Social Virtual Reality (VR) platforms have surged in popularity in recent years, including among people with disabilities (PWD). Previous research has documented accessibility challenges, harassment, and negative experiences for PWD using disability signifiers in VR, primarily focusing on those with visible disabilities who encounter negative experiences. Yet, little is known about the experiences of people with invisible disabilities in social VR environments, and whether positive experiences are also common. To address these gaps, we designed inclusive avatars (avatars with disability signifiers) and investigated the lived experiences of 26 individuals with both visible and invisible disabilities immersing themselves in social interactions in VRChat for a week. We utilized a mixed methods experience sampling design and multilevel regression to explore the relationships between social interactions of PWD in VR and various psychological outcomes. Our results indicate that PWD, both visible and invisible, experienced positive and negative social interactions in VR. These interactions, in turn, significantly influenced users’ overall experience with inclusive avatars, affecting aspects such as emotional responses, engagement levels, satisfaction with the avatar’s design, and perceptions of inclusion in VR. Qualitative interviews of 18 participants allowed for a more nuanced exploration of the experiences of PWD by giving voice to users who are rarely studied in depth. Findings provided unique insights into both the positive and negative experiences of PWD, as well as identified key design factors influencing user experience in social VR.

While advances in mobile text entry enable smartphone users to type almost as fast as on hardware keyboards, text-heavy activities are still not widely adopted. One reason is the lack of shortcut mechanisms. In this article, we determine shortcuts for text-heavy activities, elicit shortcut gestures, implement them for a fully touch-sensitive smartphone, and conduct an evaluation with potential users. We found that experts perform around 800 keyboard shortcuts per day, which are not available on smartphones. Interviews revealed the lack of shortcuts as a major limitation that prevents mobile text editing. Therefore, we elicited gestures for the 22 most important shortcuts for smartphones that are touch-sensitive on the whole device surface. We implemented the gestures for a fully touch-sensitive smartphone using deep learning and evaluated them in realistic scenarios to gather feedback. We show that the developed prototype is perceived as intuitive and faster than recent commercial approaches.

As touchscreens are the most successful input method of current mobile devices, touch gestures became a widely used input technique. While gestures provide users with advantages to express themselves, they also introduce challenges regarding accuracy and memorability. In this paper, we investigate the effect of a gesture's orientation on how well the gesture can be performed. We conducted a study in which participants performed systematically rotated unistroke gestures. For straight lines as well as for compound lines, we found that users tend to align gestures with the primary axes. We show that the error can be described by a Clausen function with R² = .93. Based on our findings, we suggest design implications and highlight the potential for recognizing flick gestures, visualizing gestures and improving recognition of compound gestures.

Previous work has shown that large high resolution displays (LHRDs) can enhance collaboration between users. As LHRDs allow free movement in front of the screen, an understanding of movement behavior is required to build successful interfaces for these devices. This paper presents Pac-Many; a multiplayer version of the classical computer game Pac-Man to study group dynamics when using LHRDs. We utilized smartphones as game controllers to enable free movement while playing the game. In a lab study, using a 4m × 1m LHRD, 24 participants (12 pairs) played Pac-Many in collaborative and competitive conditions. The results show that players in the collaborative condition divided screen space evenly. In contrast, competing players stood closer together to avoid benefits for the other player. We discuss how the nature of the task is important when designing and analyzing collaborative interfaces for LHRDs. Our work shows how to account for the spatial aspects of interaction with LHRDs to build immersive experiences.