Combination of tactile devices to interact with a spreadsheet on tablet

Multi-touch interaction with spreadsheets on tablets is tedious and raises multiple interaction issues. In this paper, we present the design and evaluation of novel interaction techniques relying on the usage of an always-available device, the smartphone, to improve interaction with spreadsheets on tablets. The smartphone can be used as an additional screen, allowing to display more information or as a tangible interactor, thus extending the tactile interaction vocabulary through stacking gestures. Our techniques aim to facilitate the creation of pivot tables, a common task in data analysis on spreadsheets. We evaluate our stacking techniques against the tactile interactions provided by mobile spreadsheet apps. Our studies reveal that some of our interaction techniques are 23.1% faster than tactile for creating pivot tables.