Representational styles and the psychological attributes of potential computer command names

Abstract

Many studies have focused on strategies to devise computer commands which are easy to use and learn. The present study investigated how representational styles and the psychological attributes of command names affect users' choice of commands. Experiment 1 showed that novice and intermediate users have more metaphorical representations of computers, while experienced users have more realistic representations. Experiment 2 identified the psychological attributes of concreteness, imagery, familiarity, and understanding for a set of potential command names. These names were used in Experiment 3 to assess the relationship between the psychological attributes of the names and the frequency with which they are chosen by subjects with different representational styles. The results demonstrated that all users, irrespective of their particular representational style, chose the same command names, with high levels of rated imagery. The implications of these findings for the design of computer interfaces and the standardisation of command names across products and user groups are discussed