Touch Digitality: Affordance Effects of Visual Properties on Gesture Selection

Does an affordance exist on the touchscreen? This paper examines an affordance effect eliciting users' touch gestures. Previous gesture studies under a user-centered approach have neglected the effects of visual characteristics of interface objects. To validate the effects, we collect users' multiple gesture responses through a gesture elicitation experiment for nine functions on thirteen stimuli systemically manipulated by visual properties. In the analyses, we investigate on 1) user agreements for the function-gesture mappings, and 2) differences in gesture selection in terms of the visual pattern. In the results, users respond differently in gesture selection in terms of the visual pattern-layout and number of images. This result indicates that designers should consider the visual properties of on-screen objects beyond user-elicited gestures. This study contributes toward a method for designing intuitive gestures on the touchscreen.

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