Please note: This PhD seminar will take place online.
Yuan Chen, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
Supervisors: Professors Daniel Vogel, Géry Casiez, Sylvain Malacria
Researchers have shown that distance and size are not the only factors that impact the target acquisition time in desktop interfaces, but that its intended use, whether it is selected, dragged, or otherwise manipulated, can also have a significant influence. However, despite the increasing popularity of virtual 3D environments, the intended use of targets in these contexts has never been investigated, in spite of the richer, multidimensional manipulations afforded by these environments.
To better understand the effects of intended use on target acquisition in virtual environments, we present the results of a study examining five different manipulation tasks: targeting, dual-targeting, throwing, docking, and reorienting. Our results demonstrate that the intended use of a target affects its acquisition time and, correspondingly, the movement towards the target. As these environments become more commonplace settings for work and play, our work provides valuable information on throughput, applicable to a wide range of tasks.