by Eva Brumme
Electronic media lead to a change in the reading habits of traditional print products. As a digital version of a newspaper, e-paper applications support the reading on devices such as desktop PCs, smartphones and tablets, thereby offering enhanced functionality compared to the print medium. Large displays seem interesting for the publication as well, as they provide more space for the representation of content and further can be employed in public spaces. The use of these devices requires novel operating concepts that are appropriate to the size of the display and, if necessary, do without additional input devices.
In this work possibilities for the interaction with ePaper applications on large displays are investigated. Further, operating concepts are developed that are based on touch and freehand gestures. The concept of a digital showcase as an interactive version of the traditional showcase for print newspapers has been implemented prototypically within the scope of this work. The operation of the underlying Handelsblatt NEO ePaper application developed by the company Fink & Partner is realised by a gesture control using a Leap Motion controller. Previously, appropriate gestures for operation were determined in a qualitative study. The usability of the gesture control has been evaluated in a further study and results showed that the selected gestures are well-suited for the control of the application with regard to intuitiveness and learnability. It was found that a proper system response and a high tolerance for the manner in which the hand gestures are executed, are crucial for the acceptance by users.