There are many interface schemes that allow users to work at, and move between, focused and contextual views of a data set. We review and categorise 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 successful and unsuccessful interface strategies, and to identify potentially fruitful areas for further work.

In this paper we investigate the use of a uni-pressure and dual-pressure augmented mouse. With a pressure augmented mouse users can simultaneously control cursor positions as well as multiple levels of discrete selection modes for common desktop application tasks. Two or more independent pressure sensors can be mounted onto several locations on the body of the mouse. To highlight the design potential of a pressure augmented mouse we conducted a multi-part study. In the first part we identified the number of maximum discrete levels controllable with a uni-pressure augmented mouse, the most appropriate locations for installing pressure sensors on the mouse, and the design of new interaction techniques to support selection with pressure-based input. In a follow-up design we introduced an additional sensor and two different types of selection techniques to control a larger number of discrete levels with two pressure sensors. Our results show that users can comfortably control up to 64 modes with a dual-pressure augmented mouse. We discuss the findings of our results in the context of several desktop interaction techniques and identify several design recommendations. Author Keywords Input device, mouse, interaction technique, pressure-based interaction. ACM Classification Keywords H5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI):

Using a stylus on a tablet computer to acquire small targets can be challenging. In this paper we present pointing lenses – interaction techniques that help users acquire and select targets by presenting them with an enlarged visual and interaction area. We present and study three pointing lenses for pen-based systems and find that our proposed Pressure-Activated Lens is the top overall performer in terms of speed, accuracy and user preference. In addition, our experimental results not only show that participants find all pointing lenses beneficial for targets smaller than 5 pixels, but they also suggest that this benefit may extend to larger targets as well.

Interaction on digital tables has been restricted to a single layer on the table's active work-surface. We extend the design space of digital tables to include multiple layers of interaction. We leverage 3D position information of a pointing device to support interaction in the space above the active work-surface by creating multiple layers with drift-correction in which the user can interact with an application. We also illustrate through a point-design that designers can use multiple-layers to create a rich and clutter free application. A subjective evaluation showed that users liked the interaction techniques and found that, because of the drift correction we use, they could control the pointer when working in any layer. ACM Classification: H.5.2 [User Interfaces]: Interaction styles; I.3.6 [Methodology and Techniques]: Interaction

Touchstone is an open-source experiment design platform designed to help establish a solid research foundation for HCI in the area of novel interaction techniques. Touchstone includes a design platform for exploring alternative designs of controlled laboratory experiments, a run platform for running subjects and a limited analysis platform for advice and access to on-line statistics packages. Designed for HCI researchers and their students, Touchstone facilitates the process of creating new experiments, as well as replicating and extending experiments in the research literature. We tested Touchstone by designing two controlled experiments. One illustrates how to create a new experiment from scratch. The other replicates and extends a previous study of multiscale pointing interaction techniques: OrthoZoom was fastest, followed by bi-manual Pan & Zoom; SDAZ and traditional Pan & Zoom were consistently slower.

Studies investigating user control of pressure input have reported time-accuracy trade-offs of, on average, over 30%, when interacting with a large number of pressure levels. To increase the level of control with pressure input, we designed and evaluated four different discretization functions: linear, fisheye, visual fisheye, and clustered. The fisheye discretization dynamically modifies the range of pressure values based on the position of the pressure cursor. Our results show that a fisheye function results in significantly lower error rates and a lower number of crossings than have been reported in the literature. Furthermore, the fisheye function improves control without compromising speed. We discuss the findings of our study and identify several design recommendations for integrating pressure control into common interface tasks. Author Keywords Pressure discretization, fisheye-based pressure control.

We conducted a series of user studies to understand and clarify the fundamental characteristics of pressure in user interfaces for mobile devices. We seek to provide insight to clarify a longstanding discussion on mapping functions for pressure input. Previous literature is conflicted about the correct transfer function to optimize user performance. Our study results suggest that the discrepancy can be explained by different signal conditioning circuitry and with improved signal conditioning the user-performed precision relationship is linear. We also explore the effects of hand pose when applying pressure to a mobile device from the front, the back, or simultaneously from both sides in a pinching movement. Our results indicate that grasping type input outperforms single-sided input and is competitive with pressure input against solid surfaces. Finally we provide an initial exploration of non-visual multimodal feedback, motivated by the desire for eyes-free use of mobile devices. The findings suggest that non-visual pressure input can be executed without degradation in selection time but suffers from accuracy problems. Author Keywords Pressure input, tactile feedback, haptic feedback, mobile device,

A number of experimental studies based on domain-specific tasks have evaluated the efficiency of navigation techniques for searching multi-scale worlds. The discrepancies among their results call for a more generic framework similar in spirit to Fitts ’ reciprocal pointing task, but adapted to a task that significantly differs from pure pointing. We introduce such a framework based on an abstract task and evaluate how four multi-scale navigation techniques perform in one particular multi-scale world configuration. Experimental findings indicate that, in this context, pan & zoom combined with an overview is the most efficient technique of all four, and that focus + context techniques perform better than classical pan & zoom. We relate these findings to more realistic situations, discuss their applicability, and how the framework can be used to cover a broad range of situations.

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

This paper explores using non-linguistic vocalization as an additional modality to augment digital pen input on a tablet computer. We investigated this through a set of novel interaction techniques and a feasibility study. Typically, digital pen users control one or two parameters using stylus position and sometimes pen pressure. However, in many scenarios the user can benefit from the ability to continuously vary additional parameters. Non-linguistic vocalizations, such as vowel sounds, variation of pitch, or control of loudness have the potential to provide fluid continuous input concurrently with pen interaction. We present a set of interaction techniques that leverage the combination of voice and pen input when performing both creative drawing and object manipulation tasks. Our feasibility evaluation suggests that with little training people can use nonlinguistic vocalization to productively augment digital pen interaction.