Visualizing Directions and
Schedules on Handheld Devices
A Pilot Study of Maps vs. Text and
Color vs. Monochrome
Pankaj Thakkar
Irina Ceaparu
Cemal Yilmaz
Introduction
 What is ROVER?


Location aware information service
Info customized for User, Device & Location
 Project Description


Developing UI for In-building Rover Client
Study of presenting info for navigation directions
and scheduling
Previous Work
 Graphic directions are faster and more accurate than
text

Pilot/Airport Study: Display IV: 4 treatments
 Colors improve time performance and accuracy

Info Extraction: Display IV: 4 treatments
 We focus on two specific tasks on handheld devices
with limited treatment
Experiment
 Hypothesis
1.
2.
Colors increase performance time and accuracy
Maps increase performance time and accuracy
 Variables



IV1 (# of colors):
IV2 (display):
DV:
5 colors vs. 2 colors
maps vs. text directions
performance time, # of errors
 Subjects: 20 (within subjects)
Procedure: Color vs. No Color
 Tasks
1.
2.
Find the next slot to schedule a meeting
Find the # of schedulable slots in a range
Procedure: Maps vs. Text

Tasks
3.
Follow directions to reach a destination
Results and Observations
 Color vs. No Color


Subjective preference for color
No statistically significant results though
Results and Observations
 Maps vs. Text


Subjective preference for Maps
No statistically significant results though
Conclusions
 Increase # of subjects to get good stats
 Our interfaces can be improved


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Various treatments possible for the IV’s we studied
Size of maps and text can be increased
Use contrasting colors
 People need time to become accustomed to the task
and technology