Encourage edge-based interactions

[zachkinstner]

From this review video of @squakmix's Graffiti 3D, and the subsequent Twitter discussion:

Hovercast #VR didn't work too well... try select/release away from the edge :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phn3Ix-YxPA

since keeping hands further apart helps the #LeapMotion tracking. "Improve slider release" == GitHub issue #15 :)

Haha, Not "wrong"... just not "ideal" ;) New #UX challenge for #Hovercast: how to encourage edge-based interactions?

[zachkinstner]

In the video, the reviewer was making selections from above the menu plane, rather than from the edge/side of the plane. This doesn't work as well, since the hands moving close together (and/or obscuring each other) degrades the Leap Motion tracking quality. Combined with a noisy background for IR, the menu usage was not smooth or reliable. (Especially the "Hue" slider!)

Perhaps some kind of indicator could make it very clear that the ideal usage is from the side. It wouldn't hurt to also encourage an open "cursor" hand, rather than pointing a single finger.

[zachkinstner]

This one is tough because it's a limitation/challenge from the hardware side. Even when it's the tracking that's not behaving well, it still looks/feels like the software is broken. So this falls into the realm of playing to the hardware's strengths, while actively avoiding its problematic scenarios.

[squakmix]

I've found that the look-based interaction style naturally implies to users that they should release sliders from the far edge rather than the inside edge. There are few/no other comfortable ways to do it when using the look based cursor.