Choices and Decisions of Computer Users
The Human Computer Interaction Handbook, chapter 5, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 3 edition, (2012)DOI: 10.1201/b11963-7
Abstract
This chapter focuses on cases, where a user can choose among two or more options, none of which is correct or incorrect but one of which can be preferred to the others. The term preferential choice will be used to distinguish this situation from nonpreferential choices that concern the correct way to operate a system, such as 'Which of these unfamiliar icons do I have to click on to send off my email message?' We will use the terms choice and decision, together and in alternation, to do justice to the variety of forms that the processes in question can take. Decision suggests a thorough, effortful process, while choice suggests a quick selection that may be based, for example, on habit. Both types of process occur in computer users, often with regard to the same set of options.