PSYCHOLOGY MASTER'S THESIS ABSTRACT

Cheryl Harney

Industrial/Organizational
December 1990

Performance Tradeoffs in Computer Menu Designs

    The optimal structuring of hierarchical menu structures is examined, focusing on depth (the number of menu levels or screens) and breadth (the number of items per menu page) and their effect on goal acquisition time.  Forty subjects participated in two separate experiments.  Experiment 1 measured response time as a function of level in a hierarchical menu structure (levels ranged from one to three).  Experiment 2 varied number of items per page from 4 to 16.  Mean response time was significantly faster on page three than on pages one or two.  For number of items per page, all conditions (4, 7, 12 and 16) were statistically different except for the difference between 8 words per page and 12 words per page.  Four words per page was the fastest response time and 16 words per page the slowest.  The optimal pairing of depth and breadth is explored.

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