In a recent global survey, the majority of those surveyed agreed watching video on mobile devices was convenient. Increasingly the cost of producing that video content is being paid for by advertising, with advertisers also shifting their focus to mobile. However do those devices deliver a less engaging viewing experience? Four biometric studies show that nowadays, screen size doesn’t matter. A screen is a screen.
We found that what matters isn’t the size of the screen, but how big it appears on the retina. If you hold a mobile phone close to your eye, it can appear as big as a large flat-screen TV. We also found that small screens can be just as exciting to watch, because we hold them in our hands.
These results were surprising, because previous research had found small screens were hard to see, and not very exciting to watch. But these studies had not allowed people to sit closer to smaller screens or hold them in their hands. And before the release of Apple’s retina screens, content producers and advertisers were advised to create special low-res versions for viewing on a mobile screen.
Our biometric studies investigated whether video ads seen on mobile screens were less memorable and engaging, compared to TV and computer screens.
What We Found
We invited participants to come into our lab and watch two 15-minute programs, with commercials, on different types of screens. After watching the content, participants answered questions about the quality of their viewing experience, and how many of the advertised brands they could remember seeing.
Participants were randomly assigned to different screens. For example, in the first study, one third watched a flat-screen TV, one third watched a personal computer screen, and one third watched a small mobile screen.
Instead of controlling viewing distance by using, for example, a chin rest, we allowed our participants watch from as close as they liked. In addition, participants viewing the smaller mobile screens held them in their hands. We measured viewing distance with a side-on camera to calculate apparent screen size.
In the second study we also measured viewing excitement using skin conductance. The flow (conductance) of a micro electric current across the skin is increased by moisture from special sweat glands wired to the body’s sympathetic (fight or flight response) nervous system. We measured skin conductance by attaching electrodes to each participant’s non-dominant hand (the one that wasn’t holding the mobile phone).
