research-article

Fingers and Angles: Exploring the Comfort of Touch Input on Smartwatches

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Ian OakleyAuthors Info & Claims

Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, Volume 2, Issue 4

Article No.: 164, Pages 1 - 21

https://doi.org/10.1145/3287042

Published: 27 December 2018 Publication History

Abstract

Smartwatches present a unique touch input context: small, fixed to one wrist and approachable from a limited range of angles by the touching hand. Techniques to expand their input expressivity often involve variations in how a watch must be touched, such as with different fingers, poses or from specific angles. While objective performance with such systems is commonly reported, subjective qualities such as comfort remain overlooked. We argue that techniques that involve uncomfortable input will be of limited value and contribute the first data on the comfort of input on smartwatches via two studies that combine subjective ratings of comfort with objective performance data. We examine both static and dynamic touches and three finger poses. Based on the study results, we contribute a set of design recommendations for comfortable, effective smartwatch input. We close by instantiating the recommendations in interface prototypes that we evaluate in a final qualitative study.

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Cited By

Xu LPan CXu BSun ZZhou KYan RWeng KWu YLi H(2024)A Qualitative Exploration of a User-Centered Model for Smartwatch Comfort Using Grounded TheoryInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2024.2313273(1-16)Online publication date: 15-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2024.2313273
Li HXu BSun ZYan RWu YZhang HZhou KXu L(2024)The role of comfort, personality, and intention in smartwatch usage during sleepHumanities and Social Sciences Communications10.1057/s41599-024-03214-y11:1Online publication date: 30-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03214-y
Vatavu R(2023)Gesture-Based InteractionHandbook of Human Computer Interaction10.1007/978-3-319-27648-9_20-1(1-47)Online publication date: 9-Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27648-9_20-1
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Index Terms

Fingers and Angles: Exploring the Comfort of Touch Input on Smartwatches
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies

Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies Volume 2, Issue 4

December 2018

1169 pages

EISSN:2474-9567

DOI:10.1145/3301777

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Copyright © 2018 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 27 December 2018

Accepted: 01 October 2018

Revised: 01 August 2018

Received: 01 May 2018

Published in IMWUT Volume 2, Issue 4

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Cited By

Xu LPan CXu BSun ZZhou KYan RWeng KWu YLi H(2024)A Qualitative Exploration of a User-Centered Model for Smartwatch Comfort Using Grounded TheoryInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2024.2313273(1-16)Online publication date: 15-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2024.2313273
Li HXu BSun ZYan RWu YZhang HZhou KXu L(2024)The role of comfort, personality, and intention in smartwatch usage during sleepHumanities and Social Sciences Communications10.1057/s41599-024-03214-y11:1Online publication date: 30-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03214-y
Vatavu R(2023)Gesture-Based InteractionHandbook of Human Computer Interaction10.1007/978-3-319-27648-9_20-1(1-47)Online publication date: 9-Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27648-9_20-1
Ullerich JWindl MBulling AMayer S(2022)ThumbPitch: Enriching Thumb Interaction on Mobile Touchscreens using Deep LearningProceedings of the 34th Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3572921.3572925(58-66)Online publication date: 29-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3572921.3572925
He KDuan YFeng JZhou J(2022)Estimating 3D Finger Angle via Fingerprint ImageProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies10.1145/35172436:1(1-22)Online publication date: 29-Mar-2022
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Vogelsang JKiss FMayer S(2021)A Design Space for User Interface Elements using Finger Orientation InputProceedings of Mensch und Computer 202110.1145/3473856.3473862(1-10)Online publication date: 5-Sep-2021
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Siean AVatavu R(2021)Wearable Interactions for Users with Motor Impairments: Systematic Review, Inventory, and Research ImplicationsProceedings of the 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3441852.3471212(1-15)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2021
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