Feel the force, see the force: Exploring visual-tactile associations of deformable surfaces with colours and shapes

Steer, Cameron; Dinca, Teodora; Jicol, Crescent; Proulx, Michael J.; Alexander, Jason

Abstract

Deformable interfaces provide unique interaction potential for force input, for example, when users physically push into a soft display surface. However, there remains limited understanding of which visual-tactile design elements signify the presence and stiffness of such deformable force-input components. In this paper, we explore how people correspond surface stiffness to colours, graphical shapes, and physical shapes. We conducted a cross-modal correspondence (CC) study, where 30 participants associated different surface stiffnesses with colours and shapes. Our findings evidence the CCs between stiffness levels for a subset of the 2D/3D shapes and colours used in the study. We distil our findings in three design recommendations: (1) lighter colours should be used to indicate soft surfaces, and darker colours should indicate stiff surfaces; (2) rounded shapes should be used to indicate soft surfaces, while less-curved shapes should be used to indicate stiffer surfaces, and; (3) longer 2D drop-shadows should be used to indicate softer surfaces, while shorter drop-shadows should be used to indicate stiffer surfaces.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (Published)
• Conference Name: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
• Start Date: Apr 17, 2023
• Acceptance Date: Mar 1, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Apr 19, 2023
• Publication Date: Apr 19, 2023
• Deposit Date: Oct 5, 2023
• Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Pages: 1-13
• Book Title: CHI '23: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
• ISBN: 9781450394215
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580830
• Keywords: Multisensory Interaction, Force, Crossmodal Correspondences, Colour, Touch
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11123746