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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!watcgl!lrbartram
From: lrbartram@watcgl.waterloo.edu (lyn bartram)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng,comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: Using kinesthetic memory for human interfaces
Message-ID: <5034@watcgl.waterloo.edu>
Date: 30 Jun 88 13:18:21 GMT
References: <3535@pdn.uucp> <4988@watcgl.waterloo.edu> <4989@watcgl.waterloo.edu> <35362@linus.UUCP> <5976@pyr.gatech.EDU>
Reply-To: lrbartram@watcgl.waterloo.edu (lyn bartram)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 22
In article (Skip Montanaro) writes:
>Suntools remembers the last item selected in a menu and makes it the default
>the next time the menu is popped up. The bullseye could represent this
>dynamic default, not just a static default. It is easier to implement in
>some sense as well, since you don't have to decide ahead of time what the
>default should be (and guess wrong most of the time).
I would think that in many cases the default position should be a "no op"/
no selection one, to permit a user to invoke the menu without being committed
to a decision. This brings us to the question of the "dead spot" in a pie
menu. How big should it be? Should there be one? How does its size affect
the acuuracy measure of pie menu selection?
How does SunTools make the last menu item selected the default - by leaving
the positions of the items on the menu the same and placing the cursor on the
particular item, or by shuffling the items and having the default always in
the same place? Both approaches could be difficult in a radial selection menu.
If direction is the selection mechanism, then changing the cursor position
counteracts it; and shuffling the position of menu items conflicts with the
principle of using kinesthetic memory.
lyn bartram
Computer Graphics Lab
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada