“Where Did My Apps Go?” Supporting Scalable and Transition-Aware Access to Everyday Applications in Head-Worn Augmented Reality

Future augmented reality (AR) glasses empower users to view personal applications and services anytime and anywhere without being restricted by physical locations and the availability of physical screens. In typical everyday activities, people move around to carry out different tasks and need a variety of information on the go. Existing interfaces in AR do not support these use cases well, especially when the number of applications increases. We explore the usability of three world-referenced approaches that move AR applications with users as they transition among different locations, featuring different levels of AR app availability: (1) always using a menu to manually open an app when needed; (2) automatically suggesting a relevant subset of all apps; and (3) carrying all apps with the users to the new location. Through a controlled study and a relatively more ecologically-valid study in AR, we reached better understandings on the performance trade-offs and observed the impact of various everyday contextual factors on these interfaces in more realistic AR settings. Our results shed light on how to better support the mobile information needs of users in everyday life in future AR interfaces.