Improving Window Switching Interfaces

Abstract

Abstract. Switching between windows on a computer is a frequent activity, but current switching mechanisms make it difficult to find items. We carried out a longitudinal study that recorded actual window switching behaviour. We found that window revisitation is very common, and that people spend most time working with a small set of windows and applications. We identify two design principles from these observations. First, spatial constancy in the layout of items in a switching interface can aid memorability and support revisitation. Second, gradually adjusting the size of application and window zones in a switcher can improve visibility and targeting for frequently-used items. We carried out two studies to confirm the value of these design ideas. The first showed that spatially stable layouts are significantly faster than the commonly-used recency layout. The second showed that gradual adjustments to accommodate new applications and windows do not reduce performance.

The personal cockpit

“…Rashid et al [171], however, found visual search to be slower when split between a mobile and large display than on either display alone. Spatial constancy in multi-window layouts can improve memorability and reduce switching time [178,201].…”

“…Later work recognized the potential of a 3D spatial environment for leveraging spatial memory to assist the recall of items [1,177]. Computer users have been shown to be extremely adept at using spatial memory to find previously seen items, however this ability requires that items remain spatially constant [130,164,182,201]. The application of spatial constancy to location recall has received little attention in the context of SUIs, despite foundational developments making it possible in AR applications (i.e.…”

“…Spatial constancy, which has been shown to improve task switching time in standard desktop interfaces [201], should be preserved from one environment to another, despite environmental differences in surface structure and background appearance. The arrangement of windows should also minimize overlap and maintain the relative order of windows (i.e.…”

“…To probe the effects of spatial constancy and saliency in the Personal Façade's layout approach, we implemented a visual search task, a typical task for querying about the effects of a visual layout on spatial memory [56,182,201]. Our task was composed of two phases.…”

MultiLog: a tool for the control and output merging of multiple logging applications

“…Typically they are focused on a particular aspect of user behavior, such as web-browsing patterns (Montgomery & Faloutsos, 2001), window-switching habits (Oliver et al, 2006), or navigation preferences (Juvina & Oostendorp, 2004). Increasingly, longitudinal log analyses are also being used to inform the design of new interface artefacts: Alexander et al (2009) derived the design of their Footprints Scrollbar from log analysis of within-document revisitation, while Tak & Cockburn (2009) used longitudinal log data to inform windowswitcher design. Hutchings et al (2004) used the VibeLog software to log user interface (UI) events in order to assess desktop complexity in single-and multiple-monitor users.…”