Effects of slanted ergonomic mice on task performance and subjective responses

• This paper compares the performance of slanted mice with a conventional mouse.
• Task completion times of the slanted mice are longer than the conventional mouse.
• Subjective discomforts of the slanted mice are severe than the conventional mouse.
• The slanted mice have disadvantages in task performance and subjective responses.

The biomechanical benefits (e.g., muscular activity) of slanted ergonomic mice have been comprehensively identified; however, their effects on task performance and subjective responses have not been fully investigated. The present study examined the effects of two slanted mice (slant angle = 30° and 50°) in comparison with a conventional mouse (slant angle = 0°) in terms of task performance (task completion time and error rate) and subjective responses (perceived discomfort score and overall satisfaction score). Experimental results showed that all of the task and subjective measures worsened as the slant angle of the target mice increases. For example, the task completion time (unit: ms) and overall satisfaction score (unit: point) of the 30° slanted mouse (time = 0.71, satisfaction = −0.09) and 50° slanted mouse (time = 0.73, satisfaction = −0.79) significantly deteriorated than the conventional mouse (time = 0.65, satisfaction = 1.21). The slanted mice seem to compromise biomechanical benefits with task performance and subjective responses.