Display object alignment may influence location recall in unexpected ways

Posted: Jun 2018 - Sep 2018
Abstract

There is a presumption in human-computer interaction that laying out menus and most other material in neat rows and columns helps users get work done. The rule has been so implicit in the field of design to allow for no debate. However, the idea that perfect collinearity creates an advantage for both either search and or recall has rarely been tested. We conducted several experiments to test this. Note, I'm no longer on this project after Sep. 2018. The submitted paper is the latest version containing subsequent work.

Display object alignment may influence location recall in unexpected ways

Abstract

There is a presumption in human-computer interaction that laying out menus and most other material in neat rows and columns helps users get work done. The rule has been so implicit in the field of design as to allow for no debate. However, the idea that perfect collinearity creates an advantage for both either search and or recall has rarely been tested. Drawing from separate branches of cognitive literature, we tested a minimal brainstorming interface with either aligned or eccentrically arranged layouts on 96 college students. Incidental exact recall of recently worked locations improved in the eccentric condition. And in both conditions there were frequent near-miss recall errors to neighboring aligned objects and groups of objects. Further analysis found only marginal performance advantages specifically for females with the eccentric design. However, NASA-TLX subjective measures showed that in eccentric, females reported higher performance, less effort, and yet also higher frustration; while males reported lower performance with about the same effort, and lower frustration.

Note

I was on this project when I was still at Shanghai Jiaotong University by Sep. 2018. The recently submitted (paper)[https://arxiv.org/pdf/2010.10658.pdf] is the latest version containing subsequent work from other authors.

Last Updated on Jun 1st 2025