One Sentence
This paper presents interaction techniques for browsing and using a web page on a small handheld device.
More Sentences
- A web page is shrunk (thumbnail) while preserving its original contents and layout. A user can use a cursor to ‘pick up’ elements (e.g., a link, an image) from the thumbnail, which are then presented aside the web page and in readable size.
- A user can zoom in at a particular location on the web page, then pan it to left or right.
- Text can be displayed using RSVP (Rapid Serial Visual Presentation) so that users can read the text one word at a time with legible sizes.
- Pen and cursor are used for pointing and selecting web page elements (by dominant hand); joypad and buttons are used to navigate through different controls (by non-dominant hand).
Key Points
“Users confined to viewing a small portion of each page often lack a sense of the overall context – they may feel lost in a large page and be forced to remember the locations of items scroll out of view.”
Something that might be neglected is the way a web page is perceived programmatically:
“The technology that makes these techniques possible is the ability to programmatically relate to a page not solely as a stream of HTML, but also as a rendered grid of pixels and the underlying elements those pixels represent”
“Evidence shows as many as 12 words per second are readable in controlled situations.”
Take-Away
- Overall, how would all these interaction techniques fit in, not a small screen, but an ultra small screen?
- It’s unclear why RSVP has to be one word at a time. It seems that the screen space might accommodate more than one.
- Is there a way to model how much display time is needed for a certain number of words?
- Hunches are the RSVP technique has some potential – maybe it can be generalized to images, videos?