A Usability Study on Widget Design for Selecting Boolean Operations
Applying the correct set of Boolean operations is a fundamental task in constructive solid geometry (CSG), which is a staple in automated manufacturing systems. Although textual buttons and icons are the most common interfaces to apply such operations, these require an unnecessary cognitive load tha...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-08-01
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| Series: | Multimodal Technologies and Interaction |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2414-4088/6/8/70 |
| _version_ | 1827598878404247552 |
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| author | Diogo Chambel Lopes Helena Mendes Ricardo Portal Rui de Klerk Isabel Nogueira Daniel Simões Lopes |
| author_facet | Diogo Chambel Lopes Helena Mendes Ricardo Portal Rui de Klerk Isabel Nogueira Daniel Simões Lopes |
| author_sort | Diogo Chambel Lopes |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Applying the correct set of Boolean operations is a fundamental task in constructive solid geometry (CSG), which is a staple in automated manufacturing systems. Although textual buttons and icons are the most common interfaces to apply such operations, these require an unnecessary cognitive load that hampers the solid modeling process. This study presents VennPad, a novel CSG widget that gathers all Boolean operations under the same user interface control element and is represented as a two-set Venn diagram. Contrary to conventional CSG widgets, VennPad supports a graphical interface that gives simultaneous access to several types of Boolean operations (intersection, union, difference, symmetric difference and split). A usability study was conducted to ascertain whether VennPad is a more natural interface compared to textual buttons and icon-based widgets for different solid modeling tasks. VennPad proved to be an effective interface to perform Boolean operations. Qualitative feedback places VennPad as the preferred interface, but efficiency results are operation dependent, thus, opening the way to new design iterations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T04:01:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1d99a5416fb842d0a2eac753ca8f6e6a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2414-4088 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T04:01:10Z |
| publishDate | 2022-08-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Multimodal Technologies and Interaction |
| spelling | doaj.art-1d99a5416fb842d0a2eac753ca8f6e6a2023-12-03T14:12:37ZengMDPI AGMultimodal Technologies and Interaction2414-40882022-08-01687010.3390/mti6080070A Usability Study on Widget Design for Selecting Boolean OperationsDiogo Chambel Lopes0Helena Mendes1Ricardo Portal2Rui de Klerk3Isabel Nogueira4Daniel Simões Lopes5Ci2—Smart Cities Research Center, Polytechnic Institute of Tomar, 2300-313 Tomar, PortugalINESC-ID Lisboa, 1000-029 Lisboa, PortugalCIMOSM, ISEL—Centro de Investigação em Modelação e Optimização de Sistemas Multifuncionais, 1959-007 Lisboa, PortugalFaculdade de Arquitectura, Universidade de Lisboa, 1349-063 Lisboa, PortugalCi2—Smart Cities Research Center, Polytechnic Institute of Tomar, 2300-313 Tomar, PortugalINESC-ID Lisboa, 1000-029 Lisboa, PortugalApplying the correct set of Boolean operations is a fundamental task in constructive solid geometry (CSG), which is a staple in automated manufacturing systems. Although textual buttons and icons are the most common interfaces to apply such operations, these require an unnecessary cognitive load that hampers the solid modeling process. This study presents VennPad, a novel CSG widget that gathers all Boolean operations under the same user interface control element and is represented as a two-set Venn diagram. Contrary to conventional CSG widgets, VennPad supports a graphical interface that gives simultaneous access to several types of Boolean operations (intersection, union, difference, symmetric difference and split). A usability study was conducted to ascertain whether VennPad is a more natural interface compared to textual buttons and icon-based widgets for different solid modeling tasks. VennPad proved to be an effective interface to perform Boolean operations. Qualitative feedback places VennPad as the preferred interface, but efficiency results are operation dependent, thus, opening the way to new design iterations.https://www.mdpi.com/2414-4088/6/8/70constructive solid modelingBoolean operationswidgetuser study |
| spellingShingle | Diogo Chambel Lopes Helena Mendes Ricardo Portal Rui de Klerk Isabel Nogueira Daniel Simões Lopes A Usability Study on Widget Design for Selecting Boolean Operations Multimodal Technologies and Interaction constructive solid modeling Boolean operations widget user study |
| title | A Usability Study on Widget Design for Selecting Boolean Operations |
| title_full | A Usability Study on Widget Design for Selecting Boolean Operations |
| title_fullStr | A Usability Study on Widget Design for Selecting Boolean Operations |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Usability Study on Widget Design for Selecting Boolean Operations |
| title_short | A Usability Study on Widget Design for Selecting Boolean Operations |
| title_sort | usability study on widget design for selecting boolean operations |
| topic | constructive solid modeling Boolean operations widget user study |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2414-4088/6/8/70 |
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