Drag-and-Pop and Drag-and-Pick: Techniques for Accessing Remote Screen Content on Touch- and Pen-Operated Systems

Drag-and-pop and drag-and-pick are interaction techniques designed for users of penand touchoperated display systems. They provide users with access to screen content that would otherwise be impossible or hard to reach, e.g., because it is located behind a bezel or far away from the user. Drag-and-pop is an extension of traditional drag-and-drop. As the user starts dragging an icon towards some target icon, drag-and-pop responds by temporarily moving potential target icons towards the user’s current cursor location, thereby allowing the user to interact with these icons using comparably small hand movements. Drag-and-Pick extends the drag-and-pop interaction style such that it allows activating icons, e.g., to open folders or launch applications. In this paper, we report the results of a user study comparing drag-and-pop with traditional drag-and-drop on a 15’ (4.50m) wide interactive display wall. Participants where able to file icons up to 3.7 times faster when using the drag-and-pop interface.