This study aims to provide an efficient guideline for soft-key mapping method in mobile phones, by examining the navigation technique which maps various functions to a single button for the interaction design characteristic to mobile phones.Soft-key m...
This study aims to provide an efficient guideline for soft-key mapping method in mobile phones, by examining the navigation technique which maps various functions to a single button for the interaction design characteristic to mobile phones.Soft-key mapping technique can be divided into; '1-soft-key method,' which uses only one soft-key in the lower section of mobile phone' screen during navigation; '2-soft-key method,' using 2 soft-keys; and '3-soft-key method,' which uses 3 soft-keys. Based on preliminary research, this study offers; a menu structure which can be used for both research 1 and experiment 1; 3 different levels of soft-key method based on such common menu structure; and 7 common assignments that need to be tackled with. In research 1, this study conducts a comparative study of soft-key mapping method according to common assignments, using the KLM (Keystroke-Level Model) analysis, which is one of the GOMS (Model of Goals, Operators, Methods, and Selection rules) analysis methods. In experiment 1, the common menu structure and assignments are applied to 50 participants in 3 different levels of soft-key mapping method. The result of the KLM analysis reveals no difference among the three levels, while in the experiment, significant difference appeared in the three levels. As a result of experiment 1, no difference was detected between the 1 and 3-soft-key methods, while 2 soft-key method was the most time-consuming in terms of operation hours and showed the most frequent click errors and had the lowest convenience point.This study indicates that, in the process of constructing menu structure in mobile phones, the soft-key mapping method, among other important factors known by preceding research, must be taken into consideration as an important factor in constructing user's navigation.