Investigating Performance and Usage of Input Methods for Soft Keyboard Hotkeys

Touch-based devices, despite their mainstream availability, do not support a unified and efficient command selection mechanism, available on every platform and application. We advocate that hotkeys, conventionally used as a shortcut mechanism on desktop computers, could be generalized as a command selection mechanism for touch-based devices, even for keyboard-less applications. In this paper, we investigate the performance and usage of soft keyboard shortcuts or hotkeys (abbreviated SoftCuts) through two studies comparing different input methods across sitting, standing and walking conditions. Our results suggest that SoftCuts not only are appreciated by participants but also support rapid command selection with different devices and hand configurations. We also did not find evidence that walking deters their performance when using the Once input method.Comment: 17+2 pages, published at Mobile HCI 202

What do U-Note? An Augmented Note Taking System for the Classroom

International audienceWe present U-Note, a new system that helps children to study their lessons. It links a paper notebook and digital doc- uments in order to reconstruct the context of the class. This system makes it possible for students to browse the teacher's documents at the state it was when he wrote the words he is currently reading. The student can also add information he found on internet. We first discuss the interviews we had with teachers, that led to the design of the system. Then we describe the system itself, which consists of a capture sys- tem, and a browsing application

CtrlMouse et TouchCtrl : Dupliquer les Délimiteurs de Mode sur la Souris

National audienceModifier keys of the keyboard such as Ctrl or Cmd are used to delimit text entry and command selection (keyboard shortcuts). In this paper we study the impact of the position of these modifier keys on performance and muscular load by duplicating them on the mouse. We derive two interaction techniques: CtrlMouse duplicates the Ctrl and Shift keys by associating them to the mouse buttons under the thumb; TouchCtrl automatically triggers the Ctrl key when the hand lays on the mouse. Two laboratory experiments reveal that 1) as the task requires more pointing, participants use more these techniques, 2) the temporal cost of the use of modifier keys on command selection is 0.21s, which represents 11.9% of pointing time, and 3) selection time with CtrlMouse with one or two modifiers is similar. We also deployed these techniques to ecologically validate the results we obtained in the laboratory. Finally we present several application scenarios based on CtrlMouse and TouchCtrl.Les touches modifieur du clavier comme Ctrl ou Cmd sont utilisées pour délimiter l'entrée de texte de la sélection de commandes (raccourcis claviers). \ \ Dans cet article nous étudions l'impact de la localisation de ces délimiteurs sur la performance et la charge musculaire en les dupliquant sur la souris. À cet effet, nous dérivons deux techniques d'interaction : CtrlMouse duplique les touches Ctrl et Shift en les associant aux boutons de la souris sous le pouce; TouchCtrl déclenche automatiquement la touche Ctrl lorsque la main est posée sur la souris. Deux expériences en laboratoire révèlent 1) que ces techniques sont d'autant plus adoptées par les utilisateurs que la tâche demande du pointage, 2) le coût temporel des modifieurs sur la sélection de commandes est de 0,21s, ce qui correspond à 11,9% du temps de pointage et 3) le temps de sélection avec CtrlMouse avec un ou deux modifieurs est similaire. Nous avons également déployé ces techniques pour valider de manière écologique les résultats obtenus lors des évaluations en laboratoire. Enfin, nous présentons différents scénarios applicatifs élaborés à partir de CtrlMouse et TouchCtrl

Exploring mobile news reading interactions for news app personalisation

As news is increasingly accessed on smartphones and tablets, the need for personalising news app interactions is apparent. We report a series of three studies addressing key issues in the development of adaptive news app interfaces. We first surveyed users' news reading preferences and behaviours; analysis revealed three primary types of reader. We then implemented and deployed an Android news app that logs users' interactions with the app. We used the logs to train a classifier and showed that it is able to reliably recognise a user according to their reader type. Finally we evaluated alternative, adaptive user interfaces for each reader type. The evaluation demonstrates the differential benefit of the adaptation for different users of the news app and the feasibility of adaptive interfaces for news apps

Réduire l'Aversion aux Erreurs pour Aider la Transition Novice-Expert avec Fast Tap

