Adapting Web Page Tables on Mobile Web Browsers: Results from Two Controlled Empirical Studies

Abstract

Displaying web page content in mobile screens is a challenging task and users often face difficulty retrieving the relevant data. It can force them to adopt a time-consuming hunt-and-peck strategy. Application of design principles can improve the view of the webpage data content and reduce the time consumption in viewing it. This is especially true with HTML tabular data content. This thesis discusses the background and applications of the gestalt design principle techniques to HTML tabular data content. An empirical study was performed to investigate the usability of two types of the adaptive styles namely, single and multi-layout. This thesis also compared the adaptive styles that use gestalt principles with simple HTML tabular data on mobile screens. A controlled study which involved university students was performed showed that the adaptive layout styles improved the efficiency of finding information in the website by gestalt principles usage and eliminating horizontal scroll.