Evaluating visual cues for window switching on large screens

14 years 4 months ago

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An increasing number of users are adopting large, multimonitor displays. The resulting setups cover such a broad viewing angle that users can no longer simultaneously perceive all parts of the screen. Changes outside the user's visual field often go unnoticed. As a result, users sometimes have trouble locating the active window, for example after switching focus. This paper surveys graphical cues designed to direct visual attention and adapts them to window switching. Visual cues include five types of frames and mask around the target window and four trails leading to the window. We report the results of two user studies. The first evaluates each cue in isolation. The second evaluates hybrid techniques created by combining the most successful candidates from the first study. The best cues were visually sparse ? combinations of curved frames which use color to pop-out and tapered trails with predictable origin. Author Keywords Large displays, attention, window switching, user stud...

Raphael Hoffmann, Patrick Baudisch, Daniel S. Weld

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