A comparative study of interaction metaphors for large-scale displays

Abstract

Large-scale displays require new interaction techniques because of their physical size. There are technologies that tackle the problem of interaction with such devices by providing natural interaction to larger surfaces. We argue, however, that large-scale displays offer physical freedom that is not yet being applied to interaction. To better understand how distance affects user interaction, we present a comparative study of interaction metaphors for large-scale displays. We present three metaphors: Grab, Point and Mouse. The metaphors were included in our tests as we felt that each would be more suited to a specific distance: this is the focus of our tests. We then asked the users to solve a puzzle using those metaphors from different distances. We discovered that the point metaphor achieves better results on all tests. However, there is evidence that grab and mouse remain valid for specific tasks.