Content-aware kinetic scrolling for supporting web page navigation

Abstract

Long documents are abundant on the web today, and are accessed in increasing numbers from touchscreen devices such as mobile phones and tablets. Navigating long documents with small screens can be challenging both physically and cognitively because they compel the user to scroll a great deal and to mentally filter for important content. To support navigation of long documents on touchscreen devices, we introduce content-aware kinetic scrolling, a novel scrolling technique that dynamically applies pseudo-haptic feedback in the form of friction around points of high interest within the page. This allows users to quickly find interesting content while exploring without further cluttering the limited visual space. To model degrees of interest (DOI) for a variety of existing web pages, we introduce social wear, a method for capturing DOI based on social signals that indicate collective user interest. Our preliminary evaluation shows that users pay attention to items with kinetic scrolling feedback during search, recognition, and skimming tasks.

Survey of Pseudo-Haptics: Haptic Feedback Design and Application Proposals

“…2) Navigation: Pseudo-haptics can be used to perform navigation on touchscreen interfaces. Kim et al [58] proposed a content-aware kinetic scrolling technique that presents pseudo-haptic kinetic friction around the points of high interest on a page. This allows users to identify interesting content quickly while exploring the page without further cluttering the limited visual space.…”

Spotlights

“…A wear-based scrollbar [1] supports revisiting by visualising cues about previous visits to a page. Kim et al [21] implemented a pseudo-haptic technique that creates an illusionary sensation of friction around important objects to alert users. Fourthly, one can relax the assumption that the document must be navigated linearly.…”