Pull Outperforms Push as Vibrotactile Wristband Feedback for Mid-Air Gesture Guidance

The use of mid-air gestures to control interactive systems is becoming increasingly important, particularly in mixed reality scenarios. However, these gestures are not always intuitive and can be challenging to learn as they lack visual guidance. Therefore, it is crucial to explore strategies to improve the learnability of these gestures. In this work, it is investigated how a vibration stimulus can be applied at the forearm to guide a person in performing a gesture. Utilizing a prototypical wristband with 24 vibrotactile actuators, the metaphors pull and push, representing attractive and repulsive feedback, were compared against each other. Results of a controlled user study show that participants perform significantly better with the pull metaphor, completing gestures faster, and make fewer errors. In line with this, the majority stated a subjective preference towards pull after experiencing both metaphors.