Usability of the stylus pen in mobile electronic documentation

Stylus pens are often used with mobile information devices. However, few studies have examined the stylus’ simple movements because the technical expertise to support documentation with stylus pens has not been developed. This study examined the usability of stylus pens in authentic documentation tasks, including three main tasks (sentence, table, and paragraph making) with two types of styluses (touchsmart stylus and mobile stylus) and a traditional pen. The statistical results showed that participants preferred the traditional pen in all criteria. Because of inconvenient hand movements, the mobile stylus was the least preferred on every task. Mobility does not provide any advantage in using the stylus. In addition, the study also found inconvenient hand support using a stylus and different feedback between a stylus and a traditional pen.