A Field Experiment on Capabilities Involved in Mobile Navigation Task

An increasing usage of mobile technologies has been seen among diverse age groups of users in recent years. The limited screen size and multiple interaction styles inevitably produce much more workload on mobile technologies use; thus it is necessary to investigate the possible capabilities involved in mobile navigation tasks. The particular interests of this study are the cognitive capabilities, namely spatial ability, short-term memory and processing speed and attention, as well as the visual abilities including vision acuity and visual perception of digital screens. Fifteen participants who covered a wide age range attended in this field experiment to complete several navigation tasks with three levels of complexity using an experimental mobile application. The results suggest that the capability of processing speed and attention is more important than the other capabilities for navigation performance and subjective preference. Specifically, the capability of processing speed and attention is significantly correlated with user characteristics, including age, education experience, and technology experience. The results can help designers to address the major capabilities involved in mobile navigation tasks to make relevant allowance to include more possible users, such as elderly people.