There are 4.6 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide, yet relatively little is known about what leads to a highly desirable phone design. This study employed an Interactive Genetic Algorithm (IGA) to identify the relative importance of physical factors in mobile phone design, calculating factor preference ratios and the limits of user discriminability between levels of the factors. Ten participants interacted with a GUI running the IGA to iteratively evolve their preferred design. Screen size, button spacing, and phone radius were varied independently. Results showed that users strongly preferred their final designs over initial ones, validating the use of an IGA in this application. Vertical screen size and button spacing were significantly different between the first and last iterations. A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) showed horizontal screen size preference varied between participants, and vertical screen size and phone radius were correlated. Future research needs are discussed, including testing the effect of prompt on design preference.

Proceedings of HFES 54th Annual Meeting, 2010.