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Effects of breadth, depth and number of responses on computer menu search performance

1988; Academic Press; Volume: 28; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0020-7373(88)80068-3

1879-3614

Stanley R. Parkinson, Martin D. Hill, Norwood Sisson, Cynthia Viera,

Information Retrieval and Search Behavior

Several menu configurations were designed to provide an independent assessment of the influence of breadth, depth and number of responses on computer menu search performance. The menu hierarchy consisted of a binary tree of category descriptor terms with 64 terminal options. Standard menus tested were 2 options on each of 6 sequential frames (26) and 4 options on 3 frames (43). Another menu (Upcoming Selections) was developed with 6 frames in which the binary choice on each frame was shown in the presence of options at the next menu level. Menus developed for separating the effects of number of frames and responses were configured with two menu levels per frame and responses were required to either one or both levels. Number of responses was the most important factor affecting execution time. The highest accuracy was found with the Upcoming Selections menu but that menu also resulted in the slowest execution time. A modified Upcoming Selections menu was developed which allowed participants to respond to each level or to bypass the higher level on each frame. Considering both speed and accuracy, that configuration yielded the best performance of all menus tested.