Hover Cursor: Improving Touchscreen Acquisition Of Small Targets With Hover-enabled Pre-selection

Abstract

Even with highly-sensitive touchscreens and emphasis on "designing for touch", small target selection remains difficult. Good touch performance cannot solve the "fat-finger" problem, which results from occlusion and the size disparity between fingers and targets. We propose Hover Cursor, a method to improve small target selection using hover-sensing over a touchscreen. Using a capacitive touch sensor that also provides hover data, the hover position of the user's finger is displayed with a cursor, and selection is performed with a tap. In a Fitts' study, we compared Hover Cursor with direct-touch selection. Users made fewer selection errors with Hover Cursor. Hover Cursor was slower overall, but faster and more accurate for small targets.