Abstract: In electronics devices, a user interface and method for presenting and selecting user selectable items with a limited number of inputs is described. In one embodiment, a portable media player, three buttons are utilized as hint selectors and choice items are associated with hints selectors and displayed with these hints. When a hint selector is actuated, choice items not associated with the hint selector are eliminated from the choice items list and the remaining choice items are again associated with the hint selectors for display to the user. This process is repeated until a single choice items is selected by the hint selector. In one embodiment this method requires a maximum of Logb(N) user inputs to make the selection (where N is the cardinality of choice items and b is the cardinality of hint selectors). In one of the described embodiments a method is given for calculating a first order hints and subsequent order hints to display with the choice items.