Distribution sliders: visualizing data distributions in range selection sliders

Sliders are often used to enable users to easily enter preferences for continuous data. Although efforts have already been made to enrich and improve these interaction tools with additional information and visualizations, only rather basic variants of sliders are commonly used in online shops or databases. However, these sliders often provide users only with very limited information about underlying data. We describe and evaluate three different slider designs, which enrich the tools with information in various ways, enabling users to efficiently explore the space of available items and to choose items in an informed manner. In one of the described slider designs we propose a new approach that integrates item recommendations directly into the slider, enabling users to see suitable items within the selection tool. In two user studies we show that these enhancements, both visualizations and recommendations, are powerful methods to directly support users in their searches.