A controlled experiment to identify and test a representative primitive set of user object-oriented cursor actions

A method for decomposing the user cursor action component of human-computer interfaces into individual components based on the four categories: target size, target distance, target direction, and selection mode, was investigated. A primitive task set consisting of the Cartesian product of specific elements of the four categories listed above was proposed based on observation of user tasks and a cursor action benchmark task set was developed to measure a user's performance for each element of the set of primitive elements with a given cursor control device. An experiment was conducted to test the proposed primitive task set and associated benchmark task set as a predictor of performance for a set of representative graphics tasks. The predicted times and actual times were shown to have very strong correlations and the data were also shown to conform to Fitts' Law. A description of the experiment, the data collected, and the analysis of these data are included.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Science

Department dc:contributor.department

Computer Science

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1990

Author dc:creator

• Chase, Joseph D.

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Hartson, H. Rex

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Hix, Deborah S.
• Henry, Sallie M.
• Williges, Robert C.
• Williges, Beverly A.

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-04142009-040527

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/42070