Analysis of breakdowns in menu-based interaction based on information scent Model

Abstract

High communicability of the menu-based system is on the basis of consistent vision and clear policy in designing the system of menus, and then they should be perceivable to the users. In this light, failures in menu-based interactions can be explained that they might emerge from lack of information in the users' available cues to identify the design vision. This study focuses on communicative breakdowns in menu-based human-computer interactions from this perspective, and investigates their causes in ill-organized structures of menu hierarchy in terms of the user's interpretation of the menu items. Pirolli's information scentmodel is extended and utilized as an analytical tool for describing the meaning system of menus from the users' point of view, and their decision making in search of particular menu items is analyzed by use of information scent. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.