Understanding One-Handed Use of Mobile Devices

Abstract

Mobile phones are poised to be the world’s most pervasive technology, already outnumbering land lines, personal computers, and even people in some counties. Unfortunately, solutions to address the usability challenges of using devices on the move have not progressed as quickly as the technology or user distribution. Our work specifically considers situations in which a mobile user may have only one hand available to operate a device. To both motivate and offer recommendations for one-handed mobile design, we have conducted three foundational studies: a field study to capture how users currently operate devices; a survey to record user preference for the number of hands used for a variety of mobile tasks, and an empirical evaluation to understand how device size, interaction location, and movement direction influence thumb agility. In this chapter we describe these studies, their results, and implications for mobile device design.