Faster Command Selection on Touchscreen Watches

Small touchscreens worn on the wrist are becoming increasingly common, but standard interaction techniques for these devices can be slow, requiring a series of coarse swipes and taps to perform an action. To support faster command selection on watches, we investigate two related interaction techniques that exploit spatial memory. WristTap uses multitouch to allow selection in a single action, and TwoTap uses a rapid combination of two sequential taps. In three quantitative studies, we investigate the design and performance of these techniques in comparison to standard methods. Results indicate that both techniques are feasible, able to accommodate large numbers of commands, and fast users are able to quickly learn the techniques and reach performance of ~1.0 seconds per selection, which is approximately one-third of the time of standard commercial techniques. We also provide insights into the types of applications for which these techniques are well-suited, and discuss how the techniques could be extended.