PDA 觸控筆剖面形狀的可用性之研究

A Study on the Usability of the Outline of the Stylus Cross-section

駱秋君(Chiu-Chun Lou)

指導教授 ： 梁成一

大同大學/設計學院/工業設計學系所/碩士(2007年)

摘要

中文摘要
目前個人數位助理（PDA）其功能、産品類型不論如何變化，都是以筆式輸入將資料紀錄儲存，以觸控筆為執行各種功能的界面。市售觸控筆的現有産品與文獻中一般筆的筆徑建議值不符，使用者使用觸控筆的經驗卻為不甚舒適，外觀尺寸及外觀形態卻不一定適合所有PDA的使用者需求。因此，本研究的主要目地是探討觸控筆的使用性及其較佳剖面形狀，爲使使用者在 PDA 上的書寫更舒適、穩定。
先期研究先針對觸控筆的使用性為探討，包含直徑5 mm的觸控筆的舒適度及消費者再購 PDA 觸控筆的原由兩大主題，以不同直徑和剖面形狀之觸控筆在PDA上進行輸入中文文字的實驗，之後填寫主觀問卷，其包含舒適度的評比；結果發現「直徑5 mm的觸控筆在辨識率、舒適度和穩定度是不合乎使用者需求」、再購非原廠PDA所附的觸控筆族群認為「握持直徑大的觸控筆較舒適且其質感佳」。結果發現觸控筆的尺寸對書寫成效，的確存在著顯著性影響。此外，研究PDA六種不同剖面形狀的文字輸入及繪圖之實驗；並針對觸控筆在紙上及PDA上書寫兩種狀態進行手寫輸入實驗。實驗中以輸入文字的輸入時間，繪圖的時間等為客觀評量，以及受測者之主觀舒適度評比進行分析。
研究結果顯示，觸控筆的剖面形狀的確會有不同程度的主觀舒適度：（1）在紙上書寫中文擁有較佳舒適度，結果為此族群「圓形、三角形、正方形、六角形」；然而，在臨摹素描則無顯著差異。（2）在PDA上書寫中文字較舒適：六角形、圓形；然而，臨摹素描：橢圓形、六角形。研究中所求得較舒適觸控筆之剖面形狀為「六角形」，可提供使用者購買相關產品時之參考，此外，並有助於日後相關筆式介面的設計與研究，以因應筆式輸入轉換的不同的作業狀態需求，降低書寫時的手部疲勞與傷害，增加舒適度以因應不同工作環境。

關鍵字

使用性、個人數位助理、剖面形狀、筆式輸入、舒適度、觸控筆

並列摘要

ABSTRACT
No matter how their functionality and product types change, today’s PDA products are all based on the pen-based style, namely storing data and interfacing with all kinds of tasks using a stylus. Since the diameter of styluses currently available on the market does not match with that of general pens as recommended by the referenced documents, users have had bad experiences in using styluses whose sizes and shapes do not meet the needs of all users. With this in mind, the main purpose of this research is to evaluate the usability and optimal cross-section of a stylus, so that users can use it on a PDA with better writing comfort and stability.
The pre-research explores the usability of the stylus as a start, covering two issues, namely the comfort of a 5mm stylus and the reasons that make consumers purchase a PDA stylus again. Experiments are conducted where styluses of different diameters and cross-sections are used to input Chinese characters, followed by filling out subjective questionnaires (by users) for assessment of user comfort. The result shows that “a 5mm stylus does not meet user needs in terms of recognition rate, comfort, and stability.” Consumers who purchased a stylus other than that provided by the original PDA provider have the opinion that “better comfortability and feel can be achieved with styluses with a larger diameter”. This shows that the size of a stylus has a distinctive effect on the writing performance. Furthermore, experiments are conducted on six different stylus profiles used to make text and graphic inputs; experiments are also made with manual input by writing on paper and on a PDA addressing the cross-section of the stylus. In these experiments, analyses are made based on objective assessment of text input time and drawing time, as well as the subject’s appraisal of the comfort perceived by each test subject.
The result of the research shows that the shape of the stylus cross-section provides different levels of objective comfort in that: (1) better comfort is distinct for writing Chinese characters on paper with the group of “circles, triangles, squares, and hexagons”; however, the difference is subtle for doing a copy or sketching graphics; (2) More comfort in writing Chinese characters on the PDA: hexagons and circles; yet, for copy or sketch: ovals and hexagons. Results conclude that better comfort is achieved with a stylus of a “hexagonal” cross-section. This can be provided as a reference for users who want to buy a stylus product. This is also helpful to future design and research of pen-based interfaces to better address the need for interchanging input methods between different operating conditions, thus reducing the fatigue and damage to the writing hand, and enhancing writing comfort for different working environments.

並列關鍵字

Usability、PDA、Cross-section、Pen-based、Comfor

參考文獻

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