A Performance Comparison Of3D And2D Menus For Mobile Phones

Menu as an important interaction of mobile phone interface components, is one of theimportant research fields of human-computer interface.3D menus refer to the three-dimensionalscreen-based menus, adding depth to traditional2D menus which only have the length and width,thereby forming three-dimensional menus. Most of the previous menus ergonomics research ismainly focused on the traditional2D menus，and3D menus on mobile phone are rarely to see,especially ergonomics research for3D menus. Whether3D menus have a higher operationperformance and better subjective experience than traditional2D menu are to be empiricalresearch.By manipulating the amount of information and memory load (task complexity), the searchperformance and subjective evaluation of3D menus and2D menus were compared in the study,and the influences of advance notice processing to3D menus search performance were verifiedfurtherly, the design of mobile phone3D menus guidance suggestions were put forward at last,provided some reference for designers that whether to use3D menus in the specific mobileapplication.In this study there were three experiments. In experiment1, the search performance andsubjective evaluation of3D menus and2D menus were compared at different amount ofinformation through the target search task. By increasing the memory load of increased thenumber of targets level in the search task, experiment2compared the search performance andsubjective evaluation of3D menus and2D menus at different amount of information in the highmemory load.On the basis of the experiment1, experiment3compared the search performance ofthree kinds of menus (3D menus of both sides blurred,3D normal menus,2D menus)at differentamount of information and discussed the influences of advance notice processing to3D menussearch performance.The experiment results showed the following three conclusions：(1) When the low levels of the target amount and memory load in target search task,3Dmenus are superior to2D menus whether on search performance or user preferences; but whenthe high levels of the target amount and memory load, although the user subjectively prefer3D menus, but3D menus no advantage from the point of search performance, even worseperformance.(2) when the levels of amount of information is low or moderate,3D menus are superior to2D menus no matter in search performance or user preferences; but when the levels of amount ofinformation is high, although the user preference3D menus, no significant difference betweenthe two performance.(3) From the point of processing mechanism on3D menus that can improve theperformance, advance notice processing plays a very important role. But the advance noticeprocessing will be disturbed when both sides of the icon fuzzy on3D menus,then theperformance of3D menus will reduced severely, even lower than2D menus.