Test Report:
Ergonomic Evaluation of 3D Mice

Introduction
D mice pro ide support for manipulating and na igating
in AD applications. Fraunhofer Institute for IndustrialEngineering IAO as as ed
Dconne ion m H toconduct a scientific stud assessing the ergonomic enefits of or ing ith a Space ouse Enterprise. Healthrelated issues such as the strain of the hand-arm-s stemand the impact on the sitting posture as ell as the usailit and user e perience ere e amined. Finall , theeffect on the producti itas anal ed under la oratorconditions.

ethodolog
he studas split into a la orator stud and a field
as to measure
stud . he goal of the la orator studand o ser e human factors issues, health-related issues
as ell as producti it . his part of the stud
as conducted ith 1 engineering students of an ad anced
AD course at the ni ersit of Stuttgart. he participants ere on a erage 2 ears old, 2 female, 12 male,
all used the mouse ith the right hand, although onl 12
ere right-handed,
2 ears of AD e perience, andnone used a D mouse for more than testing purposes
efore.
he participants recei ed a standardi ed and randomi ed
AD tas to e sol ed under o ser ation ith a traditional setup of e oard and mouse in
10. After a
training period of one ee
ith a pro ided D mouse, asecond, similar tas
as gi en to e sol ed ith a Dmouse. he t o tas s ere of similar difficult ut reuired a different set of tools to sol e. During the tas s
all mouse mo ements and clic s ere logged as ell as
the od posture monitored see Figures 1 and 2 .

he field studas aimed to ards professionals or ing
ith AD soft are on a dailasis. he participants
ere on a erage 8 ears old, 2 female, 8 male, all ere
right-handed,
1ears of AD e perience 0.
0ears ,
hours of AD per da , alread used a Dmouse
Dconne ion, the participants or as either
engineers, designers, or consultants.
his part of the stud relied on semi-structured inter ie s
as ell as the standardi ed and alidated uestionnaires
S Si and Attra Diffii. Similar to the la orator stud thet o conditions of or ing ith and ithout a D mouseere e amined. he four participants alread using a D
mouse stopped or ing ith it for three ee s. o thesi participants not using a D mouse efore, a Spaceouse Enterprise as pro ided. he inter ie s ere
conducted efore and after this three- ee change ofde ices.

esultsthere is strong e idence that using a D mouse leads tohealthier sitting posture upright and supported
thechair caused
ha ing oth arms on the deshileor ing in a AD application sho n in Figure 2 as ane ample for one test su ect . he positi e effect inposture is supported
ans ers gi en in the field interie s.
As the D mouse ta es o er tas s traditionall done ith
the right-hand mouse, the load on the right hand-arm-without 3D mouse
Figure 1 Two participants working on a CAD task while thepostures are being monitored

Figure 2 Change in sitting posturewith 3D mouse

2000“Dangerous amount of handmovement”iii

1872
1500

1000

690
132

1336

49

280

32
50

500

0
Clicks left

1001

974

w/o 3D mousew/ 3D mouse

Clicks middle

Clicks right

Figure 3 Finger movements per hour

Mouse wheelt(13)=2.52, p=0.028

system is reduced significantly. The number of mousewheel movements (used in NX to zoom in and out of themodel) is reduced significantly (t(13)=2.52, p=0.028),
leading to a total reduction of finger movements by
28.6% (see Figure 3). This reduces the amount of finger
movements from a “dangerous” level (over 1500 movements/houriii) to an acceptable level.
The amount of mouse clicks and distance covered by themouse was not reduced significantly during the laboratory study. However, it is expected that the amountand distance is reduced in a professional setting as thefunction keys are used more frequently and thetraditional mouse is used less for navigating inside of theCAD application’s menus. This hypothesis was confirmed
during the field study by all participants, stating that theload is distributed more evenly on both hands. Threeparticipants who had a tenosynovitis in the right arm
reported decreased strain by using a 3D mouse.
Productivity
The productivity could be increased significantly under
the condition of using the 3D mouse. The time necessary
to solve the randomized task went down by 28% (from96 minutes to 68 minutes to solve each task; t(13)=5.28,p<0.001) using a 3D mouse in the laboratory study. Two
confounding factors may have influenced this result inboth directions: the test subjects may have gotten fasterusing the CAD application due to more training. On theother hand, one week of part-time training is notenough to take full advantage of the 3D mouse and its
functions, slowing the participants down.
In a professional setting the productivity between multiple workstations can be raised by providing a more efficient way of transferring the personal settings between
multiple work spaces. For beginners the tutorial should
be advertised more prominently and should go into
greater detail to make the first steps easier.
Usability and User Experience

The workflow of using the SpaceMouse Enterprise in a
professional setting shows an excellent level of usability

with a SUS score of 86.3 compared to an only OK level ofusability (SUS: 62.3) for the traditional workflow withkeyboard and normal mouse.
The AttrakDiff questionnaire shows a very high level ofuser experience, with a high hedonic (“Is the productappealing?”) and pragmatic (“Does the user achieve hisgoals?”) quality as well as a high level of attractiveness forthe end user.
After 1.5 weeks, five out of six participants describedworking with the 3D mouse as moderately difficult; after
three weeks, five out of six participants described it aseasy or very easy. The CAD experience was described as
more “fluid” and more “harmonic” using the 3D mouse.
Participants using a 3D mouse for the first time (both inthe laboratory and the field study) reported that thedirection of the controller cap axes was not intuitive at firstuse. These users could benefit from better instructions on
how to use the controller cap of the 3D mouse.
Furthermore, the allocation of function keys to the
explaining pictograms of the ondevice screen could be
optimized by reducing the space between the two areas.

Summary
Overall the SpaceMouse Enterprise leads to a healthier
posture and reduces the workload for the dominanthand-arm-system. It shows a high level of usability andmakes working with CAD applications demonstrably
more productive.

Stuttgart, 01.09.2018

Dipl.-Ing. Harald Widlroither,
Head of Human Factors Engineering
Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO

Brooke, J. (1986). SUS: a “quick and dirty“ usability scale. Usability
Evaluation in Industry. London: Taylor and Francis.

iii
Hassenzahl, M., Platz, A., Burmester, M. & Lehner, K. (2000). Hedonicand ergonomic quality aspects determine a software's appeal. Proceedings of the CHI 2000 Conference on Human Factors in Computing. TheHague, NLiii

Salvendy, G. (2012). Handbook of human factors and ergonomics(pp. 828-836). New York, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.