1. ÉCOLE POLYTECHNIQUE
FÉDÉRALE DE LAUSANNE
Technologies for
Vocational Education and Training
A Comparison between Tangible UI and Graphical UI
Lorenzo Lucignano
08/04/2014

2. Problem
• Develop a new activity which is
– pragmatic, it helps to solve a real-world problem
– grounded on the workspace context, the tool
should mimic real tools
• Keep it tangible!

3. Research question
• Which kinds of tasks well support the tangible
interaction?
– What happens when the physical-virtual
correspondence changes during the task?
• How do gaze patterns vary between physical
objects and virtual 3D objects?
Cutting Activity

4. Experiment conditions
Tangible Virtual

5. Experiment Setup
• Task : Shaping the brick
according to a physical model
 Participants: 18 EPFL
students, 2nd and 3th year
MT and Mechanical
Engineering
Model 1 Model 2
Symmetry
High Low
Plausibility
Usual Unusual

6. Experiment Flow
Questionnaire (age,
gender, academic
background…)
Pretest
•Mental Rotation (12
questions, 3 min)
•Paper Folding (10
questions, 3 min)
Demonstration
Model 1Model 2Final Interview

7. Results: Quality
Quality Score:
1. the shape is completely different from the model
2. one major mistake, but making abstraction of it, the shape is recognized
3. shape is mostly correct
4. the shape is correct
5 raters -> inter-rater reliability 0.93
Model 1 Model 2

8. Results: Duration
Model 1 Model 2

9. Results: Number of Created Pieces
Model 1
(F[1,16]=9.16,p=.008)
Model 2
(F[1,16]=5.13,p=.037)
Possible reason: users in tangible
condition usually do not delete the
pieces. They keep the reference with the
brick.

10. Results: Areas of interest in Gaze
Analysis
Shape or Model
Brick
Screen OBJ

11. Results: % Dwells on the Model
and their duration
DUAL-T Advisory Board
Model 1
(F[1,16]=5.45,p=.032)
Model 2
(F[1,16]=7.93,p=.012)
(F[1,16]=5.23,p=.036) (F[1,16]=6.66,p=.020)

12. Results: Revisit Time on the Model
Model 1
(F[1,16]=1.76,p=.202)
Model 2
(F[1,16]=11.83,p=.003)
•More dwells and longer durations might indicate a difficulty in extracting
general information
•Shorter revisit time can indicate a need of refreshing the working memory
The tangible brick may influence positively the experience

13. Results: Transitions Graph Model 1
Tangible Virtual
Model
Model

14. Results: Transitions Graph Model 2
Tangible Virtual

15. Conclusions
Absence of significant difference in terms of quality and overall
time performance
Clues that the tangible interface affects the experience
positively

16. Thanks!