行動電話主選單設計研究：科技生活型態與圖示隱喻

Abstract

行動電話的快速發展與激烈競爭，使其產品相關研究越顯重要，無論在使用性或介面元素設計上均必須是容易理解且操作容易的。在行動電話介面之圖示設計，則與隱喻概念密不可分，圖示為圖形化的隱喻，目的是用來暗示功能，其所隱含的隱喻概念合適與否，直接影響其外觀呈現，並間接影響對於功能的詮釋程度。亦即，圖示隱喻設計的優劣，會對使用者預測聯想產生很大的影響，圖示隱喻因而扮演圖示設計中非常重要之角色。 本研究主要目的在於探討不同科技敏感度族群，對於行動電話主選單功能需求與各自代表之圖形化隱喻為何。研究採用採用卡片分類法與共同發現法進行資料蒐集，探討科技生活形態族群中，高科技敏感度與中科技敏感度族群所需之行動電話主選單類目與其心智模式，並試圖激盪出各族群對於類目之圖示隱喻，以及各圖示隱喻概念汲取。 分析結果歸納出高科技敏感度族群之行動電話主選單類目包含13項類目；中科技敏感度族群則包含10項類目。研究發現高科技敏感度族群認為行動電話是整合3C與強大多媒體，主選單重視類目分類明確性，次選單強調類目以特徵分類並階層化，圖示隱喻傾向於功能多元豐富、科技導向且主動使用性顯著之圖示隱喻概念；中科技敏感度族群以溝通傳遞性質與私人瑣事處理為首要，心智模式傾向類目的單純，圖示隱喻傾向於功能簡易、傳統生活化且低主動使用性之圖示隱喻概念。圖示隱喻取徑上，均以階層與功能導向之隱喻取徑觀點較明顯，圖示外觀以具體特徵圖形為首。

The importance of relevant research on mobile products increases as the rapid development and keen competition of the mobile phone business. The comprehensiveness and operational convenience of the interface design are then the most concern. Speaking of the icon design as the interface between mobile phone and users, appropriate metaphor shall be taken into consideration. Icons, a kind of graphical metaphor, should be designed to let users quickly catch the exact ideas of what the icons are for. Thus, the iconic metaphor shall be carefully selected to visually represent the targeted functions which in turn, could enhance the user’s comprehensive levels. The iconic metaphor plays a vital role in icon design. The primary research purposes were to investigate the needs of end users with various technological sensitivities on main menu functions of mobile phones, as well as the appropriate iconic metaphors. The card sorting and co-discovery methods were adopted to collect users’ data. Accordingly, the requirements and mental models of highly or medium technological sensitive users toward the main menu of mobile phones were generated. Also, what types of iconic metaphor might be accepted by end users were discussed too. The result showed that a total of 13 items were needed on the main menu of a mobile phone for the highly technological sensitive users, while the medium technological sensitive users required 10 items only. The study discovered that highly technological sensitive users viewed a mobile phone like a 3C or multimedia device. They demanded that the main menu of a mobile phone shall be charily categorized and the secondary menus shall be organized hierarchically according functional characteristics. The acceptable metaphors for this user group tends to be multifunctional, technology-oriented and active controlled. As for the medium technological sensitive users, the main concern of using mobile phones is to communicate and to deal with personal affairs. Their mental models seem to prefer the icons with simplicity features. As a result, the acceptable metaphors of this user group incline to be simple functioned, traditional life style and less active controlled, which were categorized as the hierarchical and function-oriented types of metaphors. Finally, concrete objects were used by them to visually represent icons.