Gesture Set Economics for Text and Spreadsheet Editors

Abstract

Since the widespread acceptance of alternative input devices and the development of technology for character recognition, gestures have begun to be investigated as a potential dialog type in software applications. Inter and intra-subject consistency has been reported; however, no one has reported inter-application consistency. This paper begins to take a systematic approach to identifying a minimal set of gestures that would be necessary to operate across a series of applications. Two tasks with 15 subjects in each were conducted on the use of gestures to edit text and spreadsheets using a pencil and paper. By examining people's editing marks in these two situations, this study begins to identify the level to which gestures remain consistent across applications. The results are discussed in relationship to the implementation of an economical gestural interface for an application suite.