At the 4th Eye Tracking Conference on User Experience, Michael Schiessl will present an eye square study showing, that interactions with tabletPCs are turning invisible and hence do not require visual attention anymore.
Visit his talk "Touched beyond recognition - How users experience the iPad" on June 10 at 10:30 am.
At the end of second quarter 2010 the apple iPad has gained a 95 percent share sales of tablet PCs. As a main reason for the breakthrough of the iPad we consider its outstanding multi-touch display, which had not been available for previous tablet PCs. Running the same operating system as the earlier iPod or iPhone, one core component comes into awareness of the user: applets.
Ongoing debates about the iPad even amplify its popularity. To gauge user experience with the iPad and scientifically approach an understanding of how people deal with the iPad, we tested 12 users in Europe (UK and Germany). Target domains were social media (Facebook) and German and English eJournals, such as the magazine “Iconist” (announced as the first iPad-only magazine).
Scope of our study was to gather explicit user statements (survey questions plus in-depth interviews) based on conventional usability methods combined with implicit user behavior extracted from neurological data (EEG, GSR) and eye tracking analysis.
Results of the study give ample evidence for interaction turning invisible mainly based on touch interaction, which is not requiring visual attention anymore. Buttons and keys for navigation eventually disappear and after getting used to “the new style”, users more easily handle the tested applications.
