Designing a menu-based interface to an operating system
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TL;DR
An experiment utilizing a sorting technique and hierarchical cluster analysis was quite effective in learning the user's perception of the relationships among the system functions.
Abstract
The development of a large menu-based interface to an operating system posed a number of interesting user interface questions. Among those were how to determine the user's view of the relationships among the myriad of functions in the system, and how to reflect those relationships in a menu hierarchy. An experiment utilizing a sorting technique and hierarchical cluster analysis was quite effective in learning the user's perception of the relationships among the system functions. A second experiment comparing a “broad” menu hierarchy to a “deep” menu hierarchy showed that users made significantly fewer inappropriate menu selections with the broad hierarchy.