Telephone-Based Menus: Evidence that Broader is Better than Deeper

1997 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 315-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Virzi ◽  
John S. Huitema
Keyword(s):  
Interactive Voice Response ◽  
Item Selection ◽  
Menu Item ◽  
Ivr Systems ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Voice Response ◽  
Menu Item Selection

Recent guidelines intended for designers of telephone menus for Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems advocate keeping menus to four or fewer items. Additional items, the guidelines recommend, should appear on a secondary menu accessible from the first. The current study compared this deep-menu approach to a broad-menu approach wherein all the items appear on a single menu. Item selection times favored the broad-menu approach for both repeated and unique trials, casting some doubt on the validity of this particular guideline.

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

1992 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Virzi ◽  
Paul Resnick ◽  
Don Ottens
Keyword(s):  
Laboratory Study ◽  
Interactive Voice Response ◽  
Standard Technique ◽  
The Other ◽  
User Performance ◽  
The Third ◽  
Ivr Systems ◽  
Two Alternatives ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Voice Response

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.

Limitations of Using Mouse-over with Menu Item Selection

2000 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-361
Author(s):  
Barbara S. Chaparro ◽  
Gary Minnaert ◽  
Chad Phipps
Keyword(s):  
Item Selection ◽  
Menu Item ◽  
Menu Item Selection

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Systems as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) Comes of Age

1998 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 444-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daryle Gardner-Bonneau ◽  
Cristina Delogu ◽  
Chuck Green ◽  
Lydia Volaitis ◽  
Martha Lindeman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Recognition ◽  
Automatic Speech Recognition ◽  
Interactive Voice Response ◽  
Commercial Use ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Potential Customers ◽  
Workplace Speech ◽  
Ivr Systems ◽  
Made In ◽  
Voice Response

While interactive voice response (IVR) systems were rapidly making their way into the workplace, speech scientists were working hard to improve the performance of automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems to foster their acceptance among potential customers. In the last five years, great strides have been made in this regard, and the commercial use ASR is on the rise. The purpose of this panel is to explore the impact that ASR is (or is not) having on the design of IVR systems that were envisioned originally to operate solely via touch-tone input.

Optimizing Visual Search and Cursor Movement in Pull-Down Menus

1987 ◽  
Vol 31 (7) ◽  
pp. 722-726 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen P. Francik ◽  
Richard M. Kane
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Item Selection ◽  
Menu Item ◽  
Consistent Location ◽  
Menu Item Selection

A de facto standard is emerging for the design of pull-down menus. A set of menu items is presented to the user, with temporarily unavailable items listed in a lighter, “grayed-out” font. This ensures the consistent location of each item, but requires the user to visually scan over and possibly move the cursor through extra items that cannot be selected. Previous research has shown that both location and number of items affect users' ability to select items in menus. We examined the tradeoff between these factors by evaluating an alternative in which inactive items are deleted instead of grayed out. Deleting inactive items resulted in faster menu item selection than did graying them out.

Exploring the Effects of Music Atmospherics on Menu Item Selection

2002 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Hale Feinstein ◽  
Tammy S. Hinskton ◽  
Mehmet Erdem
Keyword(s):  
Item Selection ◽  
Menu Item ◽  
Menu Item Selection
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