Selection Accuracy with Pen Selection Slots

Abstract

This paper describes three selection accuracy experiments with the selection slot, a new menu selection device for pen-based computer systems. A selection slot is a slot into which a user places the tip of a pen or stylus for the purpose of selecting an item from a list of items. The results of the first experiment, using a prototype slot for notebook name selection with 3 mm per notebook name, indicated 100% selection accuracy. In a second experiment, the results indicated that with as little as 1.1 mm per notebook name, users could select notebook names with 100% accuracy. A third experiment evaluated page selection accuracy for 55- and 99-page slots using a 73 mm slot (0.74 mm per page for 99 pages). Participants in the 55-page condition used a single-page advance control to reach target pages greater than 55. Considering all targets, participants were slightly but consistently less accurate with the 99-page slots, but their within-slot selection accuracies were equal. All participants preferred the 99-page slot due to the inconvenience of acquiring pages greater than 55 with the single-page advance control.