Summary: | 碩士 === 大同大學 === 工業設計學系(所) === 97 === As the installation and demand for digital television increase, whether for embedded or external peripheral applications, user-friendly and convenient user interfaces of these multimedia features have become worthy topics of discussion. As the viewing distance in a living room is different from that of a PC, one of the first problems that users face while using multimedia applications is how the menu is presented and operated.
This study was conducted in three stages. The first stage was to review literature and gather different types of existing menus for new generation multimedia applications. This included the invitation of unbiased participants to view demonstration videos of those menus and then provide their feedback. Base on the result of the first stage, the second stage was to design and compare the interface prototypes through usability testing by remote control. The experiment design had two factors. The first factor was menu structure modes, including two levels: hybrid mode and complete hierarchy mode. The second factor was cursor display modes, including two levels: moving focus point and stationary focus point.
After result analysis, the researcher then adjusted the prototype design for the experiment at the third stage. There were two factors in the experiment. The first factor was menu switching modes, including two levels: switch-one and switch-all. The second factor was motion effects, including two levels: background color changed and icon enlarged. Each participant was requested to interact with only one interface prototype. After that, the participant answers questions relevant to both subjective perception scale and NASA-TLX questionnaires.
The results of this study revealed that:
(1) The T-shape layout of hierarchical menus for different levels was better than the menu with cross-shape layout.
(2) The number of items in hierarchical menu should be less than 5 in one row or column.
(3) The hybrid method was not user-friendly as users need to learn how to use it before they got familiarized.
(4) The menu with switch-all mode was more effective in browsing and provided more identify in the end of menu item.
|