Important goals for interface designers are to determine when it is beneficial to use iconic or command-based menus and how these traditional menu systems can be enhanced by the use of sound. To investigate this topic, 28 subjects were asked to maneuver through one of four different implementations of an interactive software package in order to execute a target command using either an iconic or command-based menu with or without the use of sound. The sounds descended in pitch as the depth of the menu increased, and were used as an auditory cue to code the location of a particular menu item. The results indicate that icons were more easily remembered than commands, but that commands were easier to locate under the highest level branch of the menu. The results also indicate a trend toward faster performance times with the use of command-based menus in comparison to iconic-based menus designed with the same structure. However, there was no difference in performance within iconic or command-based menus when sound was included in the user interface. Implications for user interface design are discussed.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

An empirical study was conducted to explore text editing performance in an actual work environment. The text editing performance of 12 experts and 24 novices was studied across several benchmark tasks using either a command-driven, PC-based or hard-wired text editing system. Experts were tested for performance and functionality; novices were tested for learning. Additionally, the keystroke-level model was applied to the performance tasks and the results compared to actual observations. The results indicated that the methodology of T. Roberts (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, Stanford Univ., CA, USA, 1980) could be easily applied to a work environment and provided useful information for the evaluation of text editing systems. The study identified several areas of the keystroke-level model that could be modified to provide a more accurate assessment of text editing performance.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>