Choose Popovers over Buttons for iPad Questionnaires

When designing questionnaires for iPad an important design decision is whether to use popover listings or button listings for representing singlechoice selections. In this paper we examined effects of each listing method on performance and subjective preferences when performing a non-linear selection task. A quantitative experiment (N = 39) with the two within-factors (1) listing method (popover versus button) and (2) task completion time (15s versus 7s versus 5s) was conducted. Results show subjects performing significantly better when using popovers, which they also strongly preferred. We attribute this to lower extraneous cognitive load and shorter forms, ultimately requiring less scrolling. Results also show the expected effect of task completion time on performance: the longer the allotted time, the higher the test scores.