Date: April 10, 1988 To: Members of the Technical Writing Class From: Don Hopkins Subject: Proposal to investigate interaction techniques and display styles appropriate for the application of pie menus to window management. Pie menus are a fast, accurate way of selecting commands from a list of options shown on the screen, by using a mouse to point and click at the desired selection. Pressing a mouse button causes a menu to be displayed, centered on the cursor location. The menu choices are positioned in a circle around the cursor, which is initially located in a small inactive region at the menu center. Each choice is adjacent to the cursor, but in a different direction. Moving the cursor in the direction of one of the choices and releasing the button selects an item from the menu. The selection is defined by the direction of mouse movement between the clicks of the button. Since the target regions of the menu choices are shaped like the slices of a pie, the accuracy of selection becomes more precise as the cursor is moved further away from the menu center. The distance of movement is independent of the direction, so it may serve to modify the choice. In a graphical environment supporting multiple overlapping windows on the screen, such as the NeWS window system (Gosling, 1985), pie menus can be a very effective interaction technique for window management. They can be used to issue commands to move and resize windows, invoke programs, and control the environment in many ways. _P_R_O_P_O_S_A_L I propose to investigate display styles and interaction techniques that make pie menus easier to use, and to apply the techniques towards the development of a set of window management menus, designed to be quick, reliable, simple to learn, and easy to remember. _R_A_T_I_O_N_A_L _A_N_D _S_I_G_N_I_F_I_C_A_N_C_E In an experiment comparing the selection time and error rates of pie menus and traditional linear menus (Callahan, Hopkins, Weiser, & Shneiderman, 1988), Jack Callahan found that novice computer users could make selection faster and more accurately from pie menus than from linear menus. There are certain types of task for which the circular layout of a pie menu is especially appropriate. They're useful in situations with pairs of complementary menu items, which can be placed in opposite directions, and orthogonal pairs, which can be placed at right angles. There are other types of groupings that are very appropriate in a circular layout, such as directions, in a compass rose, or hours, minutes, and seconds, in a clock face (Hopkins, Callahan, & Weiser, 1987). Grouping menu selections into logically related nested sub-menus makes the menus smaller, thus easier to select from, and makes the choices easier to find (Barnard et all, 1977; Liebelt at all, 1982; McDonald et all, 1983; Miller, 1981). Pie menus work very well for nested menu selection, especially for experienced users. They have a nice kinesthetic feel, and make good use of muscle memory. You remember a path through a tree of nested menus as a series of directions, somewhat like navigating from room to room. Since menu selection is defined by direction, and delimited by mouse clicks, you can rapidly mouse ahead through familiar menus, without having to look at the screen. The physical gestures of menu selection "chunk" together into higher level actions, which are easy for experienced users to perform automatically (Buxton, 1986). Another important factor is the style in which the menu is graphically displayed. The appropriate use of icons and pictograms, the highlighting style, and the layout of the labels can work together to make the meaning of the menu choices more appearant (Barnard, 1984; Billingsley, 1982; Card, 1982; Foley et all, 1974). It is important to develop a consistant, concise visual language for expressing pie menu functionality. Window management tasks are typically done quite frequently, so it is beneficial if they are quick, reliable, simple to learn, and easy to remember. _P_R_O_C_E_D_U_R_E To investigate interaction techniques and display styles appropriate for the application of pie menus to window management, the following will be done: 1. Conduct a literature search (partial bibliography attached). 2. Send a letter of inquiry sent to Lyn Bartram, a researcher at the Computer Graphics Lab, at the University of Waterloo, where pie menus have been used in a paint program. 3. Continue implementation and evaluation of experimental pie menu interaction techniques, using the NeWS window system. 4. Distribute my implementation of pie menus for the NeWS window system, so that people may try them out and use them in their own applications, and hopefully give me feedback in the form of comments, complaints, and suggestion. 5. Interview David Rosenthal, of Sun Microsystems, one of the implementors of NeWS, who has done much research into window management techniques. It is well worth it to invest time and attention in developing quick, reliable, simple to learn, and easy to remember interaction techniques. Poorly designed user interfaces can make computers frustrating and hard to use. The application of practical, intuitive, and efficient pie menu techniques to commonly performed tasks such as window management can save users a lot of time and effort, and make operating a computer a much more enjoyable experience. Since users spend much more time interacting with a system than implementors spend developing and programming its user interface, it is important that the implementor's time is well invested. I therefore urge you to accept this research proposal, so that that the results of the work can be made freely and widely available for the advantage of others. _B_I_B_L_I_O_G_R_A_P_H_Y Abelson, Harold, & DiSessa, Andrea. (1981). _T_u_r_t_l_e _G_e_o_m_e_t_r_y, MIT Press. Barnard, P., & Marcel, T. (1984). Representation and understanding in the use of symbols and pictograms. In Easterby, R., & Zwaga, H. (Eds.), _I_n_f_o_r_m_a_t_i_o_n _D_e_s_i_g_n, Chichester: Wiley, pp. 37-75. Barnard, P. K., Morton, J., Long, J. B., & Ottley, E. A. (1977). Planning Menus for Display: Some Effects of Their Structure and Content on User Performance. _D_i_s_p_l_a_y_s _f_o_r _M_a_n_-_M_a_c_h_i_n_e _S_y_s_t_e_m_s, IEE Publication No. 150, pp. 130-133. Billingsley, P. A. (1982). Navigation Through Hierarchical Menu Structures: Does it Help to Have a Map? _I_n _P_r_o_c_e_e_d_i_n_g_s _o_f _t_h_e _H_u_m_a_n _F_a_c_t_o_r_s _S_o_c_i_e_t_y _2_6_t_h _A_n_n_u_a_l _M_e_e_t_i_n_g, Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society, pp. 103-107 Brown, C. M., Brown, D. B., Burkleo, H. V., Mangelsdorf, J. E., Olsen, R. A., and Perkins, R. D. (1983, June 15). _H_u_m_a_n _F_a_c_t_o_r_s _E_n_g_i_n_e_e_r_i_n_g _S_t_a_n_d_a_r_d_s _f_o_r _I_n_f_o_r_m_a_t_i_o_n _P_r_o_c_e_s_s_i_n_g _S_y_s_t_e_m_s (LMSC-D877141). Buxton, William. (1982, May). An Informal Study of Selection-Positioning Tasks. _P_r_o_c_. _o_f _G_r_a_p_h_i_c_s _I_n_t_e_r_f_a_c_e_, _'_8_2, Toronto, pp. 323-345. Buxton, William. (1983, January). Lexical and Pragmatic Considerations of Input Structures. _C_o_m_p_u_t_e_r _G_r_a_p_h_i_c_s, _1_7(1), pp. 31-37. Buxton, William. (1986, September). 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