ABSTRACT
Pan and zoom timelines and sliders help us navigate large time series data. However, designing efficient interactions can be difficult. We study pan and zoom methods via crowd-sourced experiments on mobile and computer devices, asking which designs and interactions provide faster target acquisition. We find that visual context should be limited for low-distance navigation, but added for far-distance navigation; that timelines should be oriented along the longer axis, especially on mobile; and that, as compared to default techniques, double click, hold, and rub zoom appear to scale worse with task difficulty, whereas brush and especially ortho zoom seem to scale better. Software and data used in this research are available as open source.
Supplemental Material
Available for Download
The analysis PDF file shows information about the study setup, explores the data, motivates the model, and then uses this model to analyze the data and arrive at our findings. Includes additional verification of the model and the results.
Preview video captions
- Christopher Ahlberg and Ben Shneiderman. 1994. The Alphaslider: A Compact and Rapid Selector. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '94). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 365--371. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Caroline Appert and Jean-Daniel Fekete. 2006. OrthoZoom Scroller: 1D Multi-scale Navigation. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '06). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 21--30. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Ravin Balakrishnan. 2004. "Beating" Fitts' Law: Virtual Enhancements for Pointing Facilitation. Int. J. Hum.-Comput. Stud. 61, 6 (Dec. 2004), 857--874. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Benjamin B. Bederson and James D. Hollan. 1994. Pad++: A Zooming Graphical Interface for Exploring Alternate Interface Physics. In Proceedings of the 7th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '94). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 17--26. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Matthew Brehmer, Bongshin Lee, Benjamin Bach, Nathalie Henry Riche, and Tamara Munzner. 2017. Timelines Revisited: A Design Space and Considerations for Expressive Storytelling. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 23, 9 (Sept 2017), 2151--2164.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Matthew Brehmer, Bongshin Lee, Petra Isenberg, and Eun K. Choe. 2019. Visualizing Ranges over Time on Mobile Phones: A Task-Based Crowdsourced Evaluation. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 25, 1 (January 2019), 619--629.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Matthew Brehmer and Tamara Munzner. 2013. A Multi-Level Typology of Abstract Visualization Tasks. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 19, 12 (Dec 2013), 2376--2385. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Andy Cockburn, Amy Karlson, and Benjamin B. Bederson. 2009. A Review of Overview+Detail, Zooming, and Focus+Context Interfaces. ACM Comput. Surv. 41, 1, Article 2 (Jan. 2009), 31 pages. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Raimund Dachselt and Markus Weiland. 2006. TimeZoom: A Flexible Detail and Context Timeline. In CHI '06 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '06). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 682--687. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Leah Findlater, Joan Zhang, Jon E. Froehlich, and Karyn Moffatt. 2017. Differences in Crowdsourced vs. Lab-based Mobile and Desktop Input Performance Data. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '17). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 6813--6824. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Paul M. Fitts. 1954. The information capacity of the human motor system in controlling the amplitude of movement. Journal of experimental psychology 47, 6 (June 1954), 381--391.Google ScholarCross Ref
- George W. Furnas and Benjamin B. Bederson. 1995. Spacescale Diagrams: Understanding Multiscale Interfaces. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '95). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 234--241. Google ScholarDigital Library
- George W. Furnas and Xiaolong Zhang. 1998. MuSE: A Multiscale Editor. In Proceedings of the 11th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '98). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 107--116. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Krzysztof Z. Gajos, Katharina Reinecke, and Charles Herrmann. 2012. Accurate Measurements of Pointing Performance from In Situ Observations. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '12). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 3157--3166. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Yves Guiard and Michel Beaudouin-Lafon. 2004. Target acquisition in multiscale electronic worlds. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 61,6(2004),875--905. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Chris Harrison and Anind K. Dey. 2008. Lean and Zoom: Proximity-aware User Interface and Content Magnification. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '08). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 507--510. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Ken Hinckley and Hyunyoung Song. 2011. Sensor Synaesthesia: Touch in Motion, and Motion in Touch. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '11). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 801--810. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kasper Hornbæk, Benjamin B. Bederson, and Catherine Plaisant. 2002. Navigation Patterns and Usability of Zoomable User Interfaces with and Without an Overview. Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 9, 4 (Dec. 2002), 362--389. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Takeo Igarashi and Ken Hinckley. 2000. Speed-dependent Automatic Zooming for Browsing Large Documents. In Proceedings of the 13th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '00). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 139--148. Google ScholarDigital Library
- ScientiaMobile Inc. 2017. Smartphone vs Tablet Orientation: Who's Using What? https://www.scientiamobile.com/page/ smartphone-vs-tablet-orientation-whos-using-what. Accessed: March 30, 2018.Google Scholar
