Twist and touch - investigating the benefit of using tilt for 3D interfaces in mobile image and video browsing

3D visualizations suggest high potential for video and image browsing interfaces on smartphones and tablets because the third dimension enables us to represent more information at a time - thus coping with the limiting screen size of these handheld devices. Interactively changing the representation of such 3D interfaces by tilting the device gives us further opportunities for innovative and engaging visualizations. However, it is unclear if such visual representations of image and video data achieve a good search performance and are accepted and appreciated by users. We present experiments investigating different 3D designs for video browsing interfaces that take the tilt angle of the device into account. Our evaluations show a rather limited benefit with respect to performance (measured via search time and accuracy) but high potential with respect to entertainment and engagement (measured via qualitative user statements).