Menu Structure Design using Asymmetric Spreading Activation in Mobile Phone

As products are getting more diverse and new products are entering the market faster, customers have trouble learning how to use them. User-oriented menu structures may solve this problem. In order to design user-oriented menu structures, spreading activation theory has been studied. The spreading activation test shows that the strong associative relationship between words has shorter response times. Based on the spreading activation test, asymmetric spreading activation was introduced and a hypothesis that in a well-designed menu structure, association between upper-low menu pairs is not affected by an activation direction was tested for this study. In this study the menu of a cellular phone (Model: SPH-w2900) was extracted, and underwent 1st spreading activation tests. Then, on each menu pair, response time differences (asymmetric transition) by accuracy and directions were analyzed to find out problems in labels and improve menu structures and vocabulary. Second spreading activation tests were conducted to check whether asymmetric transitions decreased. The results showed that response time differences (asymmetric transition) for activation directions were found to be dropped significantly. Asymmetric transitions in spreading activation presented in this study will be helpful to define user-oriented menu structures.