Laws which require the display of calorie information on menus are becoming more prominent throughout the United States and the world, but the efficacy of this information has not yet been studied on an individual level. An Eyetracker and two menus (which were identical save for the inclusion or exclusion of caloric information) were utilized to determine how much time college-aged women spent looking at calories. We also gathered their personal measure of weight dissatisfaction using a body image scale and participants’ self-reported weight dissatisfaction. Using random assignment, 22 participants were placed in the experimental group and 25 participants were placed in the control group. Analysis of the Eyetracker data showed that calories on the menu did have an effect on both the amount of time that participants spent looking at calories, and on the number of fixations they made on the calories. There were significant negative correlations between the participants' time spent viewing and their appetizer and entree choices on the experimental menu, indicating that participants select lower calorie menu items when they spend more time looking at calories. The data will be further explored in future analysis; the results also indicate that additional research into multiple different directions could be beneficial.

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The restaurant industry is a highly customer-driven field. Therefore, it is imperative that restaurateurs consider customer expectations with regard to restaurant menus. The purpose of this experimental study is to examine the effects of menu format (i.e., paper or digital) and amount of nutritional information (i.e., extensive, brief, or none) on customer perceptions of the effectiveness, perceived ease of use, and information quality of the menu. Furthermore, this research intends to test the effect of these three menu attributes on the outcomes of value and satisfaction in order to assess the competitive advantage of one format over the other. The Cognitive Appraisal and Information Processing Theories provide structure to the proposed conceptual framework and give credence to the findings. This study also fills gaps in the present research by not only ameliorating weaknesses of extant studies, but also by examining several different aspects of restaurant menus simultaneously within a single study.

La plupart des logiciels interactifs font un usage intensif des systèmes de menus. Ceux-ci permettent de sélectionner des opérations variées mais n'offrent généralement pas de moyen de contrôler leur exécution. Un second interacteur doit alors être utilisé (typiquement une boîte de dialogue) ce qui impose une décomposition d'une action unique (du point de vue de l'utilisateur) en une suite d'interactions successives. Nous proposons un nouveau type de menu, appelé Control Menu, qui permet de fluidifier l'interaction en unifiant la sélection et le contrôle des opérations.<br />L'accès interactif aux bases de données et la navigation dans les espaces d'information de grande taille constituent des tâches primordiales pour de nombreuses applications. Or, les systèmes de visualisation posent souvent des problèmes de désorientation, les utilisateurs ayant fréquemment des difficultés à se localiser précisément dans l'espace d'information et à trouver les données recherchées. Cette thèse propose plusieurs techniques d'aide contextuelle pour remédier à ces problèmes dans le cadre des interfaces basées sur le concept de zoom sémantique (ou interfaces zoomables). <br />Le premier type d'aide, qui offre une vue " en profondeur " de l'espace d'information via une représentation hiérarchique, permet non seulement de faciliter la localisation de la position courante et des informations recherchées mais aussi d'accélérer la navigation. La seconde technique est basée sur la génération dynamique de vues transparentes et temporaires que les utilisateurs peuvent créer et contrôler en un seul geste. Ces vues interactives se superposent à la vue courante en y rajoutant des informations contextuelles ou historiques qui aident l'utilisateur à comprendre ce qui entoure le point de focus ou quel chemin a été effectué pour arriver à ce dernier. Ces aides contextuelles nécessitent un couplage étroit entre interaction et présentation, qui est obtenu en utilisant des Control Menus.

The increasing use of 3D user interface elements, particularly 3D menus, demonstrates the need to expand research in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) as it pertains to 3D user interfaces. The results of this thesis contribute to the understanding of the cognitive impacts of using 3D menus. Multiple application areas for 3D menus have been identified where memory retention is a critical success factor, but little research has been done in the area of memory retention for 3D menus. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if the use of 3D carousel menus increases retention of information over 2D menus and if is there a gender effect with these results. A three factor split-plot (one-between subject factor and two-within subject factors) experiment was designed to test if menu dimension, content type, and gender are significant factors in memory retention and to determine if there are any interactions between these factors. The results of the experiment revealed that dimension and gender are not significant factors in the retention of information and none of the interactions of dimension (2D vs. 3D), gender, and content were significant. Several subjects’ questionnaire responses demonstrated that the menu dimension they perceived to better aid retention was 3D; however these results were not statistically significant. While these results showed that within the boundaries chosen the use of a 3D menu neither promotes nor degrades memory retention, there are still a number of questions that need to be answered regarding the use of 3D menus and their effect on other cognitive processes.

