Sensumotor transformation of input devices and the impact on practice and task difficulty

In the present study, the usability of two laptop input devices, touchpad and trackpoint, is evaluated. The focus is set on the impact of sensumotor transformation of input devices on practice and task difficulty. Thirty novices and 14 experts operated either touchpad or trackpoint over a period of 1600 trials of a point-click task. As hypothesized, novices and experts operated the touchpad by 15% faster compared to the trackpoint. For novices, performance rose distinctly and levelled off after 960 trials. This consolidation occurred earlier than reported in literature (1400-1600 trials) and, contrary to the assumption, learning was similar for touchpad and trackpoint. The impact of task difficulty dropped remarkably by practice, which points at a more general than specific task learning. In conclusion, ergonomic guidelines can be derived for the user-specific optimization of the usage of touchpad and trackpoint. Actual and potential applications of this research include the user-specific optimization of laptop input devices. Within the theoretical framework of psychomotor models, a profound knowledge of user behaviour in human-computer interaction is provided. Ergonomic guidelines can be derived for the efficient usage of laptop input devices and an optimized hardware and software design.