Analysis and Simulation of User Interfaces

By taking a mobile phone as a worked example, we show how it and new interfaces can be analysed and simulated. A new interface is shown to reduce the optimal key press costs of accessing the phone’s functionality, without losing usability benefits — this is a specific contribution to menu design. However, the approach is not limited to mobile phones, nor just to menus; the techniques are general and can be applied widely. A distinctive feature of the approach is that it is fully inspectable and replicable — this is a contribution to the field of HCI more generally.