Eliciting Multi-touch Selection Gestures for Interactive Data Graphics

Abstract

We report the results of a study in which we elicited selection gestures for multi-touch data graphics. The selectionof data items is a common and extremely important form of interaction with data graphics, and serves as the basisfor many other data interaction techniques. However, interactive charting tools for multi-touch displays typicallyonly provide dedicated multi-touch gestures for single-point selection or zooming. Our study used gesture elicitationto explore a wider range of possible selection interactions for multi-touch data graphics. The results show a strongpreference for simple, one-handed selection gestures. They also show that users tend to interact with chart axes andmake figurative selection gestures outside the chart, rather than interact with the visual marks themselves. Finally,we found strong consensus around several unique selection gestures related to visual chart features.