Designing a User-System Interface (USn is a complex task and has been approached
in many ways. One approach has been to use USI design guidelines to help improve
the quality and consistency of USIs. To use guidelines effectively, a general set of
guidelines must be tailored to a specific application. One popular set of guidelines is
the Smith and Mosier Guidelines for Designing User Interface Software (1986). This
thesis investigated the effects of using a computer-based hypertext design aid
(DRUID, Dynamic Rules for User Interface Design) for the selection of USI guidelines
for both experienced and novice Guidelines users. Also, the relative usability of the
software and hardcopy document was examined to improve the interface for the next
iteration of DRUID. Both performance and variability in guideline selection
strategies were studied within the context of the experimental tasks.
Results indicate that subjects effectively used both the book and hypertext
presentation media. However, subjects selected more relevant guidelines with the
book. The media influenced the subjects' selection strategies, and the subjects read
less when using DRUID. Subjectively, the software was preferred because it provided
assistance in the selection process. The presentation of the guidelines could be
improved for both media, and many of the factors which led subjects to select fewer
relevant guidelines with DRUID could be overcome with improved USI design and
implementation. Also, to overcome the limitations of presenting large texts on-line,
"value added" features should be incorporated into on-line tools to help users better
perform their tasks.
next to an author's name indicates that all files or directories associated with their ETD are accessible from the Virginia Tech campus network only.
![[VT]](http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/images/ETD-db/restricted.gif)
