Foster the discovery of Swhidgets through animated transitions

Swhidgets are Graphical User Interface (GUI) components common in touch-base devices, by default entirely hidden under another interface element. To use a Swhidget, the user must first uncover them with a dedicated onscreen swipe gesture, relying on the metaphor of sliding a physical object. Swhidgets notoriously suffer from a discoverability problem, as they do not provide perceptible signifiers to inform users about their presence. In this project, we will explore how animated transitions that happen in touch-based OS (typically when a new view is loaded or updated) could be leveraged as a way to give Swhidgets-unaware users a chance to discover these widgets as they interact with the device. For that, we will characterize existing swhidgets and animated transition, design refinements of these animated transitions so they better suggest the existence of Swhidgets, and evaluate the impact these refinements.

Faculty Supervisor:

Fanny Chevalier

Student:

Partner:

INRIA

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Other

University:

University of Toronto

Program: