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Interacting with mouse and touch devices on horizontal interactive displays

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Abstract

This article presents and discusses findings on collaborative interaction on horizontal interactive displays using touch and mouse input devices. Tabletop interaction environments are suitable for small computer-supported group collaboration, and usually allow for concurrent interaction by multiple users. The appropriate support of interaction on horizontal interactive displays is crucial to the successful design and adoption of digital tabletops for work, education and entertainment. A study was conducted investigating interactions of users on tabletops operating with mouse and touch input devices, and shedding light on the differences and commonalities from different perspectives. This laboratory study was designed to allow for as much ecological validity and to provide good experimental control at the same time. The study builds on the standard digital puzzle, or mosaic task, by adding a hidden or implicit task, for the participants to discover and work on. Without solving the hidden task, participants were not able to solve the primary puzzle task. This approach was chosen to trigger spontaneous and natural collaborative work amongst the participants in the lab setting. The analysis of the interaction is based on system-logged interaction data, questionnaires and observations focused on the participants’ selection and usage of input devices during the task execution. The study revealed, amongst others, that participants did not change their initially preferred input device even when they became more engaged in coordination and communication with their partner during the course of the study.

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Notes

  1. Eureka (Greek “I found it”) refers to the reported utterance of Archimedes of Syracuse (ca. 287–212 BC). It is an exclamation used to verbalise a sudden discovery.

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Acknowledgments

This research was conducted within the HxI Initiative [15], an Australian research initiative led by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) and National Information and Communications Technology Australia (NICTA) [28]. The authors thank the test participants for allowing us to collect and publish the presented data. We also thank Claudia Schremmer in organising and conducting the study and Anja Wessels for helping with the hands-on running of the experiment and the collection of experiment data.

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  1. CSIRO Information and Communication Technologies Centre, Cnr Pembroke and Vimiera Roads, Marsfield, NSW, 2122, Australia

    Christian Müller-Tomfelde

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  1. Christian Müller-Tomfelde
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Correspondence to Christian Müller-Tomfelde.

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Müller-Tomfelde, C. Interacting with mouse and touch devices on horizontal interactive displays. Univ Access Inf Soc 11, 285–294 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-011-0238-8

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