Abstract: A useful feature of data base systems is to allow the user to change the order in which fields appear in the columns of a table. The purpose of this study was to compare the usability of seven different user interfaces for performing this task in the Microsoft Windows environment. The fields to be reordered were file name, file number, size, and creation date. The seven approaches studied covered a range of interaction styles, including dragging and dropping, menu selection, text entry, and button pressing. Fifteen Windows users completed a set of two practice trials using each approach, followed by a set of twelve main trials. For each trial, the user was shown the current order of the fields and a target order to change to. The completion times showed significant differences according to the approach used. Overall, a data-selection technique using radio buttons and a data-entry technique using a single entry area were significantly faster than all of the others. Another data-entry technique, involving multiple entry areas, was consistently the slowest. Somewhat surprisingly, given the current trend toward direct-manipulation interfaces, the two approaches involving dragging and dropping were not among the most effective approaches.

Keywords: Design; Direct manipulation; Display format; Drag and drop; Empirical studies; Keyboard input; Layout; Menu, selection; Models and theories; Pointing device input; Prototyping; Screen output; Tabular displays

Originally published: Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 36th Annual Meeting, 1992, pp. 298-302

Republished: G. Perlman, G. K. Green, & M. S. Wogalter (Eds.) Human Factors Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction: Selections from Proceedings of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meetings, 1983-1994, Santa Monica, CA: HFES, 1995, pp. 266-270.