Women Take a Wider ViewMary Czerwinski, Desney Tan, George Robertson

Microsoft Research and CMU

Women Take a Wider View

Overview Research on larger

displays Wider fields of view Examine new interaction

techniques Gender differences—often

reported that females underperform males in 3D nav

Desired outputs: novel HCI techniques that benefit everyone; principles to support navigation

Future Displays—Mass Multiples

Future Displays: Stanford’s I-Room

Future Displays-MSR

Large Display Efforts

Gender/FOV/Large Display FindingsWomen take a wider field of view to build

cognitive maps of virtual spacesElegant principle of nav design that benefits

females without male costUnlocking the “code” behind principles

from psychology and good design in navigation tasks

Prior Work—Nav & Gender

Females known to tend to navigate by landmarks in the environment

Importance of landmarks acknowledged in virtual world design (e.g., Darken, Elvins, Vinshon, etc.)

Men known to navigate by broader bearings (e.g., N, S, E & W)

Gender differences often magnified in virtual worlds (e.g., Waller, Hunt & Knap, 1998)

Prior Work--FOV

Much evidence that restricting FOV leads to performance decrements Increasing FOV to 90 degrees allows

overlapping sequence of fixations in memory; faster cognitive map construction

Wider FOV results in better eye-hand coordination and tracking behavior

Especially when visual complexity increasesNo gender effects mentioned in literature

Experiments 1 & 2 (CHI 2001)

Examined novel navigation techniques

Used large, 36 inch display (Arcturus) 2 rear projectors onto a a semi-curved

tinted Plexiglas surface using Windows multimonitor support

8:3 aspect ratio (twice as wide as normal displays)

36 x 14 inches 2048 x 768 pixel display surface FOV = 75 degrees

Also smaller, 17 inch display (~33 degree FOV)

Figure . Arcturus 36" display showing study world.

Experiment 1: Test Design

17 users (7 female) Procedure

Find, identify, pick up, drop cubes at target pads

Cubes scattered randomly Participants placed 4 cubes

on 4 pads in each of 4 conditions, all counterbalanced

Deadline of 5 minutes Testing nav techniques Measured trial times

World Dimensions

Tutorial world 300 x 300 meters, 4 objects

Test world500 x 500, 23 objects (tents, roller coasters,

and rides)Both worlds had 4 “target cubes” and

“target drop pads”Object was to put 4 cubes on 4

corresponding pads as quickly as possible

Experiment 2: Conditions

Chose best nav techniques from Exp. 1Exp. 2: 3x2 within subjects design

Basic navigationSpeed-coupled flying with orbit

Speed-coupled flying with orbit/glide

LargeDisplay

SmallDisplay

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Total Time per Condition (sec)

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Experiments 1 & 2 Summary

Larger display/wide fov may narrow gender gap on performance in 3D navigation

Unanswered questions…What tasks do they enhance? Why?What about them causes better/worse

performance?Cause of gender effect for navigation tasks?

Experiment 3

Goals--replicate and extend findings from Experiment 2 Hypothesis: wider FOV benefits females more than

males Also, better control for display size (all on one

display) DFOV to GFOV ratios identified

Design FOV x display size x gender

32.5 v. 75 degree FOVs, 18 & 36 inches wide displays

Experiment 3: Methods

32 intermediate to advanced PC users (17 Female)--No 3D gamers

Avg. age = 41 (19 to 60 years old)DFOV x GFOV ratios:

Small-narrow = ~1:1, small-wide=~1:2, large-narrow=~2:1, and large-wide=~1:1

FOV means GFOV from here on out

All conditions run on large display

Experiment 3: Procedure

Same task as in Experiments 1 & 2After 4 cubes found, 3 “pointing” trials

1 object and 1 drop pad were removed from world

Participants had to point at each object from 3 random locations (spatial memory measure)

450 MHz Pentium II Dell computer

Experiment 3: Dependent Measures

Trial time (for all 4 cubes)Travel distanceTravel height (measure of efficiency)User satisfactionPointing errorKit of Factor Referenced Cognitive Tests

