Menu design with visual momentum for compact smart products

Users of compact smart products with small screens often have trouble learning the menu structure. If they cannot master the menu structure, users are not able to fully utilize the products. It is argued in this paper that using visual momentum in menu representation design helps users develop effective mental maps of menu structures and promotes learning of the user interface. To assess the effect of visual momentum in this study, four types of menu representations were developed. Additionally, two menu hierarchies, two types of function key layout, and two types of function key labeling were assessed to examine the effects of menu dimension and compatibility. Experimental results indicated that participants using a partial menu map with visual momentum design performed the best, and participants using a partial menu map without visual momentum performed the poorest, even worse than those-using command-only representation. The results also showed that the menu navigation problem appeared to be particularly significant with a deep menu hierarchy. Actual or potential applications of this research include menu representation design for compact smart products.     

Integration of Adaptable and Adaptive Approaches for Interface Personalization Through Collaborative Menu

This article examines different user-system collaboration models in the adaptation of a menu interface. Four collaboration models were implemented on a prototype of mobile phone menu: (a) basic collaboration with no system support (for user adaptation) and no user control (over system adaptation), (b) system support only, (c) user control only, and (d) system support plus user control. The prototype mobile phone menu includes a hotlist (a quickly accessible collection of menu items) as well as a hierarchical menu. The hotlist is collaborative, because it combines adaptable and adaptive approaches by allowing both the user and the system to manage the items in it. A controlled experiment compared different types of collaborative menus in order to investigate the effects of system support and user control. Twenty participants performed menu selection tasks in the experiment, and both performance and subjective measures were taken. The results showed that, in a certain condition, the system support and the user control improved the user performance when applied independently, but their effects were not additive. Although the effects disappeared when the selection frequency distribution changed, the system support was preferred by most of the users. The advantages and disadvantages of the collaborative menus and implications for the adaptation of menus are discussed.     

An empirical comparison of menu-selection (((CUI) and desktop (GUI) computer programs carried out by beginners and experts

As advantages and disadvantages of graphical user interfaces are still controversial, this study focuses on an empirical comparison of a desktop interface (GUI) and a conventional user interface with menu selection (CUI). A total of 24 users (six novices and six experts with GUI; six novices and six experts with CUI). were given 20 benchmark tasks. Except for an introduction given by the investigator (1·5 h) the beginners had no or very little previous experience with electronic data processing, while the experts had previous experience of 3,700 h (desktop) or 7,500 h (menu selection), respectively. The results showed for both beginners and experts a statistically significant superiority of GUI of the desktop user interface with 'mouse' over the conventional user interface with menu selection and function keys (CUI). The experts in GUI needed 51% less time to complete the tasks averaged across all tasks, as compared to the experts using CUI. Moreover a significant interaction was found between tasks and user interfaces in the context of GUI.     

Design and evaluation of freehand menu selection interfaces using tilt and pinch gestures

Freehand gestural interaction, in which the user’s hands move in mid-air to provide input, has been of interest to researchers, but freehand menu selection interfaces have been under-investigated so far. Freehand menu selection is inherently difficult, especially with increasing menu breadth (i.e., the number of items), largely because moving hands in free space cannot achieve precision as high as physical input devices such as mouse and stylus. We have designed a novel menu selection interface called the rapMenu (Ni et al., 2008), which is controlled by wrist tilt and multiple pinch gestures, and takes advantage of the multiple discrete gesture inputs to reduce the required precision of the user hand movements.In this article, we first review the visual design and behavior of the rapMenu technique, as well as related design issues and its potential advantages. In the second part, we present two studies of the rapMenu in order to further investigate the strengths and limitations of the design principle. In the first study, we compared the rapMenu to the extensively studied tilt menu technique (Rahman et al., 2009). Our results revealed that the rapMenu outperforms the tilt menu as menu breadth increases. In the second study, we investigated how the rapMenu affords the opportunity of eyes-free selection and users’ transition from novice to expert. We found that within 10 min of practice, eyes-free selection with rapMenu has competitive speed and accuracy with the visual rapMenu and the tilt menu. Finally, we discuss design variations that use other axes of wrist movement and adopt alternative auditory feedback.     

