title: Performance study on touch-pens size in three screen tasks.
abstract: Experiments were aimed at investigating the performance of various sizes of touch-pens. The touch-pens were of three different lengths (80, 110 and 140 mm) and four different diameters (5.5, 8, 11 and 15 mm). Three screen tasks were used for determining a reference of ideal dimensions of a pen-based product. Sixteen subjects used 12 touch-pens to perform pointing-and-clicking, writing and drawing tasks. The subjects were asked to rank their preference after each task in the test. The results showed that the length of touch-pens should be designed to extend beyond the handbreadth when gripped. A touch-pen that facilitates natural pointing-and-clicking, writing and drawing tasks each requires a suitable diameter size. However, these tasks are typically performed together, in particular, the pointing-and-clicking and writing tasks. The recommended diameter for all three combined tasks is 8 mm. This finding indicates that selecting a touch-pen with a diameter of 8 mm and a length of 100 mm or longer is suitable for all pen-based devices.
authors.affiliation: Department of Industrial Design, National Cheng Kung University, 1, Ta-Hsueh Road, Tainan, Taiwan 70101, Taiwan. fonggong@mail.ncku.edu.tw
authors.forename: Fong-Gong
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Shuyi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Luo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016288:Computer Terminals; D004867:Equipment Design; D006804:Ergonomics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013624:Taiwan; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014110:Touch; D014584:User-Computer Interface