UIMarks: quick graphical interaction with specific targets

Olivier Chapuis (1, 2) , Nicolas Roussel (3)

1 IN-SITU - Situated interaction
2 LRI - Laboratoire de Recherche en Informatique
3 MINT - Methods and tools for gestural interactions

This paper reports on the design and evaluation of UIMarks, a system that lets users specify on-screen targets and associated actions by means of a graphical marking language. UIMarks supplements traditional pointing by providing an alternative mode in which users can quickly activate these marks. Associated actions can range from basic pointing facilitation to complex sequences possibly involving user interaction: one can leave a mark on a palette to make it more reachable, but the mark can also be configured to wait for a click and then automatically move the pointer back to its original location, for example. The system has been implemented on two different platforms, Metisse and OS X. We compared it to traditional pointing on a set of elementary and composite tasks in an abstract setting. Although pure pointing was not improved, the programmable automation supported by the system proved very effective.

Keywords: Pointing; direct manipulation; macros

Domains: Human-Computer Interaction [cs.HC]

Olivier Chapuis, Nicolas Roussel. UIMarks: quick graphical interaction with specific targets. UIST'10, the 23rd ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, ACM, Oct 2010, New York, United States. pp.173-182, ⟨10.1145/1866029.1866057⟩. ⟨inria-00533398⟩