A popular form factor for a mobile phone that structures the phone into two halves that are hinged like a clamshell: the numeric keypad is placed on the lower half, and the display is placed on the upper half. In the closed position the screen and the keypad are protected from inadvertent damage or activation, while in the open position users can angle the screen for optimal visibility.
Published in Chapter:
Understanding One-Handed Use of Mobile Devices
Amy K. Karlson (University of Maryland, USA), Benjamin B. Bederson (University of Maryland, USA), and Jose L. Contreras-Vidal (University of Houston , USA)
Copyright: © 2008
|Pages: 16
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-871-0.ch006
Abstract
Mobile phones are poised to be the world’s most pervasive technology, already outnumbering land lines, personal computers, and even people in some counties. Unfortunately, solutions to address the usability challenges of using devices on the move have not progressed as quickly as the technology or user distribution. Our work specifically considers situations in which a mobile user may have only one hand available to operate a device. To both motivate and offer recommendations for one-handed mobile design, we have conducted three foundational studies: a field study to capture how users currently operate devices; a survey to record user preference for the number of hands used for a variety of mobile tasks, and an empirical evaluation to understand how device size, interaction location, and movement direction influence thumb agility. In this chapter we describe these studies, their results, and implications for mobile device design.