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Menu Selection, Form Fillin, Dialog Boxes, and Fitts's Law

Menu Selection, Form Fillin, Dialog Boxes, and Fitts's Law. Lecture 8. Task-Related Organization. "The primary goal for menu, form-fillin, and dialog-box designers is to create a sensible, comprehensible, memorable, and convenient organization relevant to the user's task.". Single Menus.

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Menu Selection, Form Fillin, Dialog Boxes, and Fitts's Law

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  1. Menu Selection, Form Fillin, Dialog Boxes, and Fitts's Law Lecture 8

  2. Task-Related Organization "The primary goal for menu, form-fillin, and dialog-box designers is to create a sensible, comprehensible, memorable, and convenient organization relevant to the user's task." CS774 – Spring 2006

  3. Single Menus • Binary Menus • Mnemonic letters • Radio Buttons • Button Choice • Multiple-item Menus • Multiple-selection menus or check boxes CS774 – Spring 2006

  4. Single Menus (cont.) CS774 – Spring 2006

  5. Single Menus (cont.) CS774 – Spring 2006

  6. Single Menus (cont.) CS774 – Spring 2006

  7. Single Menus (cont.) CS774 – Spring 2006

  8. Combination of multiple menus • Linear menu sequences and simultaneous menus • Linear • Guide the user through complex decision-making process. • E.g. cue cards or "Wizards" • Effective for novice users performing simple tasks • Simultaneous • Present multiple active menus at the same time and allows users to enter choices in any order CS774 – Spring 2006

  9. Combination of multiple menus (cont.) • Tree-structured menus • Designers can form categories of similar items to create a tree structure • E.g., fonts, size style, spacing • Fast retrieved if natural and comprehensive • Use terminology from the task domain • Expanding menus maintain the full context of each choice • E.g., Windows Explorer CS774 – Spring 2006

  10. Combination of multiple menus (cont.) • Menu Maps • Menu maps can help users stay oriented in a large menu tree • Effective for providing overviews to minimize user disorientation. • Acyclic and Cyclic Networks • Useful for • social relationships • transportation routing • scientific-journal citations • Can cause confusion and disorientation. CS774 – Spring 2006

  11. Content Organization • Task-related grouping in tree organization • Create groups of logically similar items • Form groups that cover all possibilities • Make sure that items are nonoverlapping • Use familiar terminology, but ensure that items are distinct from one another CS774 – Spring 2006

  12. Content Organization (cont.) • Item Presentation Sequence • The order of items in the menu is important, and should take natural sequence into account when possible: • Time • Numeric ordering • Physical properties • When cases have no task-related orderings, the designer must choose from such possibilities as: • Alphabetic sequence of terms • Grouping of related items • Most frequently used items first • Most important items first. CS774 – Spring 2006

  13. Content Organization (cont.) CS774 – Spring 2006

  14. Content Organization (cont.) • Menu layout CS774 – Spring 2006

  15. Content Organization (cont.) • Menu layout (cont.) • Titles • Phrasing of menu items • Use familiar and consistent terminology • Ensure that items are distinct from one another • Use consistent and concise phrasing • Bring the keyword to the left CS774 – Spring 2006

  16. Content Organization (cont.) • Menu layout (cont.) • Graphic layout and design • Constraints • screen width and length • display rate • character set • highlighting techniques CS774 – Spring 2006

  17. Fast Movement Through Menus • Keyboard shortcuts • Supports expert use • Can make translation to a foreign language more difficult • Bookmarks in browsers • User configured toolbars CS774 – Spring 2006

  18. Question • You are in charge of designing a menu tree for navigating 1,250 books in a digital library. Present an argument of whether the menu should have larger depth (number of levels) or breadth (number of items per level). CS774 – Spring 2006

  19. Data Entry with Menus: Form Fillin, Dialog Boxes, and Alternatives • Form Fillin • Appropriate when many fields of data must be entered: • Full complement of information is visible to user. • Display resembles familiar paper forms. • Few instructions are required for many types of entries. • Users must be familiar with: • Keyboards • Use of TAB key or mouse to move the cursor • Error correction methods • Field-label meanings • Permissible field contents • Use of the ENTER and/or RETURN key. CS774 – Spring 2006

  20. Data Entry with Menus: Form Fillin, Dialog Boxes, and Alternatives • Form-Fillin Design Guidelines • Meaningful title • Comprehensible instructions • Logical grouping and sequencing of fields • Visually appealing layout of the form • Familiar field labels • Consistent terminology and abbreviations • Visible space and boundaries for data-entry fields • Convenient cursor movement • Error correction for individual characters and entire fields • Error prevention • Error messages for unacceptable values • Optional fields clearly marked • Explanatory messages for fields • Completion signal CS774 – Spring 2006

  21. Data Entry with Menus: Form Fillin, Dialog Boxes, and Alternatives CS774 – Spring 2006

  22. Data Entry with Menus: Form Fillin, Dialog Boxes, and Alternatives • Dialog Boxes • Combination of menu and form-fillin techniques. • Internal layout guidelines: • Meaningful title, consistent style • Top-left to bottom-right sequencing (for English readers) • Clustering and emphasis • Consistent layouts (margins, grid, white space, lines, boxes) • Consistent terminology, fonts, capitalization, justification • Standard buttons (OK, Cancel) • Error prevention by direct manipulation CS774 – Spring 2006

  23. Data Entry with Menus: Form Fillin, Dialog Boxes, and Alternatives • Dialog Boxes (cont.) • External Relationship • Smooth appearance and disappearance • Distinguishable but small boundary • Size small enough to reduce overlap problems • Display close to appropriate items • No overlap of required items • Easy to make disappear • Clear how to complete/cancel CS774 – Spring 2006

  24. Question • Give examples of applications where menu selection and form fillin are more appropriate than a direct-manipulation strategy. CS774 – Spring 2006

  25. Audio Menus and Menus for Small Displays • Menu systems in small displays and situations where hands and eyes are busy are a challenge. • Audio menus • Verbal prompts and option descriptions • Input is normally verbal or keypad • Not persistent, like a visual display, so memorization is required. • Frequent users can avoid listening to options CS774 – Spring 2006

  26. Question • A telephone-based menu system is being designed for a magazine subscription service system. There are seven magazines available: National Geographic, Travel and Leisure, Entrepreneur, Time, Golf, US News and World Report, and Fortune. Describe some reasonable orderings of the voice menus. CS774 – Spring 2006

  27. Fitts's Law • Index of difficulty = log2 (D / W+1) • D = distance between buttons • W = target size • Time to point = C1 + C2 (index of difficulty) • C1 and C2 and constants that depend on the device • C1 = start/stop time in seconds • C2 = speed of the device • Index of difficulty is log2 (2*8/1) = log2 (16) = 4 bits CS774 – Spring 2006

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