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.