Abstract
One of the goals of studies on human interface is to make operating procedures of various systems easier to acquire. From past studies it is known that construction of appropriate mental models in the user's mind is effective in acquiring operating procedures. Furthermore, as a technique to construct easily and quickly appropriate mental models, metaphor and direct manipulation are being studied. However, it has not been clarified how effective these techniques are in acquiring operating procedures. For electronic mailing systems that enable key operations and drawing figures by touching the screen by a magnetic pen, experiments were conducted to clarify the effect on acquiring the operating procedures, regarding the procedure for sending electronic mails as βthe one for sending letters by mail.β Subjects are grouped into threes and are taught the procedures for sending mails in different ways for the groups. They operate experimental systems on the first day, the third day, and three months later. Then the time required for each operation is measured and the percentage of those who performed misoperations is calculated. As the result, it is found that if users are taught that the procedure for sending mails is regarded as the one for sending letters, they acquire it easily and remember it well. Thus, it is shown that utilization of metaphor is effective. Also, from the results of the operating time, it is found that the percentage of acquisition of operating procedures can be estimated roughly.