Drag and Drop All Day Long

The Challenge: Determine the best default speed and sensitivity settings for different sizes of notebook touchpads.

The Approach:

• Test user speed and accuracy during target selection and dragging tasks using a range of touchpad sizes and sensitivity/speed settings.
• Select a sub-set of parameters to test using a central composite design.
• Create a mathematical model that predicts user performance for a specific touchpad setting.

The Result: The model predicts the optimum default settings for a particular touchpad size. This model is used to create design specifications for touchpad software and drivers.

Services: Human factors, User research, Usability testing