User-centered comparison between classical and edge interaction on a heavy rugged tablet PC used in MCIs

Rugged tablet PCs used in sensitive situations and areas are different from the commonly commercialised handheld devices. Two different interaction techniques with a rugged tablet PC are evaluated. Two groups of users had to solve some tasks while interacting with the tablet user interafces (UIs) in a simulated Mass Casualty Incident scenario. This study compares two types of interaction with the tablet PC: 1) Classical interaction: The user while holding the tablet with one hand is interacting with the other hand 2) Edge interaction: The user is holding the tablet in both hands while using the thumbs for the interaction. The user study results for both interaction techniques reached comparable usability scores. Furthermore, the edge interaction technique shows better results for the fatigue and the exhaustion factors. This suggests that the edge interaction is more accepted in fatigue scenarios, but a special usability consideration has to be taken.