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]

A Compact and Rapid Selector

[Ahlberg, Shneiderman, 1993]

Usage

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.

File:Galpha.gif

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]

Conclusion

Research and user experience came to following conclusion:

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.
• quick and easy usage, even for unexperienced users

Cons

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]

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

• Range Slider
• Dynamic Queries
• Direct Manipulation
• Film Finder

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