Simple vs. Compound Mark Hierarchical Marking Menus

The successive strokes made in multi-stroke marking menus form gestures. This paper reports on an experimental study that examines how the use of glyphs affects performance in marking menu selection. Glyph familiarity is manipulated by comparing Chinese style and Mark style glyphs across Chinese and non-Chinese users. Performance benefits are found for familiar and memorable glyphs. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the design of marking menus and associated gestures and for the role of glyphs in facilitating the transition from novice to expert performance in menu selection.