MV2 and MV3—map memory measures

Experiment 3: Results

Map Memory, N.S., t(29)=-0.29, p=.77Performance data

2 (gender) x 2 (screen size) x 2 (FOV) repeated measures MANOVA

Percent correct, N.S.Main effects

Gender Males faster (193 v. 226 seconds) and flew higher

(16.5 v. 13.8 meters)

Experiment 3: Results

Main effects continuedLarger display conditions on avg.

resulted inLess pointing error (14.8 v. 15.4 meters

error)Greater distance traveled (6918 v. 5461

meters)More flying (15.5 v. 14.9 meters height)Faster trial times (205 v. 214 seconds)

Experiment 3: Results

Wider FOV’s on avg. resulted in Less pointing error (14.8 v. 15.3 meters

error)Shorter distance traveled (5777.4 v.

6601.7 m.)Higher flying (15.8 v. 14.6 meters)Faster trial times (199.85 v. 218.7

seconds)Planned comparison: M-F difference in

large display, wide FOV condition N.S.

Experiment 3: Trial Times

Effect of Field of View on Trial Times

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Difference between M-F Trial Times

Figure 2. Effect of field of view on average trial time above; gender bias below.

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Gender Strategy Differences

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Figure 3. Effect of field of view on distance traveled, including +/- one standard error of the mean.

Experiment 3: Discussion

User Satisfaction: 12/15 males and 14/17 females preferred wider fov conditions

Observed typical overall male superiorityLarge display, wide FOV condition reduces

that superiority (trial times, pointing error)Opposing gender strategies for wide fov

conditions

Experiment 4: Females Only What about large displays and wide FOVs helps

females? Does seeing more landmarks through eye or

head movements on screen help? Possibly offloads cognitive task to perceptual system Females worse at constructing cognitive maps Better at spatial memory tasks Perhaps large-wide viewing conditions lesson

demands on cognitive system and help build map Hypothesis: Females should benefit more from

wider FOV in more complex navigation conditions on large display

Experiment 4: Methods

13 Females (22 to 52 years old, avg.=36.7) Intermediate to advanced PC users No 3D gamers

Same task as in Experiments 1-3, except no pointing tasks or memory tests

Varied complexity of worlds (12 v. 23 items) 2 (world complexity) x 2 (FOV) design, large

display condition only

Experiment 4 Results: Trial Times

2 (complexity) x 2 (FOV) RM ANOVAMain effects

Complexity (dense worlds reliably slower to navigate)

FOV (wider FOV reliably faster to navigate)Complexity x FOV interaction N.S.

Though wider FOV did benefit denser world navigation slightly more, on average

Hypothesis not strongly supported

Experiment 4: FOV x Complexity

Figure 4. Study 2 average trial times, including +/- one standard error of the mean.

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Exp. 4 Results: Distance

Females traveled reliably shorter distances with wider FOV

Same strategy seen in Experiment 3No other effects significantUser Satisfaction

11/13 preferred wider FOV “With the wide FOV, you can quickly

pinpoint the object and move toward it. The small FOV causes you to lose orientation…”.

Experiment 4: Discussion

Wider FOVs benefited females more, on average, in complex worlds, but N.S.

May have had too few participantsFuture study will include both males and

females, greater world complexity and wider fields of view

Current & Future Studies

Current study shows no gender differences with 2D, productivity tasks between large and small displays

No egocentric movementCould be that optical flow cues are

causing the gender specific findingsStudy next month to test this hypothesis

Preliminary Principles—Field of View

Use a wider field of view (~75 degrees) coupled with a large display (~36 inches) for better female navigability

Works for both simple and complex information spaces

Ensures females navigate as quickly and accurately as males on search and manipulation tasks in novel environments

Could be critical in educational and training settings

Conclusion

User research plays “pivotal” role in developing advanced technology @MSRLeading to better designs Identifying new psychological principlesBlurring the line between basic and applied

researchProduct teams see value (e.g., big display

surfaces are embraced due to findings)