Skip and Scan Telephone Menus: User Performance as a Function of Experience

Abstract

We present the results of a laboratory study comparing three styles of audio menus. One of these styles is the technique predominantly employed in interactive voice response (IVR) systems today. Two alternatives to this Standard technique were evaluated in this study. One of these alternatives was first proposed in Resnick and Virzi (1992), which they called Skip and Scan menus. This new style was hypothesized to be superior to Standard menus for intermediate users, but was expected to show limitations for one-time callers and expert users. The third menu alternative we evaluated combines elements of the Standard and Skip and Scan menus and was hypothesized to be superior in a broad range of usage conditions. Performance was measured over 36 tasks and two IVR applications. In all but the first few trials, the Skip and Scan menu style reported in Resnick and Virzi led to performance equal to or better than the other two menu styles. Standard menus showed a performance benefit for the first few trials of the first application only: this benefit was not present in the second application. There were no differences among the techniques in the trials simulating expert behavior.