Modeling the Functional Area of the Thumb on Mobile Touchscreen Surfaces

TY - CHAP

T1 - Modeling the Functional Area of the Thumb on Mobile Touchscreen Surfaces

AU - Bergstrom-Lehtovirta, Joanna

AU - Oulasvirta, Antti

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - We present a predictive model for the functional area of the thumb on a touchscreen surface: The area of the interface reachable by the thumb of the hand that is holding the device. We derive a quadratic formula by analyzing the kinematics of the gripping hand. Model fit is high for the thumb-motion trajectories of 20 participants. The model predicts the functional area for a given 1) surface size, 2) hand size, and 3) position of the index finger on the back of the device. Designers can use this model to ensure that a user interface is suitable for interaction with the thumb. The model can also be used inversely- that is, to infer the grips assumed by a given user interface layout.

AB - We present a predictive model for the functional area of the thumb on a touchscreen surface: The area of the interface reachable by the thumb of the hand that is holding the device. We derive a quadratic formula by analyzing the kinematics of the gripping hand. Model fit is high for the thumb-motion trajectories of 20 participants. The model predicts the functional area for a given 1) surface size, 2) hand size, and 3) position of the index finger on the back of the device. Designers can use this model to ensure that a user interface is suitable for interaction with the thumb. The model can also be used inversely- that is, to infer the grips assumed by a given user interface layout.

KW - functional area, predictive model, thumb, touchscreen

U2 - 10.1145/2556288.2557354

DO - 10.1145/2556288.2557354

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 978-1-4503-2473-1

SP - 1991

EP - 2000

BT - Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

PB - ACM

CY - New York, NY, USA

ER -