Teaching:TUW - UE InfoVis WS 2006/07 - Gruppe 02 - Aufgabe 1 - AlphaSlider
Definition
The Alphaslider is used to rapidly scan through and select from lists of alphanumeric data. The essential components of an Alphaslider are a slide area, a slider thumb, a text output and an index to the elements that the slider operates over. Whereas a traditional slide area lets users page through the content of a scrolling list, the Alphaslider slide area lets users move directly to a certain part of the slider range by clicking in it.
[Ahlberg, Shneiderman, 1993]
The small size of the Alphaslider allows it to be placed on mobile devices, on a credit card, on a control panel for a VCR, or as a widget in direct manipulation based database interface.
[Osada et al., 1993]
A Compact and Rapid Selector
[Ahlberg, Shneiderman, 1993]
Function
The AlphaSlider interface was originally devised in 1993 and promoted by Ahlberg and Shneiderman. The essential components of the AlphaSlider are the same as that of the drop-down listbox. There is a slider area, a slider thumb (the square in the middle that a user can directly drag on), and left / right arrow keys. The function of it is identical to that of a drop-down listbox, except for its vertical orientation.
Pros
The advantages of this AlphaSlider approach are:
- there are no typing errors
- performance increases as the number of words per entry increases
- keyboards are not necessary
[Osada et al., 1993]
- due the small size of Alphasliders, they can be placed on small displays, like those of mobile devices.
Contra
The disadvantages of the current implementation are that:
- the number of entries is limited by the number of pixels
- Alphasliders also does not allow users to input words freely
[Osada et al., 1993]
Conclusion and Future Direction
Important items to examine are:
- slider design when the number of entries exceeds the number of horizontal pixels
- performance when sliders and buttons are made of hardware devices
- combination of AlphaSliders and other information visualization techniquges
[Osada et al., 1993]
- With good use of feedback techniques, the Alphaslider is a powerful, compact, and rapid way of selecting items from lists.
[Ahlberg, Shneiderman, 1993]
Related Links
References
- [Osada et al., 1993] Osada M.,Liao H., Shneiderman B., AlphaSlider: Searching Textual Lists with Sliders, Department of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory and Institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland, April 1993, http://hcil.cs.umd.edu/trs/93-08/93-08.html
- [Ahlberg, Shneiderman, 1993] Ahlberg C.,Shneiderman B., The Alphaslider: A Compact and Rapid Selector, Department of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory and Institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland, 1993, http://hcil.cs.umd.edu/trs/93-15/93-15.html