Faster command selection on tablets with FastTap

Abstract

Figure 1. FastTap interface. Left: default state of the interface (gridlines enhanced). Center: FastTap grid overlay after touching the activation button. Right: FastTap selection by chording with the thumb and forefinger, without waiting for the overlay. ABSTRACTTouch-based tablet UIs provide few shortcut mechanisms for rapid command selection; as a result, command selection on tablets often requires slow traversal of menus.We developed a new selection technique for multi-touch tablets, called FastTap, that uses thumb-and-finger touches to show and choose from a spatially-stable grid-based overlay interface. FastTap allows novices to view and inspect the full interface, but once item locations are known, FastTap allows people to select commands with a single quick thumb-and-finger tap. The interface helps users develop expertise, since the motor actions carried out as a novice rehearse the expert behavior. A controlled study showed that FastTap was significantly faster (by 33% per selection overall) than marking menus, both for novices and experts, and without reduction in accuracy or subjective preference. Our work introduces a new and efficient selection mechanism that supports rapid command execution on touch tablets, for both novices and experts.

Reducing error aversion to support novice-to-expert transitions with FastTap

“…Several alternate interfaces have been developed that attempt to raise the performance ceiling for experts. For example, researchers have studied keyboard shortcuts [2,22], command languages [29], gestural commands [2,3,10,11,20,27], and spatially-stable grid menus [18,28]. These techniques typically achieve their eciency by using human memory (e.g.…”

“…memory of a gesture's path or of a command's spatial IHM'19, December 10-13, 2019, Grenoble, France A. Goguey, S. Malacria, A. Cockburn, and C. Gutwin 1:2 location) rather than visually-guided hierarchical navigation. Several studies of these expert techniques have found them to be substantially faster than traditional WIMP selection [18,25,29] -but only after the commands have been learned. When users are still inexperienced with the commands, they are not yet able to rely on memory alone, and need some form of visual feedback to help them nd the correct item.…”

“…To test this hypothesis we developed new techniques allowing quick conrmation for users willing to try expert modes, and use FastTap as a usecase. FastTap is a quasi-mode menu system for touch-based devices that displays a hand-sized grid of items when a dedicated button on the lower left corner is pressed [18]. Experienced users can select commands in a rapid chord gesture without waiting for the buttons to appear.…”

Physical Loci

“…Command selection was considered in ListMaps [15], which illustrated the efficiency of grid interfaces for experts. Spatial memory was used in CommandMaps [30], in combination with hierarchy flattening, to improve GUI performance and in FastTap [16] to allow faster command selection on tablets.…”

Gaze+touch vs. Touch: What’s the Trade-off When Using Gaze to Extend Touch to Remote Displays?

“…Other researchers proposed coupled drag gestures or consecutive touches to select small targets and increase mode selection [2,7]. However, these techniques occupy specific touch gestures and require learning of additional techniques.…”