Layout Appropriateness: A Metric for Evaluating User Interface Widget Layout
نویسنده
چکیده
Numerous methods to evaluate user interfaces have been investigated. These methods vary greatly in the attention paid to the users’ tasks. Some methods require detailed task descriptions while others are task-independent. Unfortunately, collecting detailed task information can be difficult. On the other hand, task-independent methods cannot evaluate a design for the tasks users actually perform. The goal of this research is to develop a metric, which incorporates simple task descriptions, that can assist designers in organizing widgets in the user interface. Simple task descriptions provide some of the benefits, without the difficulties, of performing a detailed task analysis. The metric, Layout Appropriateness (LA), requires a description of the sequences of widget-level actions users perform and how frequently each sequence is used. This task description can either be from observations of an existing system or from a simplified task analysis. The appropriateness of a given layout is computed by weighting the cost of each sequence of actions by how frequently the sequence is performed. This emphasizes frequent methods of accomplishing tasks while incorporating less frequent methods in the design. Currently costs are based on the distance users must move the mouse. Other measures such as the number of eye fixations necessary to extract the relevant information or measure like the number of changes in direction may also prove useful, but must be validated before they are made available for use. In addition to providing an comparison of a proposed or existing layouts, an LA-optimal layout is presented to the designer. The designer can compare the LA-optimal and existing layouts or start with the LA-optimal layout and modify it to take additional factors into consideration. Software engineers who occasionally face interface design problems and user interface designers can benefit from the explicit focus on the users’ tasks that LA incorporates into automated user interface evaluation. Introduction Software engineers and interface designers often face the challenge of creating or redesigning an interface. Many methods to evaluate interfaces have been developed to aid in this process. Some methods, such as GOMS, require detailed task descriptions [3, 14]. While these methods can take many aspects of the interactions into consideration, detailed task descriptions can be difficult to obtain and small changes in the tasks may require extensive reanalysis. In addition, performing detailed task analyses can require training that may be both expensive and impractical [14]. Other methods, like the work of Tullis, require no task descriptions [29]. Task-independent methods can provide useful information, but cannot evaluate the appropriateness of an interface for the tasks users actually perform.
منابع مشابه
Software Implementation and Experimentation with a New Genetic Algorithm for Layout Design
This paper discusses the development of a new GA for layout design. The GA was already designed and reported. However the implementation used in the earlier work was rudimentary and cumbersome, having no suitable Graphical User Interface, GUI. This paper discusses the intricacies of the algorithm and the GA operators used in previous work. It also reports on implementation of a new GA operator ...
متن کاملLayout Design of User Interface Components with Multiple Objectives
A multi-goal layout problem may be formulated as a Quadratic Assignment model, considering multiple goals (or factors), both qualitative and quantitative in the objective function. The facilities layout problem, in general, varies from the location and layout of facilities in manufacturing plant to the location and layout of textual and graphical user interface components in the human–computer ...
متن کاملThe GINA Interface Builder
As part of the GINA project at GMD, an interface builder has been implemented that can be used to interactively develop graphical user interfaces based on the OSF/Motif toolkit. The interface builder extensively uses direct-manipulation techniques to facilitate explorative learning and to accelerate the definition process. It provides special support for the dynamic layout capabilities of Motif...
متن کاملEvaluating Direct Manipulation Operations for Constraint-Based Layout
Layout managers are used to control the placement of widgets in graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Constraint-based layout managers are more powerful than other ones. However, they are also more complex and their layouts are prone to problems that usually require direct editing of constraints. Today, designers commonly use GUI builders to specify GUIs. The complexities of traditional approaches ...
متن کاملComparing Typing Speeds for Keyboard Layouts Fairly and Efficiently
With the advent of ubiquitous computing, we have seen a proliferation of input modes for many kinds of devices. Notably, with the advent of programmable devices such as smart phones, we can easily design and program new layouts in software. Without a standard methodology for evaluating these new layouts, user interface designers have had to design and conduct individual tests for each new desig...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
عنوان ژورنال:
- IEEE Trans. Software Eng.
دوره 19 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 1993