Evaluation of vibrotactile pattern design using vibrotactile score

Despite the plethora of vibrotactile applications that have impacted our everyday life, how to design vibrotactile patterns efficiently continues to be a challenge. Previously, we proposed a vibrotactile score as an intuitive and effective approach for vibrotactile pattern design. The vibrotactile score is adapted from common musical scores and preserves the metaphor of musical scores for easy learning. In this paper, we investigate the usability of the vibrotactile score, focusing on its learnability, efficiency, and user preference. Experiment I was to compare the vibrotactile score and the current dominant practice of vibrotactile pattern design using programming or scripting. The results gained from programming experts validated the substantially superior performance of the vibrotactile score. Experiment II compared the vibrotactile score with waveform-based design implemented in a few recent graphical authoring tools. Regular users without programming backgrounds participated in this experiment, and the results substantiated the improved performance of the vibrotactile score.