Virtual Stick in Caret Positioning on Touch Screens

We present our design exploration in the area of virtual stick controllers and a preliminary evaluation in an editing task. Virtual stick controllers are one solution to the problem of precise pointing on touch screens. They operate by using an area of the touch screen as a rate control device that moves a pointer. We implemented and evaluated this technique in a text editing context where unaided precise placement of the caret is difficult. The results showed that with large fonts and long pointing distance positioning the caret with the virtual stick is significantly slower than with conventional finger touching. On the contrary, with small fonts and short pointing distance, we noted no difference.