Modeling Temporal Target Selection: A Perspective from Its Spatial Correspondence

Temporal target selection requires users to wait and trigger the selection input within a bounded time window, with a selection cursor that is expected to be delayed. This task conceptualizes, for example, a variety of game scenarios such as determining the timing of shooting a projectile towards a moving object. In this work, we explore models that predict “when” users typically perform a selection (i.e., user selection distribution) and their selection error rates in such tasks. We hypothesize that users react to temporal factors including “distance”, “width”, and “delay” as how they treat the corresponding variables in spatial target selection. The derived models are evaluated in a controlled experiment and an MTurk-based online study. Our research contributes new knowledge on user behavior in temporal target selection tasks and its potential connection with its spatial correspondence. Our models and conclusions can benefit both users and designers of relevant interactive applications.