Evaluation of the impact of tablet screen size on children tracing performance | Artificial Life and Robotics Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

Evaluation of the impact of tablet screen size on children tracing performance

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Artificial Life and Robotics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

    We’re sorry, something doesn't seem to be working properly.

    Please try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, please contact support so we can address the problem.

Abstract

Tablet PCs are used in various situations in everyday life. Many researchers found that tablets have the potential to enhance young children in learning; however, the optimal of tablet size on finger tracing for young children was not investigated. In this paper, we explored the impact of three different sizes of touch screen tablets: iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab 7″, and Samsung Galaxy S4 on efficiency and usability for young children ages between 4 and 6 year. Our study focused on the mechanics of tracing alphabets using finger on capacitive-touch tablets, while its outcome has potential implications towards tablet screen size for interfaces to support finger tracing on such devices. The performances were recorded and observed for the analysis of the data with respect to task efficiency and usability. Then, we adopted the Smileyometer based on a 1–5 Likert Scale as an instrument to measure perceived satisfaction. The usability evaluation’s results showed no significant difference in speed and accuracy performance. Nevertheless, tracing the alphabet on iPad was easier, more attractive and was able to increase more attention span than others. As well as the result from the Smileyometer, all of the participants preferred and felt more comfortable to use iPad.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
¥17,985 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price includes VAT (Japan)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

Explore related subjects

Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.

References

  1. Dinehart LH, Manfra L (2013) Associations between early fine motor development and later math and reading achievement in early elementary school. Early Educ Dev 24(2):138–161

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Shuler C, Winters N, West M (2013) The future of mobile learning: implications for policy makers and planners. UNESCO, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  3. Mouza C (2005) Using technology to enhance early childhood learning: the 100 days of school project. Educ Res Eval 11(6):513–528

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Murray T, Olcese R (2011) Teaching and learning with iPads, ready or not? TechTrends 55:42–48

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Cooper Z (2005) Developmentally appropriate digital environments for young children. Libr Trends 54:286–302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Tahnk J (2011) Digital milestones: raising a tech-savvy kid. Parenting.com, November, pp 78–84

  7. O’Mara J, Laidlaw L (2011) Living in the iworld: two literacy researchers reflect on the changing texts and literacy practices of childhood. Engl Teach Pract Crit 10:149–159

    Google Scholar 

  8. McManis L, Gunnewig S (2012) Finding the education in educational technology with early learners. Young Child 67:14–24

    Google Scholar 

  9. Botella F, Moreno J, Peñalver A(2014) How efficient can be a user with a tablet versus a smartphone?, Interaction’14, Sep 10–12, 2014, Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Spain

  10. Quinn J, Tran T (2010) Attractive phones don’t have to work better: independent effects of attractiveness, effectiveness, and efficiency on perceived usability. In: Proc CHI 2010, ACM Press, New York, pp 353–362

  11. Kim K, Sundar S, Park E (2011) The effect of screen-size and communication modality on psychology of mobile device users. In: Proc CHI 2011, ACM Press, New York, pp 1207–1212

  12. Raptis D, Tselios N, Kjeldskov, Skov M (2013), Does size matter?: investigating the impact of mobile phone screen size on users’ perceived usability, effectiveness and efficiency. In: Proceedings of the 15th international conference on human–computer interaction with mobile devices and service—MobileHCI ‘13, pp 127–136

  13. Henze N, Rukzio E, Boll S (2011) 100,000,000 taps: analysis and improvement of touch performance in the large. In: Proceedings of the 13th international conference on human–computer interaction with mobile devices and services—MobileHCI ‘11. ACM Press, New York, USA

  14. Lee S, Zhai S (2009) The performance of touch screen soft buttons. In: Proceedings of the 27th international conference on human factors in computing systems—CHI ‘09. ACM Press, New York, USA

  15. Karlson A (2006) Target size study for one-handed thumb use on small touchscreen devices. In: Proceedings of the 8th conference on Human–computer interaction with mobile devices and services—MobileHCI ‘06. ACM Press, New York, USA

  16. Park S, Han H, Park J, Cho Y (2008) Touch key design for target selection on a mobile phone. In: Proceedings of the 10th international conference on Human computer interaction with mobile devices and services—MobileHCI ‘08. ACM Press, New York, USA

  17. Perry K, Hourcade JP (2008) Evaluating one handed thumb tapping on mobile touchscreen devices. Proc Gr Interface 2008:57–64

    Google Scholar 

  18. Sears A, Revis D, Swatski J, Crittenden R, Shneiderman B (1993) Investigating touchscreen typing: the effect of keyboard size on typing speed. Behav Inf Technol 12:17–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Hanna L, Risden K, Alexander J (1997) Guidelines for usability testing with children. Interactions 5:9–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Read J, Macfarlane S (2002) Endurability, engagement and expectations: measuring children’s fun. Interact Des Child 2:1–23

    Google Scholar 

  21. Bevan N (2009) International standards for usability should be more widely used. J Usability Stud 4(3):106–113

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Information Technology, Thepsatri Rajabhat University, Lopburi, Thailand

    Ratchadaporn Amornchewin

  2. Department of Computing, Faculty of Science, Silpakorn University, Nakorn Pathom, Thailand

    Karanya Sitdhisanguan

Authors
  1. Ratchadaporn Amornchewin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Karanya Sitdhisanguan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ratchadaporn Amornchewin.

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Amornchewin, R., Sitdhisanguan, K. Evaluation of the impact of tablet screen size on children tracing performance. Artif Life Robotics 22, 191–196 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-016-0343-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-016-0343-0

Keywords