Since the recent emergence of electronic literature resources, researchers have begun to adopt new informationseeking practices. The purpose of this research is to investigate the information needs and searching behaviors of researchers, and their implications for electronic literature search tools. We conducted mixed-method case studies involving interviews, diary logs, and observations of computer scientists followed by a web-based survey to validate our findings. The results show that computer science researchers have the following main purposes for seeking information: keeping up to date, exploring new topics, reviewing literature, collaborating, preparing lectures, and recommending material for students. We found that keeping up to date with research is the most frequent purpose and exploring unfamiliar research areas is the most difficult. Furthermore, we found that literature searching is a collaborative process and, depending on the search purpose, different information sources and navigation strategies are used. On the basis of these findings we discuss six design challenges for literature search tools, which are: providing support for keeping up to date with research, exploring unfamiliar topics, browsing user history, collaborating and sharing, performing a federated search that goes beyond scholarly research, and sorting and navigating the results.

Rotations performed with the index finger and thumb involve some of the most complex motor action among common multi-touch gestures, yet little is known about the factors affecting performance and ergonomics. This note presents results from a study where the angle, direction, diameter, and position of rotations were systematically manipulated. Subjects were asked to perform the rotations as quickly as possible without losing contact with the display, and were allowed to skip rotations that were too uncomfortable. The data show surprising interaction effects among the variables, and help us identify whole categories of rotations that are slow and cumbersome for users.

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Multi-touch gestures are prevalent interaction techniques for many different types of devices and applications. One of the most common gestures is the pinch gesture, which involves the expansion or contraction of a finger spread. There are multiple uses for this gesture-zooming and scaling being the most common-but little is known about the factors affecting performance and ergonomics of the gesture motion itself. In this note, we present the results from a study where we manipulated angle, direction, distance, and position of two-finger pinch gestures. The study provides insight into how variables interact with each other to affect performance and how certain combinations of pinch gesture characteristics can result in uncomfortable or difficult pinch gestures. Our results can help designers select faster pinch gestures and avoid difficult pinch tasks.