Preview, Accept or Discard? A Predictive Low-Motion Interaction Paradigm

Abstract

Repetitive strain injury (RSI) affects roughly one in five computer users and remains largely unresolved despite decades of ergonomic mouse redesign. All such devices share a fundamental limitation: they still require fine-motor motion to operate. This work investigates whether predictive, AI-assisted input can reduce that motion by replacing physical pointing with ranked on-screen suggestions. To preserve user agency, we introduce Preview Accept Discard (PAD), a zero-click interaction paradigm that lets users preview predicted GUI targets, cycle through a small set of ranked alternatives, and accept or discard them via key-release timing. We evaluate PAD in two settings: a browser-based email client and a ISO 9241-9 keyboard-prediction task under varying top-3 accuracies. Across both studies, PAD substantially reduces hand motion relative to trackpad use while maintaining comparable task times with the trackpad only when accuracies are similar to those of the best spell-checkers.