While the results of this study may not have uncovered a new phenomena, they do provide an interesting look at the way mice are used. It was anticipated that large mouse pads would yield better performance than their smaller counterparts, but little to no difference was seen in the time it took users to complete a task. This came as a surprise, but it is logical since the tasks given to subjects did not force movement of the mouse past the limits of even the smallest mouse pad. More interesting is that real world applications also do not require movement beyond the limits of the smallest pad, yet it was our expectation based on real world experience that the small pad would be problematic. As this demonstrates and the comments of subjects support, the psychological impact of using different sized mouse pads may be more important than the impact on performance. Users felt confined by the small pad and were wary of falling off the edge when there was no danger, and felt intimidated by the size of the large pad although there was no need to use the large pad any differently than the smaller pads. If the psychological impact of mouse pad size is this significant compared to the impact on performance, it may be the case that the use of a mouse pad size that yields slightly slower performance but happier users would be preferable to using a pad which yields slightly better performance but dissatisfied users. The findings of this study suggest that it may be advisable to use a mouse pad the size one personally prefers regardless of performance, but further research is needed to confirm if this is sound advice.
There are many opportunities for further research in this area. Foremost among these opportunities is a study of the effects of different sized mouse pads in real world situations. Though the tasks used in this study were legitimate mousing tasks that tested all mousing skills, the strictly controlled laboratory setting did not effectively capture those events which happen in everyday usage situations that may lead to a more significant difference in performance across the mouse pad sized being observed. Real world mousing errors such as inadvertently moving the mouse while performing another task or moving the mouse and pad to temporarily free space on the desktop, both actions which often disrupt the relationship of the mouse position to cursor position, simply did not occur in this stringent study where users were concentrating on the mousing task, thus eliminating the primary source of potential benefits in using a larger mouse pad. Also not occurring in this study but common in real world applications is the problem of mouse movement not being registered due to poor tracking by a dirty mouse mechanism. In this experiment the mice were inspected and cleaned as needed, so there should have been no occurrences of this problem. In everyday usage, mice are rarely maintained properly, and improperly functioning mice lead to the mouse position not reflecting the cursor position, which the allowance of is as discussed the primary potential advantage for larger mouse pads.
Also of interest would be what impact, if any, the shape of mouse and the positioning of the user's hand, wrist, and arm it requires has on performance with different size mouse pads. The mice used in this experiment were what one might call generic, the same basic size and shape as most mice. Many of the more exotically shaped mice now available place the user's hand in a different position, generally believed to be more comfortable for extended use. What is unclear is if the user of such a mouse manipulates mouse differently than a generic mouse. While it is unlikely that more time consuming errors will appear with one size pad than another due to the way the ergonomic mouse is used versus a generic mouse, the arm motions required by the ergonomic may be different and raise performance differences as discussed in the section regarding Fitt's Law and other predictive measures in the previous section.
Furthermore, the area of simple versus compound motions to manipulate the mouse should also be investigated. This study showed no performance differences, but there was a difference in the minds of the users. One particular area of interest may be not having a mouse pad at all, instead using whatever desk space is available as the mouse surface (this would require a change in mouse technology or desk surface, as with current mice the higher friction surface of a mouse pad is needed for proper operation). The no-pad approach would greatly reduce the number of pickups induced by running out of mousing space, but the absence of a mouse pad might result in users paying less attention to their mousing actions, as well as the lack of mouse confinement leading to a wider range of motion requiring compound arm motions.
A final area of investigation could be the use of mice such as the Microsoft Mouse, which has a dial control for vertical scrolling in web browsers. With web browsing becoming an increasingly commonplace activity, the popularity of such mice is likely to rise, bringing along a change in mousing styles. New mousing styles may require a different approach to mouse pads for optimal performance.