Model-based evaluation of cell phone menu interaction

Cell phone interfaces are now ubiquitous. In this paper, we describe concepts to support the analysis of cell phone menu hierarchies. We present an empirical study of user performance on five simple tasks of menu traversal on a cell phone. Two models we tested, based on GOMS and ACT-R, give very good predictions of behavior. We use the study results to motivate an effective evaluation process for menu hierarchies. Our work makes several contributions: a novel and timely study of a new, very common HCI task; new models for accurately predicting performance; novel development tools to support such modeling; and a search procedure to generate menu hierarchies that reduce traversal time, in simulation studies, by about a third. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.5.2 [Information Interfaces and Presentation]: User Interfaces--Evaluation/methodology. Keywords Mobile telephones, menu traversal, cognitive modeling, evaluation

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Robert St. Amant, Thomas E. Horton, Frank E. Ritter
• Keywords: Cell Phone Interfaces, CHI 2004, Human Computer Interaction, Menu Traversal, Phone Menu Hierarchies