Improving Window Manipulation and Content Interaction on High-Resolution, Wall-Sized Displays

Interaction with high resolution wall-sized (Powerwall) displays can be a tedious and difficult task due to large display areas and small target sizes. To overcome this, we developed techniques that reduce the precision required to manipulate windows and select data. The manipulation layer speeds up the common tasks of moving and resizing application windows by overlaying them with large, transparent target areas. The Power-Lens magnifies target sizes by automatically appearing once the cursor reaches the region of interest. Two experiments evaluated these techniques against conventional desktop-style interfaces. Experiment 1 showed the window manipulation layer to speed up the tasks of moving and resizing a window by 24% and 27% respectively. Experiment 2 showed the Power-Lens to speed up the selection of 5×5 pixel targets by 18%. Together, our new techniques help to make interaction more fluid on Powerwall displays.