Faster cascading menu selections with enlarged activation areas

Type of content
Conference Contributions - Published
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Publisher
University of Canterbury. Computer Science and Software Engineering.
Journal Title
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Date
2006
Authors
Cockburn, A.
Gin, A.
Abstract

Cascading menus are used in almost all graphical user interfaces. Most current cascade widgets implement an explicit delay between the cursor entering/leaving a parent cascade menu item and posting/unposting the associated menu. The delay allows users to make small steering errors while dragging across items, and it allows optimal diagonal paths from parent to cascade items. However, the delay slows the pace of interaction for users who wait for the delay to expire, and it demands jerky discrete movements for experts who wish to pre-empt the delay by clicking. This paper describes Enlarged activation area MenUs (EMUs), which have two features: first, they increase the area of the parent menu associated with each cascade; second, they eliminate the posting and unposting delay. An evaluation shows that EMUs allow cascade items to be selected up to 29% faster than traditional menus, without harming top-level item selection times. They also have a positive smoothing effect on menu selections, allowing continuous sweeping selections in contrast to discrete movements that are punctuated with clicks.

Description
Citation
Cockburn, A., Gin, A. (2006) Faster cascading menu selections with enlarged activation areas. Quebec, Canada: Graphics Interface 2006, 7-9 Jun 2006. Proceedings of the 2006 Conference on Graphics Interface, 65-71.
Keywords
Hierarchical menus, Cascades, Target acquisition, Target adaptation, Bubble cursors
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