Abstract
Smartphone is nowadays the most prevalent computer system, thus a lot of attention from academia and industries has been put to evaluate its quality of use. However, Smartphone has more complex interaction modes and usage scenarios than PC and laptop. And therefore assessing its quality using a conventional usability evaluation is not sufficient. Meanwhile, the mental load serves as an acknowledged index of effort that operators have put in human-machine interaction, especially under high-demanding context. Mental load contains a set of parameters in multiple dimensions, such as primitive task performance, biological measurement(s) and subjective mental load scale, which assesses the efforts of tasks under a particular environment and operating conditions. Thus, it is suitable for evaluating complex mental work, and may indicate the use of Smartphones.
The aim of this paper is to apply a multi-dimensional method to assess the mental load of users, and find out which measurement(s) is the most suitable one to evaluate the efforts for using a smartphone. During this study, the effort on conducting tasks with four difficulty levels were assessed using measurements in three dimensions, which were (1) user performance (task accomplishment and secondary task), (2) subjective rating (NASA-TLX scale) and (3) physiological function (EDA). The values of these measurements were compared across novice, average and skilled users. The results show that: task duration and number of usability error are significantly related with mental load and change with the difficulty level of tasks; in subjective rating, Mental Demand, Effort and Frustration were highly related with mental load.
The aim of this paper is to apply a multi-dimensional method to assess the mental load of users, and find out which measurement(s) is the most suitable one to evaluate the efforts for using a smartphone. During this study, the effort on conducting tasks with four difficulty levels were assessed using measurements in three dimensions, which were (1) user performance (task accomplishment and secondary task), (2) subjective rating (NASA-TLX scale) and (3) physiological function (EDA). The values of these measurements were compared across novice, average and skilled users. The results show that: task duration and number of usability error are significantly related with mental load and change with the difficulty level of tasks; in subjective rating, Mental Demand, Effort and Frustration were highly related with mental load.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018) |
Subtitle of host publication | Auditory and Vocal Ergonomics, Visual Ergonomics, Psychophysiology in Ergonomics, Ergonomics in Advanced Imaging |
Editors | S. Bagnara, R. Tartaglia, S. Albolino, T. Alexander, Y. Fujita |
Place of Publication | Cham |
Publisher | Springer |
Pages | 302-315 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Volume | X |
ISBN (Electronic) | 978-3-319-96059-3 |
ISBN (Print) | 978-3-319-96058-6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2018 |
Event | IEA 2018: 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association - Florence, Italy Duration: 26 Aug 2018 → 30 Aug 2018 Conference number: 20 |
Publication series
Name | Part of the Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing book series |
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Publisher | Springer |
Volume | 827 |
Conference
Conference | IEA 2018: 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association |
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Abbreviated title | IEA 2018 |
Country/Territory | Italy |
City | Florence |
Period | 26/08/18 → 30/08/18 |
Keywords
- Mental load evaluation
- Usability
- Smartphone