richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) (03/31/88)
In article <10829@mimsy.UUCP> don@brillig.umd.edu.UUCP (Don Hopkins) writes: >At the end of this message is a summary of the work-in-progress talk I >gave at the Summer Usenix conference in Phoenix. It was published in >the September/October 1987 issue of ";login:". (My address and phone >number have since changed.) > >Jack Callahan and I will be presenting the paper "A Comparative >Analysis of Pie Menu Performance" (by Jack Callahan, Don Hopkins, Mark >Weiser, and Ben Shneiderman) at the CHI '88 conference, May 15-19 in >Washington D.C. The paper describes the experiment that Jack designed >and performed, comparing speed and error rate of pull down menus and >pie menus. (Pie menus won on both counts!) > >At CHI '88 (the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems), >I'll be giving demonstrations of various types of pie menus, >implemented in object oriented PostScript under the NeWS window >system, during one of the scheduled demo sessions, and also at the >NeWS SIG on Thursday. (I'll send more info about that soon!) > >One example menu I'll demonstrate is a two level font selection menu: > >The first menu has names of font families in different directions. >(Times-Roman, Courier, Helvetica, etc...) You choose a font family by >moving the cursor into the corresponding wedge and clicking. A font >style submenu pops up: > > Times-Roman > > \ / > \ / >Bold ^ Italic > / \ > / \ > > Bold-Italic > >(The ^ is the cursor, which starts out in the menu center.) > >Each font style submenu has the same layout, so you only have to >remember two orthogonal sets of directions. > >You choose one of the font styles by moving the cursor into the >corresponding wedge. The cursor distance from the menu center >determines the font point size, so that the further out you move, the >bigger the point size you get. > >As you move the cursor around the menu (browse), you see dynamic >feedback of the font, style, and point size you get by choosing that >part of the menu: You see the string "<n> point" in the wedge between >menu center and the label of the currently active slice, in the >appropriate font, style, and size. > >For example, if you move to the left and up a bit, you'd see something >like: > > Times-Roman > > \ / > ^ \ / >Bold 18 point Italic > / \ > / \ > > Bold-Italic > >(Of course, the above image barely conveys the actual look and feel of >the menus. ASCII character graphics can hardly do justice to >interaction techniques and images expressed in object oriented >PostScript (with extensions for input, mind you!). I'll post the >source code to my latest version of class PieMenu, as well as some >useful subclasses, to NeWS-makers (aka comp.windows.news) real soon!) > > -Don > >%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% > > Directional Selection is Easy as Pie Menus! > > Don Hopkins > University of Maryland > Human Computer Interaction Lab > College Park, MD 20742 > (301) 454-1517 > > Simple Simon popped a Pie Men- > u upon the screen; > With directional selection, > all is peachy keen! > >The choices of a Pie Menu are positioned in a circle around the >cursor, instead of in a linear row or column. The choice regions are >shaped like the slices of a pie. The cursor begins in the center of >the menu, in an inactive region that makes no selection. The target >areas are all adjacent to the cursor, but in a different directions. > >Cursor direction defines the choice. The distance from the menu >center to the cursor, because it's independent of the direction, may >serve to modify the choice. The further away from the Pie Menu center >the cursor is, the more precise the control of the selection is, as >the Pie slice widens with distance. > >With familiar menus, choices can be made without even seeing the menu, >because it's the direction, not the distance, that's important. >"Mousing ahead" with Pie Menus is very easy and reliable. Experienced >users can make selections quickly enough that it is not actually >necessary to display the menu on the screen, if the mouse clicks that >would determine the selection are already in the input queue. > >The circular arrangement of Pie Menu items is quite appropriate for >certain tasks, such as inputing hours, minutes, seconds, angles, and >directions. Choices may be placed in intuitive, mnemonic directions, >with opposite choices across from each other, orthogonal pairs at >right angles, and other appropriate arrangements. > >Pie menus have been implemented for uwm, a window manager for >X-Windows version 10, for the SunView window system, and for NeWS, >Sun's extensible PostScript window system. Don Hopkins did the uwm >and NeWS implementations, and Mark Weiser did the SunView >implementation. > >Jack Callahan has shown Pie Menus to be faster and more reliable than >linear menus, in a controlled experiment using subjects with little or >no mouse experience. Three types of eight-item menu task groupings >were used: Pie tasks (North, NE, East, etc...), linear tasks (First, >Second, Third, etc...), and unclassified tasks (Center, Bold, Italic, >etc...). Subjects were presented menus in both linear and Pie formats, >and told to make a certain selection from each. They were able to make >selections 15% faster, with fewer errors, for all three task >groupings, using Pie Menus. Ben Shneiderman gave advice on the design >of the experiment, and Don Hopkins implemented it in Forth and C, >on top of the X-Windows uwm. > >The disadvantage of Pie Menus is that they generally take up more area >on the screen than linear menus. However, the extra area does >participate in the selection. The wedge-shaped choice regions do not >have to end at the edge of the menu window -- they may extend out to >the screen edge, so that the menu window only needs to be big enough >to hold the choice labels. > >Proper handling of pop-up Pie Menus near the screen edge is important. >The menu should idealy be centered at the point where the cursor was >when the mouse button was pressed. If the menu must be moved a >certain amount from its ideal location, so that it fits entirely on >the screen, then the cursor should be "warped" by that same amount. > >Pie Menus encompass most uses of linear menus, while introducing many >more, because of their extra dimension. They can be used with various >types of input devices, such as mice, touch pads, graphics tablets, >joysticks, light pens, arrow keypads, and eye motion sensors. They >provide a practical, intuitive, efficient way of making selections >that is quick and easy to learn. And best of all, they are not >proprietary, patented, or restricted in any way, so take a look and >feel free! > >References: > > Pies: Implementation, Evaluation, and Application of Circular Menus > By Don Hopkins, Jack Callahan, and Mark Weiser > (Paper in preparation. Draft available from authors.) > > A Comparative Analysis of Pie Menu Performance > By Jack Callahan, Don Hopkins, Mark Weiser, and Ben Shneiderman > (Paper in preparation. Draft available from authors.) -- ..who come from long lines of soldiers, | richard@gryphon.CTS.COM whose duty was fulfilled, | ihnp4!scgvaxd!cadovax!gryphon!richard in the words of the warriors will, | rutgers!marque!gryphon!richard and protocol. | codas!ddsw1!gr
jojo@astroatc.UUCP (Jon Wesener) (04/01/88)
I believe some code was posted to let you put pie menus in X
and News. I'd like to see this hit the Amiga, but don't even want to
think about the work involved. People I know who've used this method
prefer it.
--j
--
jon wesener
... {seismo | harvard | ihnp4} ! {uwvax | cs.wisc.edu} ! astroatc!jojo
"I say, why are those buildings swaying like trees?"