Empirical Evaluation of Entry and Selection Methods: For Specifying Dates

Abstract

Experienced and inexperienced computer users used seven different interaction methods to specify dates of events. Key results were that the three entry methods were faster, more accurate, and preferred over the four selection methods—by both experienced and inexperienced computer users. The rank order of performance with these methods was about the same for both groups. Number of keystrokes required by each method was a good predictor of performance time. For selection tasks, decomposing them into separate fields is advisable.