Computer Abbreviations: Evidence and Synthesis

Abstract

This paper examines the experimental data on 11 abbreviation techniques for use with computer systems. The techniques include abbreviations based on intuition, abbreviations derived from formal rules, and military abbreviations. Although the comparison of user performance on the abbreviations produced by these different techniques is complicated by the varying conditions under which they were tested, trends in the data are apparent. This paper presents design recommendations based on this evidence as well as conjecture on how to further improve operator performance.