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Women Take a Wider View. Women Take a Wider View. Mary Czerwinski, Desney Tan, George Robertson Microsoft Research and CMU. Overview. Research on larger displays Wider fields of view Examine new interaction techniques
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Women Take a Wider View Women Take a Wider View Mary Czerwinski, Desney Tan, George Robertson Microsoft Research and CMU
Overview • Research on larger displays • Wider fields of view • Examine new interaction techniques • Gender differences—often reported that females underperform males in 3D nav • Desired outputs: novel HCI techniques that benefit everyone; principles to support navigation
Large Display Efforts • Gender/FOV/Large Display Findings • Women take a wider field of view to build cognitive maps of virtual spaces • Elegant principle of nav design that benefits females without male cost • Unlocking the “code” behind principles from psychology and good design in navigation tasks
Prior Work—Nav & Gender • Females known to tend to navigate by landmarks in the environment • Importance of landmarks acknowledged in virtual world design (e.g., Darken, Elvins, Vinshon, etc.) • Men known to navigate by broader bearings (e.g., N, S, E & W) • Gender differences often magnified in virtual worlds (e.g., Waller, Hunt & Knap, 1998)
Prior Work--FOV • Much evidence that restricting FOV leads to performance decrements • Increasing FOV to 90 degrees allows overlapping sequence of fixations in memory; faster cognitive map construction • Wider FOV results in better eye-hand coordination and tracking behavior • Especially when visual complexity increases • No gender effects mentioned in literature
Figure . Arcturus 36" display showing study world. Experiments 1 & 2 (CHI 2001) • Examined novel navigation techniques • Used large, 36 inch display (Arcturus) • 2 rear projectors onto a a semi-curved tinted Plexiglas surface using Windows multimonitor support • 8:3 aspect ratio (twice as wide as normal displays) • 36 x 14 inches • 2048 x 768 pixel display surface • FOV = 75 degrees • Also smaller, 17 inch display (~33 degree FOV)
Experiment 1: Test Design • 17 users (7 female) • Procedure • Find, identify, pick up, drop cubes at target pads • Cubes scattered randomly • Participants placed 4 cubes on 4 pads in each of 4 conditions, all counterbalanced • Deadline of 5 minutes • Testing nav techniques • Measured trial times
World Dimensions • Tutorial world • 300 x 300 meters, 4 objects • Test world • 500 x 500, 23 objects (tents, roller coasters, and rides) • Both worlds had 4 “target cubes” and “target drop pads” • Object was to put 4 cubes on 4 corresponding pads as quickly as possible
Experiment 2: Conditions Chose best nav techniques from Exp. 1 Exp. 2: 3x2 within subjects design Small Display Large Display Basic navigation Speed-coupled flying with orbit Speed-coupled flying with orbit/glide
female Small Display male female Large Display male 50 150 250 0 100 200 Total Time per Condition (sec)
Experiments 1 & 2 Summary • Larger display/wide fov may narrow gender gap on performance in 3D navigation • Unanswered questions… • What tasks do they enhance? Why? • What about them causes better/worse performance? • Cause of gender effect for navigation tasks?
