Development of a press and drag method for hyperlink selection on smartphones

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>The present study developed a novel touch method for hyperlink selection on smartphones consisting of two sequential finger interactions: press and drag motions. The novel method requires a user to press a target hyperlink, and if a touch error occurs he/she can immediately correct the touch error by dragging the finger without releasing it in the middle. The method was compared with two existing methods in terms of completion time, error rate, and subjective rating. Forty college students participated in the experiments with different hyperlink sizes (4-pt, 6-pt, 8-pt, and 10-pt) on a touch-screen device. When hyperlink size was small (4-pt and 6-pt), the novel method (time: 826 msec; error: 0.6%) demonstrated better completion time and error rate than the current method (time: 1194 msec; error: 22%). In addition, the novel method (1.15, slightly satisfied, in 7-pt bipolar scale) had significantly higher satisfaction scores than the two existing methods (0.06, neutral).</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> This study developed a novel method for hyperlink selection on smartphones. </LI> <LI> The novel method consists of two sequential interactions (press motion and drag motion). </LI> <LI> The initial interaction presses a target hyperlink and highlights the selected hyperlink. </LI> <LI> The subsequent interaction drags a finger to the target when an error occurs at the initial interaction. </LI> <LI> The novel method demonstrated better performances and satisfaction when hyperlink size was small. </LI> </UL> </P>