Cursor Control Device Test Battery: Development and Application

Abstract

A test battery was developed for cursor control device evaluation. Four tasks were taken from ISO 9241–9, and three from previous studies conducted at NASA. The tasks focused on basic movements such as pointing, clicking, and dragging. Four cursor control devices were evaluated with and without Extravehicular Activity (EVA) gloves to identify desirable cursor control device characteristics for NASA missions: a large trackball, a Hulapoint mouse, a small trackball, and an aircraft trackball. Conclusions include: 1) the test battery is an efficient tool for differentiating among input devices; 2) devices used with gloves have to be larger, and should allow good hand positioning to counteract the lack of tactile feedback; 3) none of the devices, as designed, were ideal for operation with EVA gloves.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Everett

Holden

Whitmore

(2005). Optimal touch screen display object sizes for microgravity. Poster presented at HCI International 2005, Las Vegas, NV.

Gillan

D. J.

Holden

K. L.

Adam

Rudisill

Magee

(1992). How should Fitts Law be applied to human-computer interaction? Interacting with Computers, 4, 291–313.

Holden

K. L.

Wilmington

R. P.

Whitmore

(1991). Cursor control device evaluations for Space Station Freedom: A summary. LESC-29974.

ISO 9241–9: 2000. Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs)—Part 9: Requirements for non-keyboard input devices.

Jellinek

H. D.

Card

S. K.

(1990). Powermice and user performance. Proceedings for the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems—CHI 90, New York: ACM, pp. 213–220.

Soukoreff

R. W.

MacKenzie

I. S.

(2004). Towards a standard for pointing device evaluation, perspectives on 27 years of Fitts law research in HCI. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 61, 751–789.