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Re: Link mania: there's nothing magical about Miller's number 7!
Subject:Re: Link mania: there's nothing magical about Miller's number 7! From:"Scott Dewbre" <scott -at- emcreek -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 22 Jan 2001 18:04:04 -0800
Just a note: I didn't suggest 4 +/- 2 "links" be visible. I suggested that
at any time, most users are capable of easily distinguing between that
number of chunks of information. I was using the usability guidelines
outlined by Neilsen et al. in the book Web Site Usability. I have built
web-based training sites where the user has 30 or more choices.
You can have (theoretically at least) a great number of links so long as
they are organized along a model that sorts them into visual chunks that the
visitor can easily distinguish.
Also, you might take a look at the way Microsoft and Adobe (among others)
build their application interfaces. In any toolbar or menu there are usually
about 4 choices before some kind of visual break. I think the only exception
to that rule is the file menu bar and I suppose that would be because its
format and ubiquitous presence have made it usable as is.
Let's not forget that usability is simply a way of saying that the average
user is comfortable and familiar with certain interface guidelines. If you
keep this in mind, you can use different rules but remember to give some
kind of instruction or visual cues. If you have Macromedia products, you can
take a look at their help interface. It's extremely well designed. Yet, they
use frames and have long lists of links. Why? Because 1. It's not online and
they have browser requirements that match the software. 2. Because most of
us understand when we are looking for an index that we want to see a sorted
list and are prepared for it.
My $0.02,
Charlene D.
> Paul Newbold reports: <<I think 4+/-2 is too low for the number of links
on
> screen. The actual number is 7 +/-2 which was established back in 1956
> (Millar, the Magic Number 7 +/- 2).>>
>
>
Nonetheless, more recent research (see, for example,
> several of the articles on Web heuristics in the August 2000 issue of
> _Technical Communication_) suggests some interesting connections with
> Miller's research in the sense of how many links should be visible at a
> time, how to arrange links hierarchically, and so on. I believe it was
Jakob
> Nielsen's research that suggested 5 links (7-2) based on empirical
evidence,
> not Miller's study per se; using only two links (4-2) simply won't work
for
> any reasonably complex body of information.
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