Snap-and-go

Abstract

Snapping is a widely used technique that helps users position graphical objects precisely, e.g., to align them with a grid or other graphical objects. Unfortunately, whenever users want to position a dragged object close to such an aligned location, they first need to deactivate snapping. We propose snap-and-go, a snapping technique that overcomes this limitation. By merely stopping dragged objects at aligned positions, rather than "warping" them there, snapand-go helps users align objects, yet still allows placing dragged objects anywhere else. While this approach of inserting additional motor space renders snap-and-go slightly slower than traditional snapping, snap-and-go simplifies the user interface by eliminating the need for a deactivation option and thereby allows introducing snapping to application scenarios where traditional snapping is inapplicable. In our user studies, participants were able to align objects up to 138% (1D) and 231% (2D) faster with snapand-go than without and snap-and-go proved robust against the presence of distracting snap targets. ACM Classification: H5.2 [Information interfaces and presentation]: User Interfaces. -Graphical user interfaces.

Multimodal Gaze Interaction for Creative Design

“…The precise alignment of graphical objects is a crucial activity in design applications to facilitate the production of aesthetically pleasing designs. Grids are commonly used to snap graphical objects into alignment [41], along with horizontal and vertical alignment guides [5,8,21]. However, their use poses significant issues for eye gaze interaction as guides are typically very thin (Figure 5).…”

Adaptive Control-Display Ratios for Smartphones

“…Snap-and-Go enlarges the control space near the snap location, which provides greater precision by slowing the cursor inside of the snap radius. Baudisch et al (2005) proposed applying Snap-and-Go to guide the cursor to a center point by extending the control space directionally along the xand y-axis, simulating directional friction. However, control paths parallel to the axes will fail to guide the cursor over the target, because the directional friction layout is most effective for paths that occur on 45 • angles.…”

“…MagStick (Roudaut et al, 2008), an interaction technique for smartphones, incorporates a virtual lever that snaps to the nearest target for selection. Snapping removes display space around the target, increases the target size, decreases the distance in the control space, and prevents positioning the cursor within the snap region of the display space (Baudisch, Cutrell, Hinckley, & Eversole, 2005). Snapping has been the only adaptive CD ratio method considered for smartphone interaction.…”

“…Snap-and-Go enlarges the control space at the application's common aligned points (Baudisch et al, 2005). A cursor nearing an alignment point snaps directly to the point, skipping over display space.…”