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Using GOMS for user interface design and evaluation: which technique?

Editor: Dan R. Olsen, Jr. Authors:

Bonnie E. John,

David E. KierasAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), Volume 3, Issue 4

Pages 287 - 319

https://doi.org/10.1145/235833.236050

Published: 01 December 1996 Publication History

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Abstract

Since the seminal book, The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction, the GOMS model has been one of the few widely known theoretical concepts in human-computer interaction. This concept has spawned much research to verify and extend the original work and has been used in real-world design and evaluation situations. This article synthesizes the previous work on GOMS to provide an integrated view of GOMS models and how they can be used in design. We briefly describe the major variants of GOMS that have matured sufficiently to be used in actual design. We then provide guidance to practitioners about which GOMS variant to use for different design situations. Finally, we present examples of the application of GOMS to practical design problems and then summarize the lessons learned.

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Index Terms

Using GOMS for user interface design and evaluation: which technique?
1. Computing methodologies
  1. Artificial intelligence
    1. Philosophical/theoretical foundations of artificial intelligence
      1. Cognitive science
2. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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Reviews

Reviewer: Jaroslav Pokorny

In this paper, the well-known goals, operations, methods, and selection rules (GOMS ) model [1] is considered. The authors try to use HCI cognitive modeling in real-world design and evaluation tasks and provide guidance to practitioners on how to select a GOMS variant for these purposes. In the introduction, the role of engineering models of HCI is explained. The authors emphasize that GOMS models are usefully approximate, make a priori predictions, cover a range of behavior involved in many HCI tasks, and have been proven to be learnable and usable for computer system designers. The rest of the introduction is devoted to an overview of the GOMS concept. GOMS is a way to analyze the knowledge of how to perform a task in terms of goals, operators, methods, and selection rules. Section 2 focuses on applying GOMS techniques to a design. The authors discuss GOMS methods in detail, considering the type of task the user will be engaged in and the types of information gained by applying the method. Then they examine a few of the common uses of the information provided by GOMS models, such as the time to learn and use GOMS, profiling, comparing alternative designs, sensitivity and parametric analysis, and documentation and online help systems. Section 3 provides a number of example applications of GOMS analysis in real-world system design. These cases illustrate the wide applicability of GOMS models for the design and evaluation of interfaces for different kinds of systems. In their summary and conclusions, the authors formulate hypotheses about the usefulness of GOMS techniques to designers. The paper offers an interesting alternative approach to a design area where a particular task was solved, usually in an intuitive way. The paper is clear and understandable. It provides guidance for the use of GOMS in practice.

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Published In

ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction Volume 3, Issue 4

Dec. 1996

91 pages

ISSN:1073-0516

EISSN:1557-7325

DOI:10.1145/235833

Editor:
Dan R. Olsen
Brigham Young Univ., Puora, UT

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 01 December 1996

Published in TOCHI Volume 3, Issue 4

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The GOMS family of user interface analysis techniques: comparison and contrast

The GOMS SIG: troubleshooting, lessons learned, novel applications, teaching techniques & future research

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