use of state-transition diagrams and GOMS models, both of which supported the experimental data gathered.