1. РАН 1 TheMenuDesigner – a tool to automate user menus creation Mikhail Goubko, Alexander Danilenko

2. РАН 2 Menus everywhere. Do you always like how they are built? TheMenuDesigner – a tool to automate user menus creation

3. РАН 3 TheMenuDesigner – a tool to automate user menus creation Introduction. The Problem Hierarchical menu optimization Menus: Application Commands Data Access Data storage organization Query results Internet catalogs Contents Ubicomp devices menus Voice services menus Questionnaires etc Hierarchical index was one of the earliest methods to arrange a large number of items for fast access. Contemporary examples of such hierarchies include complex command menus in GUI, Web catalogues like “Google™ directory”, voice menus of phone-based services, menus of ubicomp devices, and many others. Some people say a hierarchical menu is an old-fashioned tool, but look around – the number of menus does not decrease. Users spend much time selecting from menus, thus the usability of applications is often determined by the usability of its menu system. The problem of a convenient menu is particularly important for mobile devices, with their limited interface capabilities.

4. РАН 4 TheMenuDesigner – a tool to automate user menus creation Introduction. The Problem Hierarchical menu optimization Menus: Application Commands Data Access Data storage organization Query results Internet catalogs Contents Ubicomp devices menus Voice services menus Questionnaires etc The design of a hierarchical menu consists of building a hierarchy of taxonomies for the set of items and choosing a menu type or layout for every taxonomy (menu panel). The result must fit the best specific application, user, and hardware conditions. The usability of a menu is typically measured by the items’ average search time. There are usually a number of semantically feasible ways to arrange a given set of items into a hierarchy of categories, so the problem is to find a permissible hierarchy with the lowest average search time.

5. РАН 5 Look! It works! Manual optimization Nokia 7510 Messages menu (52 menu items) Average search time: Original menu: 8,53 s Optimized menu: 7,07 s Lower bound estimate: 6,70 s 22% gain 5% from the ideal  6.86 s 25% 2%!!! In less than an hour! TheMenuDesigner – a tool to automate user menus creation Automated with TheMenuDesigner

6. РАН 6 TheMenuDesigner. How it works? Basic interface elements Source data Menu items Popularities Several sensible items taxonomies (classifications) Alternative menu types Current menu structure Performance indicators Automated menu adjustment tools TheMenuDesigner – a tool to automate user menus creation

7. РАН 7 TheMenuDesigner. How it works? Taxonomies Taxonomies are the sensible classifications. They are used to automatically build semantically admissible but, in addition, time-optimal menu structures. Every menu panel is built automatically on the basis of one of these taxonomies by proper sorting and grouping. The taxonomies itself can be plain or hierarchical. Classification is the work done by a menu designer before the optimization. The general rule here is “the richer classification – the better menu”. It seems that classification is a hard work, but, in fact, human brain likes classification tasks! TheMenuDesigner – a tool to automate user menus creation

8. РАН 8 Menu types Another important portion of source data is the library of menu types. The menu type is the combination of menu appearance and usage conditions. The menu type determines COMPLETELY menu navigation delays – that is why they are so important. Menu appearance is what the designer can choose (for example, “top-down list of labels”), while usage condition are fixed externally: hardware features, application nature. Average values are used TheMenuDesigner – a tool to automate user menus creation TheMenuDesigner. How it works? The choice of the proper menu model is still the most complex thing in menu design. But send us a e-mail to mgoubko@mail.ru and we will do it for you for free, as we are interested in development of the tool. The menu type is a big table of delays built on the basis of experiments or a theory.

9. РАН 9 The process 1.Load menu elements 2.Create taxonomies 3.Fix the focus group 4.Select menu types from the library 5.Compare navigation time estimates 6.Choose the best menu type 7.Create an initial menu structure 8.Calculate current navigation time 9.Find the “bottleneck” 10.Restructure it 11.Repeat 9 and 10 until success TheMenuDesigner – a tool to automate user menus creation TheMenuDesigner. How it works?

10. РАН 10 TheMenuDesigner – a tool to automate user menus creation Mikhail GoubkoAlexander Danilenko mgoubko@mail.ruAlexander.Danilenko@gmail.com TheMenuDesigner project site: http://www.mtas.ru/person/goubko/themenudesignerhttp://www.mtas.ru/person/goubko/themenudesigner GitHub Repository: http://mgoubko.github.com/TheMenuDesignerhttp://mgoubko.github.com/TheMenuDesigner Contact us…