7 +/- 2 revisited, sort of

["Nagai, Paul" <pnagai -at- VISA -dot- COM>]

Folks,

Hope to avoid a huge debate over the true meaning of  G. Miller's "magic"
number 7, but I ran across the following study and thought it might interest
those of you who've debated, pondered, or would just like to be introduced
to the application of Miller's research to technical communication.

The basic conclusion of the study is that breadth not depth may be the
optimum presentation of a large data-space (that is, 16 top level links,
each with 32 "hits" produces better findability than 8 top level links, 8
mid-level links, each with 8 "hits"). The researchers conclude that while
short term memory matters, it is only one of several factors predicting
performance.

Here's the recent study:
        http://www.research.microsoft.com/users/marycz/chi981.htm

Perhaps the most valuable information lies in the study's references (sadly,
not links) which identify other usability studies that are also on-point. By
the way, I have no idea when this study was performed; the site does not
say.

Here is G. Miller's original study:
        http://www.well.com/user/smalin/miller.html

Deborah: These might make nice entries somewhere on the techwr-l site...
------
Paul Nagai


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