Accessing Mobile Apps with User Defined Gesture Shortcuts: An Exploratory Study

Smart phones have become the hub of people lives due to the overwhelming number and extensive range of apps available in app stores that are available to support their daily tasks. On average, smart phone users have around 100 apps installed on their devices and the number is ever growing. Thus, it becomes crucial to make sure they can quickly access these apps. In this paper, we present an exploratory study to understand users' memorability of their self-defined gestures for 15 frequently used mobile apps. The results show that although participants recalled their self-defined gestures most of the time, there are still certain factors that can influence their recall. The paper further analyses the underlining reasons and discusses how such issues could be addressed from a technical perspective.