Reading of electronic documents: the usability of linear, fisheye, and overview+detail interfaces

Reading of electronic documents is becoming increasingly important as more information is disseminated electronically. We present an experiment that compares the usability of a linear, a fisheye, and an overview+detail interface for electronic documents. Using these interfaces, 20 subjects wrote essays and answered questions about scientific documents. Essays written using the overview+detail interface received higher grades, while subjects using the fisheye interface read documents faster. However, subjects used more time to answer questions with the overview+detail interface. All but one subject preferred the overview+detail interface. The most common interface in practical use, the linear interface, is found to be inferior to the fisheye and overview+detail interfaces regarding most aspects of usability. We recommend using overview+detail interfaces for electronic documents, while fisheye interfaces mainly should be considered for timecritical tasks. Keywords Reading activity, elec...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2001
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Erik Frøkjær, Kasper Hornbæk
• Keywords: CHI 2001, Electronic Documents, Fisheye Interfaces, Human Computer Interaction, Interface Read Documents