Web design issues when searching for information in a small screen display

  • Authors:
  • Loel Kim;Michael J. Albers

  • Affiliations:
  • The University of Memphis, Memphis, TN;The University of Memphis, Memphis, TN

  • Venue:
  • SIGDOC '01 Proceedings of the 19th annual international conference on Computer documentation
  • Year:
  • 2001

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Abstract

In this paper, we report preliminary findings from an experimental study in which twenty-eight users answered questions by performing strategic information searches on web pages. Pages, which varied in length from 100 to 850 words, were displayed on either a standard, desktop monitor (full-sized) or a palm handheld interface (small-screen). Overall, users took more time to perform the tasks on the small screen interface, with the break in efficacy appearing between 225 and 350 word-lengths. Finally, contrary to our hypothesis, participants were similarly accurate across conditions.