Single Line Display Menu

Abstract

Many electronic consumer products use a single line display which is capable of presenting a limited number of characters at a time. Although many design guidelines have been proposed, they are applicable only to the menus on ordinary CRT displays. This study examined the effects of four different variables: menu structure, user experience, navigation aid, and number of target items on designing the menu on a single line display. Four dependent measures, speed, accuracy, efficiency, and user preference of a target search task, were collected. The results showed that the 8² structure turned out to be an optimal menu structure for single-line display menus. The navigation aid improved the search performance of the inexperienced. Interestingly, multiple target search tasks recorded a better performance than single target search tasks. Based on the results, design implications were discussed.