GOMS model

GOMS model

• a GOMS model, as proposed by Card, Moran, and Newell (1983),

is a description of the knowledge that a user must have in order to
carry out tasks on a device or system
• it is a representation of the "how to do it" knowledge that is
required by a system in order to get the intended tasks
accomplished
• it describes the Goals, Operators, Methods, and Selection rules
needed to perform a task
GOMS model
 When is a GOMS analysis done and
what for?
• in the design phase
• it is a way to characterize a set of design decisions from the user’s point of view
• in the evaluation/usability testing phase
• it can be used to obtain predictions of learning and performance, and to
establish tasks to monitor
• in the documentation phase
• it is a way to describe what the user must learn, and so could be used as a basis
for training, and for developing reference documentation
 Goals
• a goal is something that the user tries to accomplish
• it is typically described in an action-object pair in the form:
• <verb noun>
• a goal can be defined at any level of abstraction examples are:
• delete word
• move-left cursor
• insert database-entry
• compose text
• delete file
 Operators
• operators are the actual, basic actions the user executes
• like goals, they are also represented as an action-object pair
• the (intuitive) difference between goals and operators is that the
goal is something the user wishes to achieve, while the
operator is just something the user executes
• operators can affect the system or only the user’s mental or
physical state
 Basic actions?
• deciding when an action is “basic” depends on the level of the
analysis (and its aims)
 Selection Rules
• in some occasions, there can be more than one method to
• accomplish a goal
• a selection rule helps to choose the appropriate method in the particular
circumstance
• a set of mutually exclusive conditions is described that specify what method
should be used in what context
• selection rules are defined in sets: a set is associated with a general goal and
consists of If-Then rules
• the form for a selection rule is:
• Selection rule for <general-goal description>:
• If <condition 1> then use <method 1>
• If <condition 2> then use <method 2>
...
 Selection Rules
• each <condition n> consists of one or more operators that test
• the working memory
• the content of the task description
• or some external perceptual situation
• the order of the If-Then statements is not significant
• but only one of the conditions can be true at a time
A Procedure for Constructing a GOMS
Model
• use a top-down, breadth-first expansion of methods:
• go from the most general user goal to more specific subgoals
• all the goals at each level are dealt with before moving to the next level
• use high-level operators and define methods which use these high
level operators
• transform each high-level operator into a goal, and repeat the
process
• if you go breadth-first rather than depth-first it is more likely that
you will notice how methods are similar to each other (this will
improve consistency)
 Step 1: Choose top level user’s goals and
methods

• identify very high level goals: the higher the better

• avoid considering functions that the actual system happens to
provide
• but concentrate on user’s tasks, the way the user sees them
• the goal of performing the main task is typically accomplished via
a selection rule set, which invokes the appropriate method
References

A Dix, Janet Finlay, G D Abowd, R Beale., Human-Computer Interaction, 3 rd

Edition, Pearson Publishers,2008