Ergonomic Design and Evaluation of Pointing Device for Schoolchildren

• Main Authors: Szu-Lan Yang, 楊斯嵐
• Other Authors: Xin-Xi Lai
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2003
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/88233932639822092292

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 工業設計學系碩博士班 === 91 === The research focuses on the usability of schoolchildren on computers’ pointing devices. The process of research includes four different stages: (1) investigate the different demands of school children when using pointing devices with different characteristics through using the usability engineering, (2) set up the evaluation factors and structure of correlations between different demands, (3) design and develop a process model aimed at the demands of the schoolchildren, and (4) compare the efficiency of the process model with the existing pointing devices, these comparison includes, (a) clicking performance, (b) drawing performance, (c) measurements on the angle of the wrists, and (d) subjective satisfactory. The goal of this research is to create a new pointing device that meets the ergonomic demands of the schoolchildren and make sure the safety of these operations. By the testing before design, we find out that 52.65% of the overall demands of schoolchildren on pointing devices fall on the control of directions, the control of movements, the speed of moving, accuracy on clicking, and the keystroke should not intervene the moving. With the demands of the elastic moving, easy learning, get rid of the wires and the maturity of the schoolchildren’s physiological function, these demands have already reached for 78.96% of the overall demands. By using Interpretive Structural Modeling to analyze the correlations between the factors, we found out that the new design for the schoolchildren should come with the following characteristics: (a) no wires attached to the mouse pointer, (b) combination of the keystrokes and ways for moving, (c) shrinking in size, and (d) fast moving. Through the design and the development of the process model on new pointing device, the new device includes, (1) unlimited operation, (2) joint operations of many fingers, and (3) combination of the keystrokes and ways for moving. These three conceptions meet the demands of the schoolchildren. At last, the testing performance shows the results of outstanding ergonomic design of the new pointing device. The wrists only form a horizontal radial deviation of 0.4° and 4.0° of wrist extension compared with the natural position. In addition, the clicking performance is at the average of 0.966 second. Furthermore, the stability of drawing is 12.5% better than traditional pointing devices.