Apparency of Contingencies in Pull Down Menus
Apparency of Contingencies in Pull Down Menus
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Date
1998-10-15
Authors
Alonso, Diane L.
Norman, Kent L.
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Abstract
In many computer interfaces the underlying structures and contingencies
are often hidden from the user's view. Users high in Spatial Visualization
Ability (SVA) are able to quickly determine and manage the contingencies
of these relationships and are not severely affected by this problem. Low
SVA users, however, have difficulty visualizing these contingencies and
often get lost. We examined the performance of 160 undergraduate students
to determine whether revealing hidden contingencies through visual cues
would facilitate low SVA users enabling them to approach the level of
performance of high SVA users on a computerized path-finding task. It was
found that using color and displaying paths improved performance, however,
there is no indication that it is more beneficial to low than high SVA
users.
(Also cross-referenced as UMIACS-TR-97-43)