Personal file retrieval – the task of locating and opening files on a computer – is a common task for all computer users. A range of interfaces are available to assist users in retrieving files, such as navigation within a file browser, search interfaces and recent items lists. This thesis examines two broad goals in file retrieval: understanding current file retrieval behaviour, and improving file retrieval by designing improved user interfaces. A thorough understanding of current file retrieval behaviour is important to the design of any improved retrieval tools, however there has been surprisingly little research about the ways in which users interact with common file retrieval tools. To address this, this thesis describes a longitudinal field study that logs participants' file retrieval behaviour across a range of methods, using a specially developed logging tool called FileMonitor. Results confirm findings from previous research that search is used as a method of last resort, while providing new results characterising file retrieval. These include analyses of revisitation behaviour, file browser window reuse, and interactions between retrieval methods, as well as detailed characterisations of the use of navigation and search. Knowledge gained from this study assists in the design of three improvements to file navigation: Icon Highlights, Search Directed Navigation and Hover Menus. Icon Highlights highlight items that are considered the most likely to be accessed next. These highlights are determined using a new algorithm, AccessRank, which is designed to produce a set of results that is both accurate and stable over time. Search Directed Navigation highlights items that match, or contain items that match, a filename search query, allowing users to rehearse the mechanisms for expert performance in order to aid future retrievals, and providing greater context than the results of a traditional search interface. Hover Menus appear when hovering the mouse cursor above a folder, and provide shortcuts to highly ranked files and folders located at any depth within the folder. This allows users to reduce navigation times by skipping levels of the file hierarchy. These interfaces are evaluated in lab and field studies, allowing for both precise analysis of their relative strengths and weaknesses, while also providing a high degree of external validity. Results of the lab study show that all three techniques reduce retrieval times and are subjectively preferred by participants. For the field study, fully functional versions of Icon Highlights and Search Directed Navigation are implemented as part of Finder Highlights, a plugin to OS X's file manager. Results indicate that Icon Highlights significantly reduce file retrieval times, and that Search Directed Navigation was useful to those who used it, but faces barriers to adoption. Key contributions of this thesis include a review of previous literature on file management, a thorough characterisation of file retrieval behaviour, improved algorithms for predicting user behaviour and three improved interfaces for file retrieval. This research has the potential to improve a tedious activity that users perform many times a day, while also providing generalisable algorithms and interface concepts that are applicable to a wide range of interfaces beyond file management.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hospitality Management and Dietetics / Junehee Kwon / The purpose of this study was to assess the food choices and consumption of soldiers and their satisfaction with current and initial military training (IMT) menu standards through a survey and analysis of food selection and consumption. Participants were recruited during lunch periods before and three weeks after implementing IMT menu standards, which are healthier than current menu standards, in an Army dining facility (DFAC). Direct observations, digital photography, and plate waste methods were used to assess soldiers’ food selection and consumption. A survey was also administered to determine soldiers’ attitudes toward health, nutrition knowledge, reported food selection and consumption behaviors, and overall satisfaction with meals served under the two menu standards. Food selection and consumption were evaluated using the Army’s Go for Green Nutrition Labeling Program and the Military Dietary Reference Intakes (MDRIs). Descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated to summarize and compare data, and to identify potential associations among variables. A total of 172 and 140 soldiers participated before and after the menu change, respectively. Soldiers’ food selection patterns were similar to the proportion of green-, yellow-, and red-labeled items offered in the DFAC under both menu standards and significantly improved after the intervention (p<0.001). Soldiers consumed 886 kcal (38.6% from total fat and 11.2% from saturated fat) and 1784 mg of sodium before the menu change. Three weeks after the change, all figures improved (705 kcals, 31% of kcals from total and 9% from saturated fat, and 1339 mg of sodium) (p<0.01). Overall satisfaction and meal acceptability before and after the intervention were not different, and “food appeal” ratings actually improved. With the exception of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, attitudes toward health were significantly associated with all reported food behaviors (p<0.01) but not with actual behaviors (p>0.05). Nutrition knowledge significantly influenced some but not all aspects related to attitudes toward health. Perceived hunger levels were positively associated with intakes of calories, protein, total fat, sodium, and cholesterol (p<0.05). Findings suggest that implementing the IMT menu standards in non-trainee Army DFACs is feasible and has the potential to improve the overall healthfulness of soldiers’ food selection and consumption.

Jusqu'au milieu du XIXème siècle, les menus grains se distinguent des gros grains, donnés comme les seules cultures économiquement, alimentairement et symboliquement intéressantes. Pourtant, l'étude de sources aussi variées que les traités de botanique, les manuels d'agriculture, les statistiques napoléoniennes, la correspondance entre intendants et subdélégués, les enquêtes agricoles, les mercuriales ou les publications juridiques indique l'importance économique, géographique, démographique et sociale de plantes aussi variées que le millet, le panis, le sarrasin, le maïs et le sorgho. En effet, tous ces grains, difficiles à identifier au XVIème siècle mais dont les dénominations se précisent avec le système linnéen, appartiennent à un système rural cohérent. Semés au printemps, ils s'insèrent dans les rotations culturales. Ce sont de ce fait des graines supplétives aux gros grains d'hiver (froment, méteil). On ne les consomme pas sous forme de pain, mais sous forme de bouillie. Ce rôle de « grains de disette » est cependant exceptionnel. Les menus grains sont d'abord consommés par les animaux, notamment les porcs et les volailles. Ils sont aussi transformés en objets artisanaux, comme les balais ou les matelas fabriqués avec le sorgho ou le maïs. La demande urbaine en foies gras, chapons et jambons justifie le maintien durable en Bresse ou en Aquitaine de la culture des menus grains, dont on vante les qualités pour engraisser les animaux. Enfin, le dépouillage des sources sur trois siècles montre que la culture et la valorisation des menus grains sont un parfait exemple du strict partage des tâches entre hommes et femmes. Les semis, le désherbage, l'élevage et la vente sur les marchés sont des activités féminines. Alors que les menus grains sont l'objet de critiques répétées de la part du monde savant (agronomes, médecins), la culture des menus grains résiste et survit à travers le maintien de spécialités culinaires régionales (gaudes, galettes, milias....).

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health