Preliminary Study to Determine a “User-Friendly” Bending Method: Comparison Between Bending and Touch Interaction

We suggest “User-Friendly” bending methods applied in a suitable context to flexible displays by a comparative analysis of touch interaction (TI). To determine appropriate method, we selected video and eBook applications for our experiment tasks. In the experiment, participants executed application commands through touch or bending interaction (BI) to determine the appropriate interaction method between two comparative interactions: flexibility and touch-based interaction. From the experiment, we found that BI does not apply to all commands in a flexible display. In both applications, users preferred BI for infrequently or continuously used commands: bookmarking, fast-forwarding, and rewinding. When users executed these commands, they intuitively used an “analog metaphor” as the BI. However, in both applications, users did not prefer BI for commands that required detailed and quantitative control. Based on the results of this study, we expect to discover new interactions for flexible displays and to suggest utilization direction of bending interaction.