- Waqas Javed, Sohaib Ghani, and Niklas Elmqvist. 2012. GravNav: Using aGravityModelforMulti-scaleNavigation.InProceedingsoftheInternational Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI '12). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 217--224. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Neel Joshi, Abhishek Kar, and Michael Cohen. 2012. Looking at You: Fused Gyro and Face Tracking for Viewing Large Imagery on Mobile Devices. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '12). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2211--2220. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Susanne Jul and George W. Furnas. 1998. Critical Zones in Desert Fog: Aids to Multiscale Navigation. In Proceedings of the 11th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '98). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 97--106. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Myron W. Krueger, Thomas Gionfriddo, and Katrin Hinrichsen. 1985. VIDEOPLACE - an Artificial Reality. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '85). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 35--40. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Knight Lab. {n. d.}. TimelineJS. http://timeline.knightlab.com/Google Scholar
- I. Scott Mackenzie. 1989. A Note on the Information-Theoretic Basis for Fitts' Law. Journal of Motor Behavior 21, 3 (1989), 323--330.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Sylvain Malacria, Eric Lecolinet, and Yves Guiard. 2010. Clutch-free Panning and Integrated Pan-zoom Control on Touch-sensitive Surfaces: The Cyclostar Approach. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '10). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2615--2624. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Toshiyuki Masui, Kouichi Kashiwagi, and George R. Borden, IV. 1995. Elastic Graphical Interfaces to Precise Data Manipulation. In Conference Companion on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '95). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 143--144. Google ScholarDigital Library
- George A. Miller. 1956. The magical number seven, plus or minus two: some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological review 63, 2 (1956), 81--97.Google Scholar
- Mathieu Nancel, Julie Wagner, Emmanuel Pietriga, Olivier Chapuis, and Wendy Mackay. 2011. Mid-air Pan-and-zoom on Wall-sized Displays. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors CHI 2019, May 4--9, 2019, Glasgow, Scotland Uk M. Schwab et al. in Computing Systems (CHI '11). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 177--186. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Alex Olwal, Steven Feiner, and Susanna Heyman. 2008. Rubbing and Tapping for Precise and Rapid Selection on Touch-screen Displays. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '08). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 295--304. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Ken Perlin and David Fox. 1993. Pad: An Alternative Approach to the Computer Interface. In Proceedings of the 20th Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH '93). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 57--64. Google ScholarDigital Library
- William Playfair. 1786. The Commercial and Political Atlas and Statistical Breviary.Google Scholar
- Stuart Pook, Eric Lecolinet, Guy Vaysseix, and Emmanuel Barillot. 2000. Context and Interaction in Zoomable User Interfaces. In Proceedings of the Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI '00). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 227--231. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Philip Quinn, Sylvain Malacria, and Andy Cockburn. 2013. Touch Scrolling Transfer Functions. In Proceedings of the 26th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '13). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 61--70. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Daniel Rosenberg and Anthony Grafton. 2010. Cartographies of Time: A History of the Timeline. Princeton Architectural Press.Google Scholar
- Michail Schwab, James Tompkin, Jeff Huang, and Michelle A. Borkin. 2018. EasyPZ.js: Simple & Extendable Pan & Zoom JS Library for Mobile & Desktop. Instructions for use at https://easypz.io.Google Scholar
- Martin Spindler, Martin Schuessler, Marcel Martsch, and Raimund Dachselt. 2014. Pinch-drag-flick vs. Spatial Input: Rethinking Zoom & Pan on Mobile Displays. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '14). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1113--1122. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Jarke J. Van Wijk and Wim A. A. Nuij. 2003. Smooth and Efficient Zooming and Panning. In Proceedings of the Ninth Annual IEEE Conference on Information Visualization (INFOVIS'03). IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, USA, 15--22. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Colin Ware and Marlon Lewis. 1995. The DragMag Image Magnifier. In Conference Companion on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '95). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 407--408. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- Evaluating Pan and Zoom Timelines and Sliders
Recommendations
User Interaction with Scatterplots on Small Screens - A Comparative Evaluation of Geometric-Semantic Zoom and Fisheye Distortion
Existing information-visualization techniques that target small screens are usually limited to exploring a few hundred items. In this article we present a scatterplot tool for Personal Digital Assistants that allows the handling of many thousands of ...
Investigating gaze-supported multimodal pan and zoom
ETRA '12: Proceedings of the Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and ApplicationsRemote pan-and-zoom control for the exploration of large information spaces is of interest for various application areas, such as browsing through medical data in sterile environments or investigating geographic information systems on a distant display. ...
Exploring Expressive NFC-Based Mobile Phone Interaction with Large Dynamic Displays
NFC '09: Proceedings of the 2009 First International Workshop on Near Field CommunicationInherent obstacles in current mobile applications are the limited input and output capabilities of mobile phones. In many ways, e.g. in terms of display capabilities and processing power, today’s mobile phones are quite versatile and provide opportunity ...
Comments