Microanalysis of active reading behavior to inform design of interactive desktop workspaces

Hybrid paper-digital desktop workspaces have long been of interest in HCI, yet their design remains challenging. One continuing challenge is to support fluid interaction with both paper and digital media, while taking advantage of established practices with each. Today researchers are exploiting depth cameras and computer vision to capture activity on and above the desktop and enable direct interaction with digitally projected and physical media. One important prerequisite to augmenting desktop activity is understanding human behavior in particular contexts and tasks. Here we study active reading on the desktop. To better understand active reading practices and identify patterns that might serve as signatures for different types of related activity, we conducted a microanalysis of single users reading on and above the desktop workspace. We describe the relationship between multimodal body-based contextual cues and the interactions they signify in a physical desktop workspace. Detailed analysis of coordinated interactions with paper documents provides an empirical basis for designing digitally augmented desktop workspaces. We conclude with prototype design interactions for hybrid paper-digital desktop workspaces.