在VFP中基于用户权限生成系统菜单的实现

基于数据库应用系统的安全考虑,通过菜单进行用户权限控制,提出了基于用户权限生成系统菜单的方法并利用Visual FoxPro进行了实现。利用该方法可以在用户登录时,根据登录用户的权限动态生成系统菜单,为不同权限的用户生成不同的系统菜单。     

LabVIEW软件中菜单形式的用户界面设计与实现

LabVIEW虚拟仪器软件广泛应用于测控系统的开发。在阐述了菜单形式用户界面基本设计思想和几个主要函数的基础上,详述了两种不同的菜单式友好用户界面实现方法。文章所述方法在实际课题中的运用取得了良好的效果。     

Pull-down versus traditional menu types: an empirical comparison

An experiment was conducted to test the performance of pull-down versus traditional or explicit menus. Sixty subjects, including novice and experienced computer users, manipulated both types of menus to complete banking tasks similar to those found on Automatic Teller M achines. The order of the menus was randomly varied to control for learning effects. Across both types of users, traditional-style menus elicited fewer errors than did pull-down menus; however, no significant difference was found in the time to complete the banking task. Experienced users outperformed novice users in the amount of time taken to complete the task regardless of menu type, though no difference was found in the number of errors committed by both user types.     

基于中文软件菜单与图标模型研究

目的是探讨当前人机界面研究状况，针对屏幕显示信息存在的认知问题，基于中文软件界面，分析汉字和图标的符号．特性，研究以汉字命令为主图标为辅的有机组合人机界面的设计思想和方法，从而使中文用户的人机交互更具有操作可用性．     

Personalizing user–agent interaction

Interface agents are computer programs that provide personalized assistance to users with their computer-based tasks. The interface agents developed so far have focused their attention on learning a user's preferences in a given application domain and on assisting him according to them. However, in order to personalize the interaction with users, interface agents should also learn how to best interact with each user and how to provide them assistance of the right sort at the right time. To fulfil this goal, an interface agent has to discover when the user wants a suggestion to solve a problem or deal with a given situation, when he requires only a warning about it and when he does not need any assistance at all. In this work, we propose a learning algorithm, named WoS, to tackle this problem. Our algorithm is based on the observation of a user's actions and on a user's reactions to the agent's assistance actions. The WoS algorithm enables an interface agent to adapt its behavior and its interaction with a user to the user's assistance requirements in each particular context.     

Authorware多级菜单制作--热区交互实现菜单功能

以实例用Authorware中的热区交互功能来实现多级菜单,为广大Authorware多级菜单制作者提供了一种新的菜单制作选择,开辟了新的视野,从而可以制作出更绚丽的菜单交互界面,使制作出来的课件/软件更胜一筹.     

Pull-down versus traditional menu types: An empirical comparison

An experiment was conducted to test the performance of pull-down versus traditional or explicit menus. Sixty subjects, including novice and experienced computer users, manipulated both types of menus to complete banking tasks similar to those found on Automatic Teller M achines. The order of the menus was randomly varied to control for learning effects. Across both types of users, traditional-style menus elicited fewer errors than did pull-down menus; however, no significant difference was found in the time to complete the banking task. Experienced users outperformed novice users in the amount of time taken to complete the task regardless of menu type, though no difference was found in the number of errors committed by both user types.     

Selecting Menu Items in Mobile Head-Mounted Displays: Effects of Selection Technique and Active Area

ABSTRACT

Head-mounted displays (HMDs) are increasingly available to users after the launch of new-generation consumer devices. Moreover, mobile HMDs such as Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream View allow users to experience VR through a smartphone, without requiring connection to a PC. Commercial applications for mobile HMDs exploit different techniques to perform menu selection tasks. This paper contrasts the two most used techniques, i.e., dwell-based and touchpad-based selection, which were not experimentally compared before. We consider different versions of a menu pointing and selection task in which participants interacted with a Samsung Gear VR. Results show that participants were slower with the dwell-based technique rather than the touchpad-based technique. However, the dwell-based technique led to fewer errors and was perceived as more usable, more comfortable and less fatiguing than the touchpad-based technique. We also evaluated two different active areas for the selection, discussing the results.     

