Revisiting breadth vs. depth in menu structures for blind users of screen readers

Abstract

Numerous studies have investigated task performance times for selection from hierarchical menus, with structures containing many choices at each of a few levels (broad, shallow structures) generally outperforming structures containing fewer choices at each of many levels (narrow, deep structures). To see if these results applied to blind users who rely on screen reader software for computer access, we replicated an earlier published study, using 19 blind screen-reader users. Consistent with earlier studies, broader, shallow hierarchies outperformed narrow, deep hierarchies. Task performance times and hypertext lostness measures were correlated. Although further work will be needed to understand specific determinants of task performance rates, these results support the use of broad, shallow menus for blind as well as sighted users.