Andy Cockburn

A review of overview+detail, zooming, and focus+context interfaces

There are many interface schemes that allow users to work at, and move between, focused and contextual views of a dataset. We review and categorize these schemes according to the interface mechanisms used to separate and blend views. The four approaches are overview+detail, which uses a spatial separation between focused and contextual views; zooming, which uses a temporal separation; focus+context, which minimizes the seam between views by displaying the focus within the context; and cue-based techniques which selectively highlight or suppress items within the information space. Critical features of these categories, and empirical evidence of their success, are discussed. The aim is to provide a succinct summary of the state-of-the-art, to illuminate both successful and unsuccessful interface strategies, and to identify potentially fruitful areas for further work.

What do web users do? An empirical analysis of web use

This paper provides an empirical characterization of user actions at the web browser. The study is based on an analysis of 4 months of logged client-side data that describes user actions with recent versions of Netscape Navigator. In particular, the logged data allow us to determine the title, URL and time of each page visit, how often they visited each page, how long they spent at each page, the growth and content of bookmark collections, as well as a variety of other aspects of user interaction with the web. The results update and extend prior empirical characterizations of web use. Among the results we show that web page revisitation is a much more prevalent activity than previously reported (approximately 81% of pages have been previously visited by the user), that most pages are visited for a surprisingly short period of time, that users maintain large (and possibly overwhelming) bookmark collections, and that there is a marked lack of commonality in the pages visited by different users. These results have implications for a wide range of web-based tools including the interface features provided by web browsers, the design of caching proxy servers, and the design of efficient web sites.

FingARtips: gesture based direct manipulation in Augmented Reality

This paper presents a technique for natural, fingertip-based interaction with virtual objects in Augmented Reality (AR) environments. We use image processing software and finger- and hand-based fiducial markers to track gestures from the user, stencil buffering to enable the user to see their fingers at all times, and fingertip-based haptic feedback devices to enable the user to feel virtual objects. Unlike previous AR interfaces, this approach allows users to interact with virtual content using natural hand gestures. The paper describes how these techniques were applied in an urban planning interface, and also presents preliminary informal usability results.

Shallow-depth 3d interaction: design and evaluation of one-, two- and three-touch techniques

On traditional tables, people frequently use the third dimension to pile, sort and store objects. However, while effective and informative for organization, this use of the third dimension does not usually extend far above the table. To enrich interaction with digital tables, we present the concept of shallow-depth 3D -- 3D interaction with limited depth. Within this shallow-depth 3D environment several common interaction methods need to be reconsidered. Starting from any of one, two and three touch points, we present interaction techniques that provide control of all types of 3D rotation coupled with translation (6DOF) on a direct-touch tabletop display. The different techniques exemplify a wide range of interaction possibilities: from the one-touch technique, which is designed to be simple and natural, but inherits a degree of imprecision from its simplicity; through to three-touch interaction, which allows precise bimanual simultaneous control of multiple degrees of freedom, but at the cost of simplicity. To understand how these techniques support interaction in shallow-depth 3D, we present a user study that examines the efficiency of, and preferences for, the techniques developed. Results show that users are fastest and most accurate when using the three-touch technique and that their preferences were also strongly in favour of the expressive power available from three-touch.

3D or not 3D?: evaluating the effect of the third dimension in a document management system

Several recent research systems have provided interactive three-dimensional (3D) visualisations for supporting everyday work such as file and document management. But what improvements do these 3D interfaces offer over their traditional 2D counterparts? This paper describes the comparative evaluation of two document management systems that differ only in the number of dimensions used for displaying and interacting with the data. The 3D system is heavily based on Robertson et al.s Data Mountain, which supports users in storing, organising and retrieving “thumbnail” representations of documents such as bookmarked Web-pages. Results show that our subjects were faster at storing and retrieving pages in the display when using the 2D interface, but not significantly so. As expected, retrieval times significantly increased as the number of thumbnails increased. Despite the lack of significant differences between the 2D and 3D interfaces, subjective assessments showed a significant preference for the 3D interface.

