Duncan P. Brumby
Susan Zhuang
ABSTRACT
Menu interfaces often arrange options into semantic groups. This semantic structure is then usually conveyed to the user by supplementary visual grouping cues. We investigate whether these visual grouping cues actually help users locate items in menus faster, and whether there is potential for these powerful grouping cues to impede search when used inappropriately. Thirty-six participants performed known-item searches of word menus. These menus differed along three dimensions: (1) whether visual grouping cues were used, (2) whether items were semantically organized, and (3) the number of items belonging to each semantic group. Results show that the usefulness of visual grouping entirely depends on the underlying semantic structure of the menu. When menus were semantically organized, having visual grouping cues delineate the boundaries between large semantic groups resulted in the fastest search times. But when semantically unrelated items were visually grouped together, participants took far longer to locate targets. Menu designers should therefore take great care to avoid visually grouping semantically unrelated items as this has the potential to hinder menu interactions.
Supplemental Material
- Bae, J. & Watson, B. Reinforcing visual grouping cues to communicate complex informational structure. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 20, (2014), 1973--1982.Google Scholar
Cross Ref
- Bailly, G., Oulasvirta, A., Brumby, D.P., & Howes, A. Model of visual search and selection time in linear menus. Proc. CHI '14, ACM (2014), 3865--3874. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Brumby, D.P., Cox, A.L., Chung, J., & Fernandes, B. How does knowing what you are looking for change visual search behavior? Proc. CHI '14, ACM (2014), 3895--3898. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Card, S.K. User perceptual mechanisms in the search of computer command menus. Proc CHI '82, ACM (1982), 190--196. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Chi, E.H., Rosien, A., Supattanasiri, G., et al. The bloodhound project: Automating discovery of web usability issues using the infoscent simulator. Proc CHI '03, ACM (2003), 505--512. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Halverson, T. & Hornof, A.J. The effects of semantic grouping on visual search. Proc CHI EA '08, ACM (2008), 3471--3476. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Parkinson, S.R., Sisson, N., & Snowberry, K. Organization of broad computer menu displays. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 23, (1985), 689--697.Google ScholarCross Ref
Index Terms
- Visual Grouping in Menu Interfaces
Recommendations
Model of visual search and selection time in linear menus
CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsThis paper presents a novel mathematical model for visual search and selection time in linear menus. Assuming two visual search strategies, serial and directed, and a pointing sub-task, it captures the change of performance with five fac- tors: 1) menu ...
Towards accurate and practical predictive models of active-vision-based visual search
CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsBeing able to predict the performance of interface designs using models of human cognition and performance is a long-standing goal of HCI research. This paper presents recent advances in cognitive modeling which permit increasingly realistic and ...
How does knowing what you are looking for change visual search behavior?
CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsWhen searching a display, users sometimes know what the target is but sometimes do not. It has generally been assumed that for this latter case people must engage in a deeper semantic evaluation of items during the search process. This idea is central ...
Comments