Abstract

The present study investigated whether there is a correlation between user performance and compliance with screen-design guidelines found in the literature. Rather than test individual guidelines and their interactions, the authors took a more holistic approach and tested a compilation of guidelines. Nine bibliographic display formats were scored using a checklist of eighty-six guidelines. Twenty-seven participants completed ninety search tasks using the displays in a simulated Web environment. None of the correlations indicated that user performance was statistically significantly faster with greater conformity to guidelines. In some cases, user performance was actually significantly slower with greater conformity to guidelines. In a supplementary study, a different set of forty-three guidelines and the user performance data from the main study were used. Again, none of the correlations indicated that user performance was statistically significantly faster with greater conformity to guidelines.

Highlights

  • The present study investigated whether there is a correlation between user performance and compliance with screen-design guidelines found in the literature

  • The literature offers many design guidelines for the user interface, some of which cover all aspects of the user interface, some of which focus on one aspect of the user interface—e.g., screen design

  • User performance was significantly slower with greater conformity to guidelines—i.e., in some cases, there was a negative correlation between user performance and conformity to guidelines

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Summary

Participants

Twenty-seven participants were recruited through the University of Toronto Psychology 100 Subject Pool.

Design
Procedure
฀ Results
฀ Supplementary
฀ Discussion
฀ Acknowledgements

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