Improving the Acquisition of Small Targets

This paper describes the design and comparative evaluation of three methods that aid the acquisition of small targets. The first method, called ‘bubble targets’, increases the effective width of the target as the pointer approaches. The second method uses a form of’ stickiness’ to restrict movement as the pointer passes over an object. In the third method, called ‘goal-crossing’, the user simultaneously presses two mouse buttons before passing the pointer over the item. Goal-crossing overcomes the need for the user to decelerate the mouse when acquiring the target. Two evaluations were conducted, with the first (n = 37) based on the acquisition of abstract targets for Fitts’ Law modelling, and the second based on an ecologically oriented window resizing task (n = 11). Both showed that goal-crossing allowed the fastest target acquisition, but that it produced high error rates and was unpopular with participants. The ‘bubble’ and’ sticky’ techniques also allowed faster target acquisition than the traditional approach, and users were enthusiastic about them. Fitts’ Law accurately modelled all techniques. Implications of the results for general user interface design are briefly discussed.

Through the looking glass: the use of lenses as an interface tool for Augmented Reality interfaces

In this paper we present new interaction techniques for virtual environments. Based on an extension of 2D MagicLenses, we have developed techniques involving 3D lenses, information filtering and semantic zooming. These techniques provide users with a natural, tangible interface for selectively zooming in and out of specific areas of interest in an Augmented Reality scene. They use rapid and fluid animation to help users assimilate the relationship between views of detailed focus and global context. As well as supporting zooming, the technique is readily applied to semantic information filtering, in which only the pertinent information subtypes within a filtered region are shown. We describe our implementations, preliminary user feedback and future directions for this research.

Multimodal feedback for the acquisition of small targets

This paper examines how multimodal feedback assists small-target acquisition in graphical user interfaces. All combinations of three feedback modes are analysed: non-speech audio; tactile; and pseudo-haptic ‘sticky’ feedback. The tactile conditions used stimulation through vibration (rather than force-feedback), and the sticky conditions were implemented by dynamically reconfiguring mouse control-display gain as the cursor entered the target. Results show that for small, discretely located targets all feedback modes reduce targeting times, with stickiness providing substantial improvements. Furthermore, stickiness and tactile appear to combine well. However, the results of a more ecologically oriented menu-selection task show the need for caution, revealing that excessive feedback can damage interaction though ‘noise’ that interferes with the acquisition of neighbouring targets.

An empirical analysis of web page revisitation

There is a surprising lack of empirical research into user interaction with the web. This paper reports the results of an analysis of four months of logged data describing web use. The results update and extend earlier studies carried out in 1994 and 1995. We found that web page revisitation is a much more prevalent activity than previously reported (approximately 80% of pages have been previously visited by the user), that most pages are visited for a surprisingly short period of time, and that users maintain large (and possibly overwhelming) bookmark collections.

Using Disortion-Oriented Displays to Support Workspace Awareness

Desktop conferencing systems are now moving away from strict view-sharing and towards relaxed “what-you-see-iswhat-I-see” (relaxed-WYSIWIS) interfaces, where distributed participants in a real time session can view different parts of a shared visual workspace. As with strict view-sharing, people using relaxed-WYSIWIS require a sense of workspace awareness—the up-to-the-minute knowledge about another person’s interactions with the shared workspace. The problem is deciding how to provide a user with an appropriate level of awareness of what other participants are doing when they are working in different areas of the workspace. In this paper, we propose distortion oriented displays as a novel way of providing this awareness. These displays, which employ magnification lenses and fisheye view techniques, show global context and local detail within a single window, providing both peripheral and detailed awareness of other participants’ actions. Three prototypes are presented as examples of groupware distortion-oriented displays: the fisheye text viewer, the offset lens, and the head-up lens.