3. Results

3.1 Clicking tasks results

Mean time to complete the clicking task with each mouse pad size appear, along with standard deviations, in Table 1, and are also shown in Figure 1 with 95% confidence intervals. An ANOVA performed upon the clicking task data failed to show a significant difference for task completion times across the three mouse pad sizes, F(2, 89) = 0.20 (p<0.05) versus F-critical of 3.1. In addition to not showing a statistically significant difference for completion times, there is no simple trend to be found in mean completion times. More complete statistical analysis and raw data can be found in Appendix 1

Figure 1

3.2 Dragging tasks results

Mean time to complete the dragging task with each mouse pad size appear, along with standard deviations, in Table 2, and are also shown in Figure 2 with 95% confidence intervals. An ANOVA performed upon the dragging task data failed to show a significant difference for task completion times across the three mouse pad sizes, F(2, 89) = 0.54 (p<0.05) versus F-critical of 3.1. Though the results fail to show a statistically significant difference, there is a observable inverse relation between mouse pad size and mean completion time. More complete statistical analysis and raw data can be found in Appendix 1

Figure 2

3.3 Mouse repositionings

Mean number of times subjects lifted the mouse from the mouse pad for repositioning are listed in Table 3. Due to the sparseness of repositionings, an ANOVA was not performed to identify any main effect. As a result of this sparseness, one subject has a significant ability to sway the mean result, and the raw data (link to it) shows two subjects with repositioning results notably higher than the other 28 subjects. If the results from those two subjects are disallowed, the mean number of repositionings is greatly altered and a trend is observable, but an ANOVA shows no main effect related to mouse pad size, F(2,83) = 1.26 (p<0.05) versus F-critical of 3.1. These mean results are also listed in Table 3.

3.4 Subjective preferences - favorite/least favorite

Results of the subjective questions regarding favorite and least favorite mouse pad can be found in Table 4.

3.5 Subjective preferences - suggestions for size alteration

Mean results, with standard deviations, for responses to a subjective question as to how the subject would change the size of the mouse pad in question appear in Table 5 (1 = decrease size significantly, 9 = increase size significantly). An ANOVA on these results showed a main effect directly related to mouse pad size, F(2, 89) = 32.9 (p<0.05) versus F-critical of 3.1.