Authors:
Vidya Setlur
and
Benjamin Watson
Affiliation:
Tableau Research, Palo Alto and U.S.A.
Keyword(s):
Keyboard Shortcuts, Menus, Toolbars, Icons.
Abstract:
Users often do not use keyboard shortcuts in applications as recalling and choosing the correct shortcut is a
higher-order cognitive task. Mouse driven menus, toolbars, and icons are easier for a user to learn because
they present hints and make visible what operations are possible, drawing on the power of recognition rather
than recall. How can we better support the usage of shortcuts with such menus? Two existing methods are text
in the icons, and popups with mouse hover. While the first is space inefficient; the second limits exposure and
imposes an interaction cost. We propose a third method, ShoCons, that is spatially more efficient and neither
limits user exposure nor imposes an interaction cost. To achieve this, ShoCons use a succinct iconic display of
meta keys, limiting textual display to one character. We examine these alternatives in a controlled study, and
find that when used with a high-level task, ShoCons enable faster task performance and an immediate increase
in the accuracy of shortcut use.
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