Informing the use of vibrotactile feedback for information communication: An analysis of user performance across different vibrotactile designs

Feedback is important for Human Factors and Human-Computer Interaction designs. Since vibrotactile feedback has its own advantages such as no requirements of visual/auditory attention and robustness to surrounding noise, it is a valuable alternative to visual and auditory feedback designs. A literature review was conducted on empirical vibrotactile studies. Based on the 24 studies identified, a statistical analysis was conducted to investigate user performance across vibrotactile designs. Results indicated that using on/off vibration feedback for notification of new events resulted in the fastest responses (M = 1.1 sec.). In contrast, mapping vibrations to complex information yielded slower responses (M = 3.0 sec.) but still high accuracy (∼84.8%). Moreover, no significant moderator effect of decision complexity, cue availability, decision urgency, and vibration location was found. Overall, the study findings can shed light on further vibrotactile designs for information communication. Results also provide references for measuring user performance of such designs.