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Menu Selection

Menu selection is one of the most prevalent modes of human/computer interaction. We continue to follow several lines of research suggested in the book "The Psychology of Menu Selection: Designing Cognitive Control at the Human/Computer Interface," by Kent Norman. For example, it has been argued that broad menus offer faster selection and better comprehension of the selection process than deep menus. However, the utility of very large, broad menus has been limited by lack of structure needed to guide search. Methods have been investigated for conveying structure using graphical and chromatic cues. "Splay" menus are being developed to convey a sense of spreading out or extending the passageway through the window of menu options.

Current research involves menu selection on the World Wide Web and the difficulty of knowing how much information is at a particular site and navigating through that site to find the desired information.

Participants:

John Chin, Graduate Research Assistant

Ben Harper, Graduate Research Assistant

Kent L. Norman, Department of Psychology

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