Communicative NGOMSL: An Extension of NGOMSL to Analyze a Text-based Communication System

Abstract

This study proposes Communicative NGOMSL, which is an extension of NGOMSL intended to accommodate modeling of text-based communication among two or more individuals. Besides the properties of GOMS techniques in evaluation, Communicative NGOMSL additionally considers two key concepts: common ground and communication time. Common ground means the mutual knowledge, belief and assumptions of participants in a conversation, and communication time refers to one individual's waiting time for the other's response. As a case example, Communicative NGOMSL is applied to a virtual text-based communication system for exchanging addresses between two individuals. The Communicative NGOMSL analysis makes some suggestions to better design a communication system: (1) focusing on the interface design that is directly related to grounding process in a conversation; (2) considering the relationship of communication time and execution time for each individual; and (3) balancing between participants for learning time and mental workload.