A Tail of Two Mice

Discussion of Results

Trial Completion Time

Our hypothesis was proven only partially correct. Considering the mean times from all 3 trials together, the trials which allowed the scrolling mouse button resulted in faster times. The main emphasis in this study was to study the learning curve throughout the three trials in each of our two treatments. It was found that the times in the second trial were much improved from the first trial. This was expected because users were adapting to their environment. And if they used the Intellimouse, they were growing accustomed to its special feature quickly and utilising it effectively. But the most interesting discovery from are results was somewhat unexpected. The times from the second trial to the third trial dramatically increased. They increased on average from 20-40 seconds more to complete the trial. Two explanations may very well help us understand why this occurs.

• Subject Fatigue & Eye Strain - The entire experiment takes about 15 minutes. Those last 5 minutes are probably taking their toll on the subjects' eyes.
• Familiarity of List Names - Each trial has a separate list of names from which to select from. Our first list contains NBA players, second NFL players, and the third is NHL players. Many of the NHL players (Trial 3) have very weird names. In fact most University of Maryland student know far less about hockey players than they do about basketball flayers. This familiarity of the name may play a crucial role in subject responsivenes..

User Satisfaction

Despite faster times with the Intellimouse(scrolling button),the overall feelings expressed by some of our subjects was that the Intellimouse caused more headaches than it was worth. The mean satisfaction rating was 6.6 for Intellimouse treatments and 7.4 for regular mouse treatments. Some subjects chose to use the scroll button on a very limited basis during the Intellimouse trials. This put a twist on our results considering that those users who didn't like the Intellimouse didn't have to use it during the trials that allowed for it. Some subjects responded sarcastically with phrases such as "This is awful, I hate it" and "It kept jerking the screen". With regards to how people felt about the whole experiment altogether, there was much complaining floating around. One subject complained about eye strain by saying, "Will someone pay for the contacts I'm going to need after this." Many others complained about how frustrating it is to scroll through the entire list three times and still not find the target name.

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