Input Controls for Entering Uncertain Data

Abstract

Although more and more data is collected automatically, many interfaces still require manual input. When we, for example, enter our daily calorie intake or calculate our ecological footprint, we often have to guess the weight of the food or what distance we have covered with our car. In this paper, we propose a solution to overcome the problem of forcing users to enter a single value when they are unsure about the actual input. On the basis of a slider, we designed four input controls which allow the input of uncertain data in the form of probability distribution functions. To evaluate our input controls, we conducted two studies collecting subjective and objective feedback. Based on the evaluation, we derived implications for their usage. We additionally provide an open-source toolkit with the evaluated input controls that can be included in web applications and customized for different contexts and tasks.