Graphical versus character-based word processors: an analysis of user performance

The study investigates how experienced computer users take advantage of the availability of graphic user interfaces in a word processing task. Performance time and actions were compared in three groups of subjects working respectively with WordPerfect 5.1, WordPerfect for Windows, or WordPerfect V2.00 for the Macintosh. The three groups did not differ in efficiency: they performed the word processing task at the same speed. Very few WordPerfect 5.1 users worked with the pull-down menus; the great majority preferred using the function key shortcuts. No significant difference in menu use was noted between the two graphical user interface word processors (Windows and Macintosh). Windows users did not apply shortcuts to move text, but used menus or the button bar instead. There was no difference in the use of the mouse between the Windows and Macintosh groups. While better task satisfaction is often reported with the availability of graphical user interfaces, our findings are in agreement with other studies suggesting that experienced users don't perform more efficiently with such a computer environment.     

基于LabVIEW软件的菜单形式用户界面的设计

近年来,虚拟仪器技术以及LabVlEW软件在国内得到迅速推广,LabVIEW正在成为国内外测试技术和仪器科学中的通用编程语言.在利用LabVIEW构建复杂测控程序时,面向用户的菜单形式操作界面设计是一项首要及关键的技术.结合课题项目的实际应用,介绍了几种不同的基于LabVIEW软件设计菜单形式用户界面的方法,利用这些方法,可以大大提高LabVIEW编程的工作效率.     

Adapting menu layout to tasks

Menus are an increasingly popular style of user-system interface. Although many aspects of menu design can affect user performance (e.g. item names and selection methods), the organization of items in menus is a particularly salient aspect of their design. Unfortunately, empirical studies of menu layout have yet to resolve the basic question of how menus should be organized to produce optimal performance. Furthermore, a disturbingly common finding has been that any initial effects of menu layout disappear with practice. Thus it is tempting to conclude that menu organization is not important or that it only affects performance during learning. In this paper we present some reasons to doubt this conclusion. In particular, we have found persistent effects of layout with multiple-item selection tasks, in contrast with studies employing a single-item selection paradigm. The results of a controlled study comparing various menu designs (fast-food keyboards) show that the types of tasks to be performed by users must be considered in organizing items in menus and that there may be sustained effects of menu organization with some tasks. In addition, the results of this study support the use of a formal methodology based on user knowledge for menu design. By comparing the performance of subjects using menus designed using our methodology with the performance of subjects using “personalized” menus, we were able to demonstrate the general superiority of our method for designing menus, and for tailoring menus to meet task requirements as well.     

Using task analysis to improve usability of fatigue modelling software

The design of any interactive computer system requires consideration of both humans and machines. Software usability is one aspect of human–computer interaction that can benefit from knowledge of the user and their tasks. One set of methods for determining whether an application enables users to achieve their predetermined goals effectively and efficiently is task analysis. In the present study, a task analysis was applied to the graphical user interface of fatigue modelling software used in industry. The task analysis procedure allowed areas of usability improvement to be identified and then addressed with alternate interface prototypes. The present method of task analysis illustrates a practical and efficient way for software designers to improve software usability, user effectiveness and satisfaction, by involving users in the design process.     

一种基于数据库的动态菜单生成技术

用户利用菜单与软件系统交互是GUI软件系统采用的重要手段,利用VC＋＋的MFC结合数据库对菜单进行动态生成,根据数据库的内容对菜单进行动态定制裁剪,增强创建软件系统菜单界面的灵活性,利用这个思想,在实际软件系统开发中,可以较好地完成动态菜单设计要求。     

在Authorware 7.0中制作各种Windows风格的交互菜单

使用具有Windows风格的菜单交互是多媒体教学软件最为理想的交互方式,它的最大优点就是用户不必接受专门培训,只要会使用鼠标就可以很轻松的完成交互。本文着重使用Authorware 7.0实现具有Windows风格的三种典型菜单:下拉菜单、右键菜单和自动弹出菜单,以便为更多的多媒体教学软件提供快捷、方便的交互方式。     

具有任意多级子菜单的通用菜单程序设计

本文通过ＴｕｒｂｏＣ提供的函数递归定义功能,介绍具有任意多级子菜单的菜单程序,该程序运行于文本方式,具有速度快、人机界面友好等特点。