The Effect of Visual Momentum on Learning Hierarchical Menu Structures in Small Displays

Navigating through menu structures to access functions and search for information on small displays in cellular phones and other handheld devices is difficult. Visual momentum is a display technique that may help users integrate information across successive displays, and thus improve navigation performance for devices with small screens. This study investigated the effects of visual momentum and menu structure on the learnability of menus on small displays. Learnability was assessed using a trials-to-mastery measure. Mastery criteria regarding search time and errors were set during a pilot study and the number of trials it took for participants to meet these criteria during the Main Experiment were recorded. It was found that providing preview information in the display did not help users learn to navigate through hierarchical menus, while providing motion in the display did help.