Experiment 3 • Goals--replicate and extend findings from Experiment 2 • Hypothesis: wider FOV benefits females more than males • Also, better control for display size (all on one display) • DFOV to GFOV ratios identified • Design • FOV x display size x gender • 32.5 v. 75 degree FOVs, 18 & 36 inches wide displays
Experiment 3: Methods • 32 intermediate to advanced PC users (17 Female)--No 3D gamers • Avg. age = 41 (19 to 60 years old) • DFOV x GFOV ratios: • Small-narrow = ~1:1, small-wide=~1:2, large-narrow=~2:1, and large-wide=~1:1 • FOV means GFOV from here on out • All conditions run on large display
Experiment 3: Procedure • Same task as in Experiments 1 & 2 • After 4 cubes found, 3 “pointing” trials • 1 object and 1 drop pad were removed from world • Participants had to point at each object from 3 random locations (spatial memory measure) • 450 MHz Pentium II Dell computer
Experiment 3: Dependent Measures • Trial time (for all 4 cubes) • Travel distance • Travel height (measure of efficiency) • User satisfaction • Pointing error • Kit of Factor Referenced Cognitive Tests MV2 and MV3—map memory measures
Experiment 3: Results • Map Memory, N.S., t(29)=-0.29, p=.77 • Performance data • 2 (gender) x 2 (screen size) x 2 (FOV) repeated measures MANOVA • Percent correct, N.S. • Main effects • Gender • Males faster (193 v. 226 seconds) and flew higher (16.5 v. 13.8 meters)
Experiment 3: Results • Main effects continued • Larger display conditions on avg. resulted in • Less pointing error (14.8 v. 15.4 meters error) • Greater distance traveled (6918 v. 5461 meters) • More flying (15.5 v. 14.9 meters height) • Faster trial times (205 v. 214 seconds)
Experiment 3: Results • Wider FOV’s on avg. resulted in • Less pointing error (14.8 v. 15.3 meters error) • Shorter distance traveled (5777.4 v. 6601.7 m.) • Higher flying (15.8 v. 14.6 meters) • Faster trial times (199.85 v. 218.7 seconds) • Planned comparison: M-F difference in large display, wide FOV condition N.S.
Experiment 3: Discussion • User Satisfaction: 12/15 males and 14/17 females preferred wider fov conditions • Observed typical overall male superiority • Large display, wide FOV condition reduces that superiority (trial times, pointing error) • Opposing gender strategies for wide fov conditions
Experiment 4: Females Only • What about large displays and wide FOVs helps females? • Does seeing more landmarks through eye or head movements on screen help? • Possibly offloads cognitive task to perceptual system • Females worse at constructing cognitive maps • Better at spatial memory tasks • Perhaps large-wide viewing conditions lesson demands on cognitive system and help build map • Hypothesis: Females should benefit more from wider FOV in more complex navigation conditions on large display
Experiment 4: Methods • 13 Females (22 to 52 years old, avg.=36.7) • Intermediate to advanced PC users • No 3D gamers • Same task as in Experiments 1-3, except no pointing tasks or memory tests • Varied complexity of worlds (12 v. 23 items) • 2 (world complexity) x 2 (FOV) design, large display condition only
Experiment 4 Results: Trial Times • 2 (complexity) x 2 (FOV) RM ANOVA • Main effects • Complexity (dense worlds reliably slower to navigate) • FOV (wider FOV reliably faster to navigate) • Complexity x FOV interaction N.S. • Though wider FOV did benefit denser world navigation slightly more, on average • Hypothesis not strongly supported
Exp. 4 Results: Distance • Females traveled reliably shorter distances with wider FOV • Same strategy seen in Experiment 3 • No other effects significant • User Satisfaction • 11/13 preferred wider FOV • “With the wide FOV, you can quickly pinpoint the object and move toward it. The small FOV causes you to lose orientation…”.
Experiment 4: Discussion • Wider FOVs benefited females more, on average, in complex worlds, but N.S. • May have had too few participants • Future study will include both males and females, greater world complexity and wider fields of view
Current & Future Studies • Current study shows no gender differences with 2D, productivity tasks between large and small displays • No egocentric movement • Could be that optical flow cues are causing the gender specific findings • Study next month to test this hypothesis
Preliminary Principles—Field of View • Use a wider field of view (~75 degrees) coupled with a large display (~36 inches) for better female navigability • Works for both simple and complex information spaces • Ensures females navigate as quickly and accurately as males on search and manipulation tasks in novel environments • Could be critical in educational and training settings
Conclusion • User research plays “pivotal” role in developing advanced technology @MSR • Leading to better designs • Identifying new psychological principles • Blurring the line between basic and applied research • Product teams see value (e.g., big display surfaces are embraced due to findings)