Benefits of merging command selection and direct manipulation

ABSTRACT

Toolglass [Bier et al. 1993] demonstrated a two-handed command selection technique that combined command selection and direct manipulation. While empirical evaluations showed a speed advantage for ToolGlass, they did not examine the relative importance of two possible factors in its improved performance: (1) the use of two hands and (2) the merging of command selection and direct manipulation.We conducted a study comparing the relative benefits of three command selection techniques that merge command selection and direct manipulation: one two-handed technique, Toolglass, and two one-handed techniques, namely, control menus [Pook et al. 2000] and FlowMenu [Guimbretière and Winograd 2000]. Participants performed sequences of operations that required both selecting a color and designating the endpoints of a line. Our results show that control menus and FlowMenu are significantly faster than Toolglass. Further analysis suggests that the merging of command selection and direct manipulation is the most important factor in the performance of all three techniques.

REFERENCES

• 1: Johnny Accot , Shumin Zhai, More than dotting the i's --- foundations for crossing-based interfaces, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: Changing our world, changing ourselves, April 20-25, 2002, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA [doi>10.1145/503376.503390]
• 2: Ravin Balakrishnan , Ken Hinckley, The role of kinesthetic reference frames in two-handed input performance, Proceedings of the 12th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, p.171-178, November 07-10, 1999, Asheville, North Carolina, United States [doi>10.1145/320719.322599]
• 3: Michel Beaudouin-Lafon, Instrumental interaction: an interaction model for designing post-WIMP user interfaces, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.446-453, April 01-06, 2000, The Hague, The Netherlands [doi>10.1145/332040.332473]
• 4: Eric A. Bier , Maureen C. Stone , Ken Pier , William Buxton , Tony D. DeRose, Toolglass and magic lenses: the see-through interface, Proceedings of the 20th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.73-80, September 1993 [doi>10.1145/166117.166126]
• 5: Frédréric Bourgeois , Yves Guiard, Multiscale pointing: facilitating pan-zoom coordination, CHI '02 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, April 20-25, 2002, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA [doi>10.1145/506443.506583]
• 6: Buxton, B. 1986. Chunking and phrasing and the design of human-computer dialogues. In Proceedings of the IFIP World Computer Congress. Dublin, Ireland. 475--480.
• 7: R. F. Dillon , Jeff D. Edey , Jo W. Tombaugh, Measuring the true cost of command selection: techniques and results, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: Empowering people, p.19-26, April 01-05, 1990, Seattle, Washington, United States [doi>10.1145/97243.97247]
• 8: Guiard, Y. 1987. Asymmetric division of labor in human skilled bimanual action: The kinematic chain as a model. J. Motor Behav. 19, 4, 486--517.
• 9: François Guimbretiére , Terry Winograd, FlowMenu: combining command, text, and data entry, Proceedings of the 13th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, p.213-216, November 06-08, 2000, San Diego, California, United States [doi>10.1145/354401.354778]
• 10: François Guimbretière , Maureen Stone , Terry Winograd, Fluid interaction with high-resolution wall-size displays, Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, November 11-14, 2001, Orlando, Florida [doi>10.1145/502348.502353]
• 11: Don Hopkins, The design and implementation of pie menus, Dr. Dobb's Journal, v.16 n.12, p.16-26, Dec. 1991
• 12: Takeo Igarashi , Ken Hinckley, Speed-dependent automatic zooming for browsing large documents, Proceedings of the 13th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, p.139-148, November 06-08, 2000, San Diego, California, United States [doi>10.1145/354401.354435]
• 13: Paul Kabbash , William Buxton , Abigail Sellen, Two-handed input in a compound task, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: celebrating interdependence, p.417-423, April 24-28, 1994, Boston, Massachusetts, United States [doi>10.1145/191666.191808]
• 14: Gordon Paul Kurtenbach, The design and evaluation of marking menus, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont., Canada, 1993
• 15: Gordon Kurtenbach , William Buxton, Issues in combining marking and direct manipulation techniques, Proceedings of the 4th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, p.137-144, November 11-13, 1991, Hilton Head, South Carolina, United States [doi>10.1145/120782.120797]
• 16: Gordon Kurtenbach , George Fitzmaurice , Thomas Baudel , Bill Buxton, The design of a GUI paradigm based on tablets, two-hands, and transparency, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.35-42, March 22-27, 1997, Atlanta, Georgia, United States [doi>10.1145/258549.258574]
• 17: Andrea Leganchuk , Shumin Zhai , William Buxton, Manual and cognitive benefits of two-handed input: an experimental study, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), v.5 n.4, p.326-359, Dec. 1998 [doi>10.1145/300520.300522]
• 18: Mackay, W. E. 2002. Which interaction technique works when? floating palettes, marking menus and toolglasses support different task strategies. In Proceedings of Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI'02). Trento, Italy. 203--208.
• 19: McGuffin, M., Burtnyk, N., and Kurtenbach, G. 2002. FaST sliders: Integrating marking menus and the adjustment of continuous values. In Proceedings of Graphics Interface (GI'02). Calgary, Alberta, Canada. 35--42.
• 20: Stuart Pook , Eric Lecolinet , Guy Vaysseix , Emmanuel Barillot, Control menus: excecution and control in a single interactor, CHI '00 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, April 01-06, 2000, The Hague, The Netherlands [doi>10.1145/633292.633446]
• 21: Poulton, E. C. 1966. Unwanted asymmetrical transfer effects with balanced experimental designs. Psych. Bull. 66, 1, 1--8.
• 22: Jef Raskin, The humane interface: new directions for designing interactive systems, ACM Press/Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., New York, NY, 2000
• 23: Welford, A. T. 1971. Fundamentals of Skill. Methuen, London, UK.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.6 Methodology and Techniques
          Subjects: Interaction techniques

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Evaluation/methodology; Interaction styles (e.g., commands, menus, forms, direct manipulation)

General Terms:
Experimentation, Human Factors, Measurement, Performance

Keywords:
Control menu, FlowMenu, Toolglass, command selection, direct manipulation, two-handed interaction