| Automated attendants that direct incoming calls are increasingly common in modern society, but guidelines for development of these systems lag behind the technology. To date, few published studies have addressed the breadth/depth tradeoff of auditory menus, and no studies examining the effects of semantic distance on performance with auditory menus could be found.; Two experiments were performed to determine a baseline for optimal auditory menu breadth and depth. The task for this study was specifically designed to measure performance of first time or occasional users under the following circumstances: (a) the user was calling with an inquiry (explicit target), (b) the user was unsure of the number of menu options and levels (breadth/depth), (c) the user was unsure of the exact content of the menu (exhaustive search), and (d) the user would experience either general menus (semantically non-similar) or specific (sometimes overlapping) menus (semantically similar).; Experimental Results show that optimal menus have four or fewer menu options (breadth) that connect a caller with a person within two keyed responses (depth). An unexpected increase in performance on semantically similar and non-similar ten option menus occurred in the first experiment. It was concluded that a strategy shift occurred in working memory, and further research must be conducted to determine the cognitive underpinnings of this shift and the implications it may have on broadening auditory menus. |
