A zoomable product browser for elastic displays

Abstract. In this paper, we present an interaction and visualization concept for elastic displays. The interaction concept was inspired by the search process of a rummage table to explore a large set of product data. The basic approach uses a similarity-based search pattern—based on a small set of items, the user refines the search result by examining similar items and exchanging them with items from the current result. A physically-based approach is used to interact with the data by deforming the surface of the elastic display. The presented visualization concept uses glyphs to directly compare items at a glance. Zoomable UI techniques controlled by the deformation of the elastic surface allow to display different levels of detail for each item.