User Learning and Performance with Marking Menus

One-line summary: "Marking menus" (pie menu where radial line selects one segment as a menu item; optionally the pie can be popped up on screen) are faster and more efficient to use than traditional linear menus, especially for "eyes free" applications where the menu contents don't change over time.

Overview/Main Points

• Holding down pen can pop-up the pie menu; or the mark can be drawn with no popup.
• Optional popup allows novices to see menus until they have memorized the menu.
• Mark strokes are quick and easy to draw: experts aren't slowed down.
• User expertise varies over time, can fall back to popup menu if they forget how to use.
• Authors modified a real-life application to test this (only on 2 users!) Some discoveries:
  • Even number of items is better
  • Use endpoints of marks for additional info, e.g. object selection
  • Exploit spatial relationships to assign mark-direction to menu item. E.g. "insert cursor" can be a vertical mark
  • When a function is invoked, coresponding mark now becomes "undo" if invoked on same object

Relevance

Flaws