Participatory Design of Touch Gestures for Informational Search on a Tablet Device
Tsele Rakubutu, Heléne Gelderblom, Jason F. Cohen · 2014
This study set out to answer the question: what would a gesture set for conducting an informational search on a multi-touch tablet web browser look like if designed in collaboration with users with limited touch screen experience? In addressing this question, we developed such a user-defined gesture set, based on gestures elicited from participants with little or no experience with touch screen devices. Focusing on 24 specific search-related browser functions, 20 participants were asked, in a lab setting, to experiment with and then suggest a gesture for each of the functions. Data collection included video and audio recordings, think-aloud data, informal interviews and self-evaluation of proposed gestures. A combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis revealed the following: one-handed gestures are preferred over two-handed gestures; users who have mostly been exposed to mouse interaction prefer gestures that correspond to point-and-click actions; completion of a task should be possible with more than one gesture; and complex tasks should allow varying combinations of gestures).