An Application to Report Quantitative Measures of the Effectiveness of user Interfaces to be used for Task-Sensitive Evaluations., Phase I

Micro Analysis and Design (MA&D) proposes to develop and build a tool to assist in the automated design and evaluation of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) under standard windowing environments. GOMS (Goals, Operators, Methods and Selection Rules) based techniques provide a quantitative method for evaluating alternative system designs, but are labor intensive to create. We propose abstracting the Keystroke Level Model GOMS technique to a higher level, the user interface component level. This abstraction will be integrated into a tool that will combine goal and task data with a model of the interface to predict the time to accomplish the goal and the user interface efficiency. The application will also provide a framework for the future development of metrics related to the interface design, user goals, and user characteristics.

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