Accurate Interaction for Mobile Applications

Abstract

Mobile devices place many constraints on interaction compared to desktop interaction, limiting task performance and the number of achievable task types. Despite the industry focus on improving mobile interface designs and hardware, many common tasks (e.g., navigation and precise selection) remain difficult to perform on a mobile device, but are easy to perform on a computer with a large screen and peripheral input devices (e.g., keyboard and mouse). People are regularly forced to choose between the convenience of performing tasks on-to-go and the ease of use that is limited to desktop and laptop computers.

This dissertation research improves mobile-interaction performance for common tasks involving large-scale spatially-related information. Focusing on the interaction, rather than the visualization, interaction performance is improved through the use of novel indirect touch interaction techniques, adaptive control-display ratio enhancements, and device motion gestures. Novel performance models have been developed and validated to better understand the factors that impact mobile interaction performance, predict performance for a system, and provide tools for optimizing user interface designs and future interaction techniques.