Abstract: This paper presents results from two experiments which compared gestural and keyboard interfaces to a spreadsheet program. This is the first quantitative comparison of these two types of interfaces known to the author. The gestural interface employed gestures (hand-drawn marks such as carets or brackets) for commands, and handwriting as input techniques. In one configuration, the input/output hardware consisted of a transparent digitizing tablet mounted on top of an LCD which allowed the user to interact with the program by writing on the tablet with a stylus. The experiments found that participants were faster with the gestural interface. Specifically, subjects performed the operations in about 72% of the time taken with the keyboard. In addition, there was a preference for the gestural interface over the keyboard interface. These findings are explained in terms of the fewer number of movements required to carry out an operation with the gestural interface, the greater ease of remembering gestural commands, and the benefits of performing operations directly on objects of interest.

Keywords: Empirical studies; Gestural interface; Hardware development; Keyboard input; Pointing device input

Originally published: Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 32nd Annual Meeting, 1988, pp. 273-277

Republished: G. Perlman, G. K. Green, & M. S. Wogalter (Eds.) Human Factors Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction: Selections from Proceedings of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meetings, 1983-1994, Santa Monica, CA: HFES, 1995, pp. 138-142.