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 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