National audienceExpert interaction techniques such as gestures or hotkeys are more efficient than traditional WIMP techniques because it is often faster to recall a command than to navigate to it. However, many users seem to be reluctant to switch to expert interaction. We hypothesize the cause might be the aversion of making errors. To test this, we designed two intermediate modes for the FastTap interaction technique, allowing quick confirmation of what the user has retrieved from memory, and quick adjustment if she has made an error. We investigated the impact of these modes and of various error costs in a controlled study (N=36). We found that participants adopted the intermediate modes, that these modes reduced error rate when error cost was high, and that they did not substantially change selection times. However, while it validates the design of our intermediate modes, we found no evidence of greater switch to memory-based interaction, suggesting that reducing the error rate is not sufficient to promote expert use of techniques.Les techniques d'interaction expertes comme les vocabulaires gestuels ou les raccourcis clavier sont plus efficaces que les techniques WIMP traditionnelles. Il est en effet plus rapide de se rappeler une commande plutôt que de la retrouver dans des menus. Cependant, la plupart des utilisateurs semblent réticents à passer aux interactions qui se basent sur leur mémoire. Nous pensons que la cause pourrait être due à leur aversion à faire des erreurs. Pour tester cette hypothèse, nous avons conçu deux modes intermédiaires pour la technique d'interaction FastTap, qui permet de rapidement confirmer ce que l'utilisateur s'est rappelé de mémoire, et d'ajuster si une erreur a été faite. Nous avons étudié l'impact de ces deux modes intermédiaires et de différents coûts d'erreur dans une étude contrôlée (N=36). Nous avons trouvé que les participants ont adopté les modes intermédiaires, que ces modes réduisaient le taux d'erreur quand le coût de l'erreur était important, et qu'ils n'ont pas affecté de manière significative les temps de sélection. Cependant, bien que les résultats valident la conception de nos modes intermédiaires, nous n'avons pas trouvé de preuve sur un plus grand passage aux interactions qui se basent sur la mémoire. Cela suggère que réduire le taux d'erreur n'est pas suffisant pour promouvoir l'utilisation experte des techniques

Homolytic Reduction of Onium Salts

Onium salts have proved to be efficient sources of carbon-centered radicals. They can undergo homolytic reduction by single electron transfer (SET) and participate in subsequent synthetic transformations. This review aims to provide an overview on the behavior of onium salts including diazonium, sulfonium, selenonium, telluronium, phosphonium and iodonium cations toward various reductive methods such as radiolysis, electrolysis, photolysis or the use of SET reagents. Mechanistic and synthetic aspects are presented. Applications in polymers and materials science are not covered

Actuated Peripherals as Tangibles in Desktop Interaction

International audienceTUIs use everyday physical objects to interact with digital information. With decades of usage, computer peripherals became everyday physical objects. We observed that users manipulate them for other purpose than input and output devices. For example users turn their screen to avoid sun reflections , or move their keyboard ans mouse because they need space on their desk. In this work we see computer peripher-als as everyday objects, and use them as TUIs. This paper presents two levels of tangible interaction with desktop computers: the first one is a keyboard with actuated keys. The keys can raise from their initial position, which can be used to represent interaction or extend interaction with keyboards. On the second level we actuated a mouse, a keyboard and a screen so that they can move around on the desk. We present scenarios showing how it extends interaction with a desktop computer setup

Awareness, Usage and Discovery of Swipe-revealed Hidden Widgets in iOS

International audienceRevealing a hidden widget with a dedicated sliding gesture is a common interaction design in today's handheld devices. Such "Swhidgets" (for swipe-revealed hidden widgets) provide a fast (and sometime unique) access to some commands. Interestingly, swhidgets do not follow conventional design guidelines in that they have no explicit signifiers, and users have to discover their existence before being able to use them. In this paper, we discuss the benefits of this signifierless design and investigate how iOS users deal with this type of widgets. We report on the results of a laboratory study and an online survey, investigating iOS users' experience with swhidgets. Our results suggest that swhidgets are moderately but unevenly known by participants, yet the awareness and the discovery issues of this design is worthy of further discussion