Analysis and Simulation of User Interfaces

Harold Thimbleby

University College London

Abstract

By taking a mobile phone as a worked example, we show how it and new interfaces can be analysed and simulated. A new interface is shown to reduce the optimal key press costs of accessing the phone's functionality, without losing usability benefits - this is a specific contribution to menu design. However, the approach is not limited to mobile phones, nor just to menus; the techniques are general and can be applied widely. A distinctive feature of the approach is that it is fully inspectable and replicable - this is a contribution to the field of HCI more generally.

Keywords User interface modelling, cost of knowledge

Resources

PDF
Javascript simulation of mobile phone
Mathematica notebook, in Mathematica

PDF can be viewed using Adobe's Acrobat Reader (down load it), and Mathematica, by Wolfram Research, requires a Mathematica reader (down load it). Most browsers can be configured to handle these file formats conveniently.