A New and Simple Method and Tool for the Evaluation of Input Devices

Abstract

The known Fitts law model is mainly used in the field of HCI for office applications in order to evaluate interaction devices. This paper presents the new method DEVICE that is also available as free stationary software tool and is applied in the field of HMI for the evaluation of pointing devices. Tests with DEVICE and Fitts' method were conducted with machine operators under industrial environments to determine the suitability of thirty different pointing devices The comparison between DEVICE and Fitts' law model shows, that the results of certain partial tests correlate with each other. DEVICE can be used as substitute for Fitts' law model and offers additional features such as e.g. error rates and pointing deviation. The advantages of DEVICE are shorter test times (only one tenth of the test times required with the Fitts' method), more diverse tests for the test persons, a parameter that can be exactly evaluated by the person who is in charge of the test and the comparability between different studies.

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