Imprudent linking weaves a tangled Web

Lynch, Patrick J.; Horton, Sarah

doi:10.1109/2.596641

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…Following embedded associative links in hypertext may interrupt the narrative flow, leaving the reader to provide context and form inferences [37][38][39], a step that can use up cognitive resources and degrade comprehension [26]. Hypertext may actually fragment thinking when its web-like, modularized structure does not fit the way in which humans process information [40][41]. Further, hypertext readers with little prior knowledge or motivation may be unable to make effective navigational decisions [6,24].…”

Section: Text Structure and User Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Explicitness of local navigational links: comprehension, perceptions of use, and browsing behavior

Mobrand

Spyridakis²

2007

Journal of Information Science

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This study investigated the effect of explicitness of navigational links on comprehension, perceptions of use, and browsing behaviour in an informational web site. The purpose was to determine whether link explicitness would assist users in overcoming cognitive overload and disorientation. Subjects took a pre-knowledge survey, browsed web pages in one of four link explicitness conditions, and took a post-browsing survey on comprehension and perceptions of use. Link explicitness differentially affected the outcome measures. Organizationally explicit navigational links resulted in lower scores on the post-comprehension survey. A combined condition of semantically and organizationally explicit links resulted in subjects reporting that they followed more embedded links. Traditional links and semantically/organizationally explicit links resulted in subjects exploring more of the study web site. These results, together with subjects' comments and webserver log files, indicate that navigational link labels clearly affect user performance -ambiguous link labels degrade comprehension and constrain browsing; traditional navigational links and links that provide dual signaling encourage broader sampling of a web site.

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Section: Text Structure and User Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Explicitness of local navigational links: comprehension, perceptions of use, and browsing behavior

Mobrand

Spyridakis²

2007

Journal of Information Science

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“…However, too many add-on links will not only confuse users' logical understanding of information (Morris & Hinrichs, 1996) but also will lead the users to unexpected destinations in the site (Edward & Hardman, 1989). Moreover, if add-on links are not properly presented within the site, users may experience disorientation and cognitive overload (Lynch & Horton, 1997).…”

Section: Contextual Navigation Aidsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contextual Navigation Aids for Two World Wide Web Systems

Park

Kim²

2000

International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction

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In spite of the radical enhancement of Web technologies, many users still continue to experience severe difficulties in navigating Web systems. One way to reduce the navigation difficulties is to provide context information that explains the current situation of Web users. In this study, we empirically examined the effects of 2 types of context information, structural and temporal context. In the experiment, we evaluated the effectiveness of the contextual navigation aids in 2 different types of Web systems, an electronic commerce system that has a well-defined structure and a content dissemination system that has an ill-defined structure. In our experiment, participants answered a set of postquestionnaires after performing several searching and browsing tasks. The results of the experiment reveal that the 2 types of contextual navigation aids significantly improved the performance of the given tasks regardless of different Web systems and different task types. Moreover, context information changed the users' navigation patterns and increased their subjective convenience of navigation. This study concludes with implications for understanding the users' searching and browsing patterns and for developing effective navigation systems.

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“…As seen in Table 1 (Horn, 1993;Lynch & Horton, 1997;Phyllis, 1989) have presented similar comments that structurally written documents are easier to read and provide more positive attitudes to the readers.…”

Section: Analyses Of the Post-test Among The Three Groups Of Participmentioning

confidence: 75%

The Effectiveness of Applying Structured Writing Principles to Facilitate Undergraduate Students' Learning of Diversity Issues

Choy

Kavanaugh

2005

Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education

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Imprudent linking weaves a tangled Web

Cited by 12 publications

References 0 publications

Explicitness of local navigational links: comprehension, perceptions of use, and browsing behavior

Explicitness of local navigational links: comprehension, perceptions of use, and browsing behavior

Contextual Navigation Aids for Two World Wide Web Systems

The Effectiveness of Applying Structured Writing Principles to Facilitate Undergraduate Students' Learning of Diversity Issues

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