Evaluating a User-Elicited Gesture Set for Interactive Displays

Abstract

Recently, many studies were conducted which focused on eliciting gestures from users in order to come up with gesture sets for surface computing. However, there are still many questions to clarify concerning the value of this method regarding to the usability of such gesture sets in real systems. In this work, we contribute a usability test of an implemented gesture set based on user suggested pen and hand gestures for node-link diagram editing on interactive displays. The results of the usability test gave valuable insight in how users interact spontaneously with such a gestural interface. In particular, we found that the methodology of eliciting gestures from users reveals what kinds of gestures users prefer but does not necessarily show how they are applied. Beyond that, we observed how participants differentiate between touch and pen within complex workflows.