Improving Web interaction on small displays

Soon many people will retrieve information from the Web using handheld, pal msized or even smaller computers. Although these computers have dramaticall y increased in sophistication, their display size is - and will remain - mu ch smaller than their conventional, desktop counterparts. Currently, browse rs for these devices present Web pages without taking account of the very d ifferent display capabilities. As part of a collaborative project with Reut ers, we carried out a study into the usability impact of small displays for retrieval tasks. Users of the small screen were 50% less effective in comp leting tasks than the large screen subjects. Small screen users used a very substantial number of scroll activities in attempting to complete the task s. Our study also provided us with interesting insights into the shifts in approach users seem to make when using a small screen device for retrieval. These results suggest that the metaphors useful in a full screen desktop e nvironment are not the most appropriate for the new devices. Design guideli nes are discussed, here, proposing directed access methods for effective sm all screen interaction. In our ongoing work, we are developing such 'meta-i nterfaces' which will sit between the small screen user and the 'convention al' Web page. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserv ed.