Designing Help Systems Using the GOMS Model: An Information Retrieval Evaluation

Abstract

Using the GOMS model (Card, Moran, and Newell, 1983), a help system was developed which was complete and well structured. The content of this help system was determined from the goals, operators, methods, and selection rules needed to perform HyperCard™ authoring tasks. The index to these methods, which was an integrated part of the system, was determined from the hierarchical goal tree provided by the GOMS analysis. To determine the effectiveness of using GOMS as a design aid for help systems, the GOMS help system was compared to a state-of-the art interface developed by Apple® Computer which was modified slightly for experimental purposes (Original help system). Two groups of 14 users, using one of the two help systems, retrieved help information about 56 tasks separated into 4 sessions. The results indicated that the GOMS users were significantly faster than the Original users with the largest speed difference occurring in the first session. However, no reliable differences were found for retrieval accuracy between the two groups. This is not surprising since the Original help system was found to have 85.9% of the procedural information contained in the GOMS help system. Interestingly, participants subjectively rated the GOMS help system higher than the Original help system. Overall, the results from this information retrieval study suggest that a GOMS model can aid in the development of help systems which are easy to use, easy to learn, and well liked.

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