Which interaction technique works when?: floating palettes, marking menus and toolglasses support different task strategies

  • Authors:
  • Wendy E. Mackay

  • Affiliations:
  • INRIA, Domaine de Voluceau -Rocquencourt, Le Chesnay Cedex, France

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

We conducted an experiment that compared three post-WIMP interaction techniques: floating palettes, marking menus and toolglasses, in a real-world Coloured Petri-Net editor, CPN2000. We created six situations in which users performed identical sets of actions with equally-complex nets, but with different cognitive contexts. We found significant differences in performance and preferences across interaction techniques. When a user is in a "copy" context, floating palettes are more efficient. If the user is problem solving, toolglasses or marking menus are preferred. No single interaction technique is clearly superior: each has strengths in different contexts. Since a single application must support different kinds of cognitive tasks, interaction designers should consider integrating multiple interaction techniques, rather than selecting only one.