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Menu Based Interface

The document discusses guidelines for effective menu-based interfaces, noting that they work best when users have little training, use a system intermittently, and are unfamiliar with terminology. It covers issues like semantic organization of menus, item presentation sequence, response times, and shortcuts. Effective menu design considers factors such as breadth versus depth of menus, response times, display rates, and screen size.

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bagoy
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2K views

Menu Based Interface

The document discusses guidelines for effective menu-based interfaces, noting that they work best when users have little training, use a system intermittently, and are unfamiliar with terminology. It covers issues like semantic organization of menus, item presentation sequence, response times, and shortcuts. Effective menu design considers factors such as breadth versus depth of menus, response times, display rates, and screen size.

Uploaded by

bagoy
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Menu-based interface

When the menu-based interface is effective:


* users have little training
* use the system only intermittently
* are unfamiliar with the terminology
* need help in structuring the decision-making process
Menu design issues [Norman, 1991]
* semantic organization & menu-structure
* item presentation sequence
* response time & display rate
* short-cuts, phrasing of items, selection devices, graphic layout, .....etc
semantic organization & menu structure
* meaningful & categorical organization is better
o groups of logically similar items
o groups that cover all the possibilities & non-overlapping
* menu structure:
o single menu
+ binary menu, multiple-item meunu (radio buttons), extended men
u, pull-down & pop-up menu, multiple-selection menu (checkboxes)
o linear sequence
+ same sequence regardless of user's choice
o tree-structured:
+ depth: # of levels, breadth: # of items per level
+ recomendation: 4-8 breadth and 3-4 level
+ depth vs breadth tradeoff --- prefer breadth over depth
+ total selection time = depth * (k + c log breadth) [landauer &
Nachbar, 1985]
o acylic & cyclic menu network
* provide menu maps: because of sense of disorientation and lost proportiona
l to depth
Item presentation sequence
* typical sequences
o chronological ordering, ascending or descending ordering, increasing
or decreasing of physical properties (length, area, ...)
* artificial sequences
o alphabetic sequence, grouping of related items, most frequently used
items first, most important items first
Response time & display rate
* speed is a critical control variable for menu
o system response time: selection --> disply
o display rate: characters/second
* design of menu
o in slow response time: more items on each menu
o in slow display rate: fewer items on each menu
how to provide short-cuts for menu-- for frequent users
* menu with typeahead
o the BLT approach: concatenation of menu selectioins becomes a comman
d
* menu name for direct access
* menu macros for frequently used paths
menu selection mechanism
* keyborad oriented
o numbers: clear sequencing/ numeric keypad only
o letters: sequential lettering or mnemonic lettering
* GUI menu features
o mouse clicks or touch screen
o iconic menu, dialog box, radio button, check box, text entry fields,
scrollable lists,...
Menu system screen design guideline [shneiderman, 1992]
* use task semantics to organize menus
* prefer broad and shallow to narrow and deep
* show position by graphics, numbers, or titles
* use item names as titles for trees
* use meaningful groupings of items
* use meaningful sequencing of items
* make items brief, begin with keyword
* use consistent grammar, layout, terminology
* allow typeahead, jumpahead, or other shortcuts
* allow jumps to previous and main menus
* consider online help, novel selection mechanism, response time, display ra
te, and screen size

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