Evaluating Gaze-Responsive Visual Effects for Multi-Window Visual Search in Virtual Interfaces

Modern XR headsets can present multiple virtual windows with flexible appearances and arrangements. In time-sensitive settings such as system monitoring, users may need to quickly locate target information among distractors across windows or decide that the target is absent. We evaluated whether gaze-responsive visual effects on virtual windows could improve multi-window visual search. In a study with 15 participants, we compared a baseline with three gaze-driven effects. Participants searched for combinations of shapes, letters, and colors across multiple virtual windows in an XR headset. Effects responded to fixation by popping the fixated window toward the user, highlighting the fixated window while dimming others, or outlining previously visited windows as reminders. Results showed that the popping effect significantly reduced search time without increasing errors. The popping and outlining effects also made users faster at determining that the target was absent and quitting the search.