Effect of icon size, icon position and sex on clicking motion when operating smartphones with single hand

Abstract

Nowadays, increasingly more situations exist where smartphones are operated with one hand, requiring an in-depth understanding of human–computer interaction in single-hand scenarios. 104 volunteers (57 men, 47 women) participated in this study. We aimed to explore thumb movements with the right and left hand on smartphone touchscreens at different icon sizes (50, 80, 110 and 140 rpx) in different operation areas (a 4*7 icon matrix). The results partially conformed to Fitts’ Law. The movement time (MT) significantly increased as the icon size decreased, but this effect was not found over 110 rpx. The MT increased with distance in the vertical direction, but icons with the same horizontal distance had different MTs, indicating that one-handed operation restricted the click on the same side. Additionally, subjects rated 140 rpx better than other sizes, and men clicked faster than women. Suggestions regarding one-handed interface design for different hands of different sexes are provided.

Practitioner summary: This study investigated how icon size, position and sex influenced one-thumb click usability on touch-screen mobile phones with different hands of different sexes. The results indicate single-hand operation partially conformed to Fitts’ Law. We suggested the most economical and comfortable size and the fast operation area in one-handed interface design.

Abbreviations: MT: movement time; ID: index of difficulty; RPX: responsive pixel; NASA-TLX: task load index of National Aeronautics and Space Administration; ANOVA: analysis of variance.

Keywords:

• One-handed thumb interaction
• touch-screen mobile phone
• click gesture
• interface design

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The results kept the same when the data set is reduced to only right-handed individuals who preferably use the right thumb for cell phone use.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant #31571131] and 20-163-12-ZT-001-006-04 to R.T.