We propose a navigation technique for browsing large
documents that integrates rate-based scrolling with
automatic zooming. The view automatically zooms out
when the user scrolls rapidly so that the perceptual scrolling
speed in screen space remains constant. As a result, the user
can efficiently and smoothly navigate through a large
document without becoming disoriented by extremely fast
visual flow. By incorporating semantic zooming techniques,
the user can smoothly access a global overview of the
document during rate-based scrolling. We implemented
several prototype systems, including a web browser, map
viewer, image browser, and dictionary viewer. An informal
usability study suggests that for a document browsing task,
most subjects prefer automatic zooming and the technique
exhibits approximately equal performance time to scroll
bars, suggesting that automatic zooming is a helpful
alternative totraditional scrolling when the zoomed out view
provides appropriate visual cues.
Publications
Takeo Igarashi, Ken Hinckley
"Speed-dependent automatic zooming for browsing large documents"
13th Annual Symposium on
User Interface Software and Technology, ACM UIST'00,
San Diego, CA ,
November 5-8, 2000, pp.139-148. PDF