Transfer across Computer Command Menus

Abstract

Two experiments are reported which examine the effects of menu organization and command naming on performance across computer command menus. Results indicate that different menu organizations are best for different selection tasks when switching between applications. Surprisingly, different sources for command names have no effect on selection times.

When users know the exact names of the commands that they are searching for, an alphabetic organization produces faster search times in early trials. However, when users know only the definitions of the commands that they are searching for, a conceptual organization leads to faster search times in early trials. Knowledge of this conceptual organization transfers to a new application and speeds selection time in the second application. Also, similar names for identical commands transfers to the second application and improves performance there. However, keeping identical commands in the same position across applications has no effect on performance.