FaST Sliders: Integrating Marking Menus and the Adjustment

We propose a technique, called FaST Sliders, for selecting and adjusting continuous values using a fast, transient interaction much like pop-up menus. FaST Sliders combine marking menus and graphical sliders in a design that allows operation with quick ballistic movements for selection and coarse adjustment. Furthermore, additional controls can be displayed within the same interaction, for fine adjustments or other functions. We describe the design of FaST Sliders and a user study comparing FaST Sliders to other transient techniques. The results of our user study indicate that FaST Sliders hold potential. We observed that users found FaST Slider easy to learn and made use of and preferred its affordances for ballistic movement and additional controls. A sample program demonstrating our technique can be downloaded at http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~mjmcguff/research/FaSTSlider/