CMN-GOMS stands for Card, Moran and Newell GOMS. CMN-GOMS is the original version of the

GOMS GOMS is a specialized human information processor model for human-computer interaction observation that describes a user's cognitive structure on four components. In the book ''The Psychology of Human Computer Interaction''. written in 1983 by Stua ...

technique in

human computer interaction Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

. It takes the name after its creators

Stuart Card Stuart K. Card (born December 21, 1943), an American researcher and retired senior research fellow at Xerox PARC, is considered to be one of the pioneers of applying human factors in human–computer interaction. With Jock D. Mackinlay, George G. R ...

, Thomas P. Moran and

Allen Newell Allen Newell (March 19, 1927 – July 19, 1992) was a researcher in computer science and cognitive psychology at the RAND Corporation and at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, Tepper School of Business, and Department ...

who first described GOMS in their 1983 book ''The Psychology of Human Computer Interaction''.

Overview

This technique requires a strict goal-method-operation-selection rules structure. The structure is rigid enough that the evaluator represents the tasks in a pseudo-code format (no formal syntax is dictated). It also provides a guide for how to formulate selection rules. This method can also be used to estimate the load the task places on the user. For instance, examining the number of levels down the task-tree that a goal branch is can be used to estimate the memory demand the task places on the system. The process must remember information about all of the levels above the current branch. This technique is more flexible than the Keystroke-Level Model (KLM) because the pseudo-code is in a general form. That is, it can be executed for different scenarios by going down different branches, while KLM's procedure is a simple list that has to be recreated for each different task.

Example of a simple goal

Deleting a file in

Windows Explorer File Explorer, previously known as Windows Explorer, is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface for accessing the file ...

(NOTE: not all goals are fully expanded in this example).

GOAL: DELETE-FILE
.   GOAL: SELECT-FILE
.   .    elect:  GOAL: KEYBOARD-TAB-METHOD
.   .             GOAL: MOUSE-METHOD.   .   VERIFY-SELECTION
.   GOAL: ISSUE-DELETE-COMMAND
.   .   [select*: GOAL: KEYBOARD-DELETE-METHOD
.   .             .   PRESS-DELETE
.   .             .   GOAL: CONFIRM-DELETE
.   .             GOAL: DROP-DOWN-MENU-METHOD
.   .             .   MOVE-MOUSE-OVER-FILE-ICON
.   .             .   CLICK-RIGHT-MOUSE-BUTTON
.   .             .   LOCATE-DELETE-COMMAND
.   .             .   MOVE-MOUSE-TO-DELETE-COMMAND
.   .             .   CLICK-LEFT-MOUSE-BUTTON
.   .             .   GOAL: CONFIRM-DELETE
.   .             GOAL: DRAG-AND-DROP-METHOD
.   .             .   MOVE-MOUSE-OVER-FILE-ICON
.   .             .   PRESS-LEFT-MOUSE-BUTTON
.   .             .   LOCATE-RECYCLING-BIN
.   .             .   MOVE-MOUSE-TO-RECYCLING-BIN
.   .             .   RELEASE-LEFT-MOUSE-BUTTON]

*Selection rule for GOAL: ISSUE-DELETE-COMMAND
  If hands are on keyboard, use KEYBOARD-DELETE-METHOD,
    else if Recycle bin is visible, use DRAG-AND-DROP-METHOD,
    else use DROP-DOWN-MENU-METHOD

References

Notations

*This article incorporates text fro
Dr. G. Abowd: GOMS Analysis Techniques - Final Essay
which has been released into

GFDL The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU Project. It is similar to the GNU General Public License, giving readers the r ...

by its author).

Footnotes

{{Reflist Human–computer interaction

Overview

Example of a simple goal

See also

References

Notations

Footnotes