Designing an Interactive Comic for Mobile Phones Based on User Preferences in Malaysia Submitted by Astria Dhita Wandani A thesis submittedMaster in fulfilment of Science of the by requirements Research for the degree of School of Business and Design Swinburne University of Technology Kuching, Sarawak Malaysia August 2013 BSTRACT TheA current trend shows a transition of information and entertainment media into handheld devices. This also attracts the development of comics from printed book and digital form in larger PCs screen into mobile phones, introducing mobile comics. Taking the direct advantages of mobile phones (i.e. vast mobile phone market, portability, and the advancement of mobile phone technology), mobile comics offers certain advantages including lightness and the ability to read the comic anytime and anywhere. However, it is also found that the shift into mobile phone influences how the comic is presented. The limited display size introduces readability and visibility issues in displaying the entire comic sequence. At the present moment, there have been many different techniques to improve readership convenience such as the extraction of the individual panels from the page and the addition of motion, sound and zooming feature. However, these techniques are lacking in considering the basic nature of comics in the production process which could influence the overall arrangement and the impact of the comic story. In addition to that, taking a variety of approaches may not necessarily be as effective in addressing the user preferences. Therefore, this study takes into consideration three areas: essential elements of comics, mobile phone user interface design and Malaysian user preferences for designing new mobile comic interface. Two approaches are implemented in this study, including the combination of ancient linear narrative and panel-by-panel approach; and Infinite Canvas approach. These approaches are argued to maintain the continuity of the story over conventional z-path reading sequence. Moreover, interface design guidelines are considered in the development process to improve the quality of the interface design and reduce some potential usability issues when reading on small screen. In the later designing process, the two designs are combined and presented as options for viewing the same comic content. This option could provide freedom for users to choose the most suitable display layout. With the combination of both initial designs and further refinements, the final design could successfully provide better interfaces with faster completion times, enhanced consistency and visibility. The results reveal positive responses for “innovative”, “user friendly”, “new interface” and “interactive”. This outcome supports the argument that the understanding of the essential elements of comics, mobile phone user interface design and Malaysian user preferences is necessary, and these are important design considerations in creating new reading comic experience for mobile phones. Page | i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the contribution of many people, directly or indirectly. First and foremost, praises and thanks to Allah, the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful, for providing me with health, knowledge and patience to complete this work. Besides, I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my supervisors, Gregory Wee Lik Hoo and Wilson Suai Anak Moses Jantan, for their guidance and insightful advices that has helped me to keep on going with my work. I am extremely grateful to my beloved parents, Norwansyah and Lisa Ellyani for their love, prayers, and encouragements at all times. I am very much thankful to my husband, Nur Hadianto who has given me his love, understanding, inspiration and continuing support to complete this research work. Also I want to express my thanks to my brothers, sisters, and my entire family in Indonesia for their constant support. Many people have been involved in this research in many ways. I want to thank my colleagues, Serena Sim, Dian Valerie, and Yakub Sebastian, who patiently responded my queries; Ruth Naidu, who help proofread and give suggestion throughout the thesis manuscript; Ammalia Pratiwi, Wenny Aldinarini. Natalia Hariani, Paramitha Anantajati, Yemima I. M. Manulang, Nilta Raninda and all my best friends wherever you are, who cheered me up in the difficult moments; many thanks for all the people who participated in my experiments and surveys, for their time and help. Finally a very special thank you goes to the Swinburne University of Technology for the support and tremendous research experience. Page | ii DECLARATION I, Astria Dhita Wandani, declare that this thesis: • contains no material which has been accepted for the award to the candidate of any other degree or diploma, except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis; • to the best of the candidate’s knowledge contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis; and • where the work is based on joint research or publications, discloses the relative contributions of the respective workers or authors. Signed ________________________________ Dated ________________________________ Page | iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ...................................................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ..............................................................................................................................................ii Declaration..............................................................................................................................................................iii List of Figures.........................................................................................................................................................vi List of Tables ....................................................................................................................................................... viii 1 Introduction...................................................................................................................................................1 1.1 Background...........................................................................................................................................1 1.2 Research objectives and questions.............................................................................................3 1.3 Scope and Limitation........................................................................................................................4 1.4 Methodology ........................................................................................................................................4 1.5 Thesis Structure..................................................................................................................................5 2 Literature Review........................................................................................................................................7 2.1 Introduction .........................................................................................................................................7 2.2 Theoretical Foundations: the Comics ........................................................................................7 2.2.1 Definitions of Comics ..............................................................................................................7 2.2.2 The Development of Comics ............................................................................................. 10 2.3 Mobile Phone Interface Design.................................................................................................. 28 2.3.1 Overview of Mobile Phone Distribution....................................................................... 28 2.3.2 Characteristics of Mobile Phones.................................................................................... 29 2.3.3 User Experience and Preference..................................................................................... 32 2.4 Summary............................................................................................................................................. 35 3 User Preference Survey.......................................................................................................................... 37 3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 37 3.2 Methodology and Design.............................................................................................................. 37 3.2.1 Participant and Sampling................................................................................................... 37 3.2.2 Instrumentation..................................................................................................................... 38 3.2.3 Procedure ................................................................................................................................. 40 3.2.4 Data Collection........................................................................................................................ 41 3.3 Results and Discussion ................................................................................................................