Who's Zooming Whom? Attunement to Animation in the Interface

A number of references in the Human–Computer Interrapid succession. In the studies detailed below, we examaction literature make the common-sense suggestion ine the effect of the presence and absence of the zooming that the animated zooming effect accompanying the effect displayed when a folder is opened or closed in the opening or closing of a folder in the Apple Macintosh Macintosh user interface. This effect carries the informagraphical user interface aids in a user’s perception of tion that a particular window is associated with a particuwhich window corresponds to which folder. We examine this claim empirically using two controlled experiments. lar folder on the Macintosh desktop. In some other winAlthough we did not find a statistically significant overall dowing systems, the default behavior, when an icon is difference resulting from the presence or absence of the opened into a window or a window is closed into an icon, zooming effect, a post hoc analysis revealed a highly does not include such an effect. significant interaction between the experience of users Common-sense suggests that such animation is likely with the Macintosh user interface and the zooming effect. This individual difference suggests that users may to be useful, as indicated by several writers. For example, become attuned to the informational content of the Baecker and Small (1990) state: zooming effect with experience.