Mobile Web Browsing: Usability Stud. Categories and Subject Descriptors. General Terms, страница 7

All the participants performed same four tasks on desktop and mobile browser. They performed each task on desktop browser before they performed on mobile, and the fact that the tasks were simple, easy and quicker to perform on desktop; they expected similar user experience even on small-screen mobile phone. In the table 1 below, the observed total number of different incidents participants encountered while performing all the tasks on mobile browser are presented.

One of the major incidents observed during the test was participants visibly seen lost very often in long web pages, and so they needed a lot of careful scrolling to locate the right information on the small screen. The fact that they said something clearly negative about the web pages considerable number of

web browsing as they experienced. Even then, there were few occasions when participants mentioned that viewing web pages on mobile is an interestingly a good idea. The participant who encountered only two incidents completed just the first two tasks on the mobile phone, could not complete the third and did not attempt the fourth task. The participant who had the highest number of twenty-six incidents attempted all the tasks but only managed to complete the first task on mobile phone.

Table 1. Total count of incidents observed while participants performed tasks on mobile browser

5.2 Task Completed

All the twelve participants completed the task 1 on both browsers, but only three participants managed to complete the task 4 on mobile (see Figure 1). Participants did not have any significant problem on desktop browser. But, on mobile browser, only one participant was able to complete all four tasks. The mean total number of tasks completed for desktop browser was nearly 4 out of 4 and for mobile browser was just above 2.

Number of Particiapants who completed each task on Desktop and Mobile Browser