Usage of Spatial Information for Selection of Co-located Devices

Abstract

Use of spatial information to support discovery of interaction opportunities has been widely demonstrated. In this paper, we focus on the use of spatial interfaces for identification and selection of devices a mobile user encounters in their immediate environment. We contribute an experimental evaluation of two spatial interface conditions in comparison with a non-spatial condition. The two spatial interface conditions are a device list ordered by distance and an iconic map of devices as seen from the user’s perspective and the non-spatial condition is an alphabetical list. Our results show an overall user preference for the iconic map over the spatial and alphabetical list. However, there was no clear preference for the spatial interfaces over the non-spatial condition with respect to user satisfaction and mental load.