PDA and gesture use in practice: Insights for designers of pen-based user interfaces

Gestures are an essential element in the realization of paper-like user interfaces. Unfortunately, poor design and recognition of gestures has impeded the adoption of these interfaces. This paper describes a survey intended to illuminate the problems users have and benefits users enjoy with gesture-based user interfaces. From the results of the survey, we conclude that: users value gestures yet problems with gestures remain; users demand more gestures; and Newtons are used largely as notebooks whereas Pilots are used mostly has personal datebooks and addressbooks. The results of the survey provide insight for designers of penbased user interfaces and related tools