Optimal Parameters For Efficient Crossing-Based Dialog Boxes

We present an empirical analysis of crossing-based dialog boxes. First, we study the spatial constraints required for efficient crossing-based interactions in the case of a simple multi-parameter dialog box. Through a series of 3 tasks, we establish the minimal value of the landing margin, the takeoff margin, and the column width. We also offer an estimation of the role of stroke shape on user performance. After studying the reasons for errors during our experiment, we propose a relaxed crossing semantic that combines aspects of pointing and crossing-based interfaces.To test our design, we compare a naive dialog box implementation with our new implementation, as well as a standard point-and-click dialog box. Our results reveal that there is not a significant difference between the naive crossing implementation and the standard point-and-click interface and that the new crossing semantic is faster than both the naive crossing implementation and the point-and-click interface, despite a higher error rate.Together these two experiments establish that crossing-based dialog boxes can be as spatially efficient and faster than their point-and-click counterpart. Our new semantic provides the first step towards a smooth transition from point-and-click interfaces to crossing-based interfaces.