Dialog Design: Windows, Icons, Mice and Pointers

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Dialog Design Windows, Icons, Mice and Pointers

• This presentation has been developed by the
  Georgia Tech HCI faculty over a period of years.
  Contributors include Gregory Abowd, Jim Foley,
  Diane Gromala, Elizabeth Mynatt, Jeff Pierce,
  Colin Potts, Chris Shaw, John Stasko and Bruce
  Walker

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Dialog Styles

• 1. Command languages
• 2. WIMP - Window, Icon, Menu, Pointer
• 3. Direct manipulation
• 4. Speech/Natural language
• 5. Gesture, pen

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Agenda

• Review of dialogue design issues
• WIMP
• Advantages, disadvantages
• Design guidelines

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General Issues in Choosing Dialogue Style

• Who is in control - user or computer
• Initial training required
• Learning time to become proficient
• Speed of use
• Generality/flexibility/power
• Special skills - typing
• Gulf of evaluation / gulf of execution
• Screen space required
• Computational resources required

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WIMP

• Focus Menus, Buttons, Forms
• Predominant interface paradigm now (with some
  direct manipulation added)
• Advantages
• ?

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Menu Advantages

• One keystroke or mouse operation vs. many - no
  typing!
• No memorization of commands
• Recognition, not recall
• Limited input set

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Menu Disadvantages

• Less direct user control - have to find correct
  menu / menu item
• Not so readily extensible
• Slower than keyboarding for experienced users, at
  least without accelerators

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Menus - Many Different Types

• pop-up
• pull-down
• radio buttons
• pie buttons
• hierarchies

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Menus - Organizational strategies

• Create groups of logically similar items
• Cover all possibilities
• Ensure that items are non-overlapping
• Keep wording concise, understandable

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Bad Example

• Travel web page links
• Flight page
• 3 Best Itineraries
• Flights Prices
• Timetables
• Fares
• Which do you choose for reservations?

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Menu Item Ordering

• What rules do Mac, Netscape, Windows, etc, use?
• Make a list if you are by yourself or in a small
  group
• Or suggest some in class

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Menu Item Ordering

• Experiment with 64 common English words
• Alphabetical binary tree all the way to flat
  64-item menu
• Performance improved as search tree flattened out
• 9 sec. for binary, 4 sec for 8x8, about 3 sec.
  for flat categorized
• 64 words at random worse than 64 categorized
  words
• Snowberry et al, Computer Display Menus,
  Ergonomics 1983, 26(7), pp 699-712

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Presentation Sequence

• One possible methodology (priority order)
• Natural order (if exists)
• Time
• e.g. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
• Numeric ordering
• e.g. Point sizes for font
• Categorical - with visual separation
• Frequency of use
• Order of use
• Alphabetical - esp for long lists
• Dont change dynamically!

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A Good Example

• Logical grouping
• Visual separation of groups
• Disabled items grayed out
• Shortcuts shown
• indicates leads to dialogue
• Find some bad examples!

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The End