Distance effects on visual search and visually guided freehand interaction on large displays

• Different from mouse-based and touch-based interactions at a static distance, motion-sensing interaction on a large display is typically performed at varying distances ranging from an arm's length to several metres. To investigate the effect of distance on visual search and freehand interaction performance, an empirical experiment was conducted; 30 participants were recruited to complete a series of target search and freehand selection tasks on large displays, which were 1.6 and 2.4 m wide, respectively. The results indicated that (1) the user-preferred viewing distance was positively related to the physical size of the display: a larger display size corresponded to a larger viewing distance. (2) The viewing distance had a two-sided effect on the visual search time efficiency. At a close range, increasing distance improved the search time efficiency; but at a farther range, the efficiency decreased. (3) An optimal field of view at which visual search was most efficient was found; (4) however, increasing the distance lowered freehand interaction efficiency and accuracy. Changing the distance also caused variations in the performance on divided large display areas: (5) the visual search efficiency on the upper area was higher than that on the lower area, increasing the distance reduced the difference; (6) freehand interaction efficiency and accuracy on the lower area outperformed that on the upper area, increasing the distance also reduced the difference. Implications were discussed for building more efficient and user-friendly large display-based user interfaces.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Motion-sensing interaction

Large display

Fitts’ law

Visual search behaviour

Field of view

User interface ergonomics

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)