FAQ for iPhone Study #3

Related Services: Mobile Device Usability Testing  

Hello world. We're an independent user research company that likes gadgets and likes gadgets to be usable. So why did we do this third and final iPhone study? Because we have a passion for user research and devices... and the iPhone was the first mainstream mobile device to incorporate multi-touch technology.

We also happen to be staffed by email and texting addicts. So it was logical for us to conduct some independent research - paid for only by ourselves - to examine the effectiveness of the iPhone for text entry compared to hard-key QWERTY phones and numeric phones.

Based on our last experience with releasing our internal studies, we want to reiterate:

• None of our clients paid us to do this study.
• No one outside User Centric suggested that we do this study.
• No one outside User Centric had any say in the study design, knowledge of the study prior to this release, or advance previews of the study results.
• We are wholly independent and are not owned by any larger organizations. This includes large technology companies (e.g. Microsoft, Google), mobile handset OEMS (e.g. LG, Nokia, Samsung, etc), or mobile carriers (e.g. T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless).
• We spent over 40 hours on analysis on keyboard errors. Our analysis of some of these errors is viewable in the excerpt of the Study 3 report.
• We are providing access to the full Study 3 report and complete data set with statistical analysis if you truly want to spend hours staring at error analysis, p-values and application of signal detection theory.
• 20 participants per group (iPhone owners, hard-key QWERTY owners, and numeric phone owners) - for a total of 60 participants - is sufficient for statistical significance between groups. For more information, numerous statistics books on study design, as well as statistics professors, can verify and further elaborate on statistical significance.

Respectfully,
The Team at User Centric

All Articles on this Study:

• Early Adopter iPhone User Study Identifies Baseline Issues with iPhone Interface
• QWERTY texters demonstrated drop in efficiency when texting on iPhone
• iPhone Research FAQ
• Gavin Lew interviewed by Rob Walch, host of Today in iPhone
• Direct comparison of iPhone and hard-key QWERTY phone owners indicates higher text entry error rate for iPhones
• FAQ for iPhone Study #3
• Related Services: Mobile Device Usability Testing 

About User Centric, Inc.

User Centric is a global consulting firm that focuses on improving user experience. We apply our expertise to projects involving handhelds, web sites, software, medical devices, print, packaging, and telephony services. Experience, quality, value, global reach and outstanding client services set us apart. Our services include user research, user interface design consulting, information architecture, usability testing, user interface evaluations, eye tracking, and online surveys. Learn more about us at www.UserCentric.com.