Virtual hierarchies and virtual networks: some lessons from hypermedia usability research applied to the World Wide Web

Smith, Pauline; Newman, Ian; Parks, L.

doi:10.1006/ijhc.1997.0128

Cited by 46 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The focus of this study is on the information search (item search) tasks using a browsing strategy. For the design of a Web site to support an information search task using a browsing strategy, the organization of a Web site is the most important issue (Smith, Newman, & Parks, 1997;Yang & Salvendy, 1997). When browsing a Web site to find target information, users usually do not know where to find the information.…”

Section: Information Search Tasksmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Implications of Visualization Ability and Structure Preview Design for Web Information Search Tasks

Zhang¹,

Salvendy²

2001

International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction

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This study investigates the effects of users' visualization ability and Web site structure display design on users' performance and memory organization in Web site information search tasks using a browsing strategy. A human-centered design-structure preview-was proposed in this study. Structure preview is a Web site navigation menu in which each menu item serves as a link to one Web page, similar to a menu design in Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows 98. An experiment was conducted in which 40 individuals participated. The experimental design was a 2-factor factorial design. Independent variables were visualization ability (low and high) and Web site design (conventional and structure preview). Twenty participants were identified as users with low visualization ability and 20 participants were identified as users with high visualization ability. Dependent variables were the number of identified items, the number of steps per item, and memory organization. Results indicated that both low-and high-visualization users' performance improved significantly (76.3% more identified items and 83.4% fewer steps per item for low-visualization users; 36.5% more identified items and 78.4% fewer steps per item for high-visualization users) when using the structure preview design than when using the conventional design. When using the conventional design, high-visualization users had significantly better performance (36.9% more identified items and 23.6% fewer steps per item) than low-visualization users. Also, the memory organization of all users (including both low-and high-visualization users) improved significantly (42.9%) when using the structure preview design compared with the conventional design.

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Section: Information Search Tasksmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Implications of Visualization Ability and Structure Preview Design for Web Information Search Tasks

Zhang¹,

Salvendy²

2001

International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction

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“…We decided that the degree of structuredness is an important dimension, because different degrees of structuredness can affect navigation patterns (Smith, Newman, & Parks, 1997). Two extreme cases were selected along the degree of structuredness.…”

Section: Overview Of Studymentioning

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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“…In hypertext, both the interface and the way the information is stored or structured are considered crucial to its success (Marchionini & Schneiderman, 1988), implying the information should be coherently structured both at the logical and visualization level (Garzotto, Mainetti, & Paolini, 1995). However, matching tasks, information structures, and navigation aids is a difficult process (Smith et al, 1997) entailing close user-designer interaction during the analysis and design phases to elucidate the task characteristics, user characteristics and motives, and needed features (Dillon & McKnight, 1995;Jackson, Chow, & Leitch, 1997;Nanard & Nanard, 1995;Rheingold, 1991). Indeed, Kasvi et al (1998) found that one of the reasons for the failure of IHAs is the lack of solid cooperation between the developers and end users of the system.…”

Section: Hci Issues and Hypermedia Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…It involves the detailed design, which is translated into a prototype that users evaluate and provide feedback to refine the design, correct the specification, and collect further data. The detailed design is a difficult process (Smith et al, 1997) and entails making decisions on how to structure and present the information gathered to the user and the way the user accesses that information so as to support users in their tasks. (Nanard & Nanard, 1995) 1 Generating material-the emergence of ideas.…”

Section: Hypermedia Development Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

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User‐interface design heuristics for developing usable industrial hypermedia applications

Fakun

Greenough

2002

Hum Ftrs & Erg Mfg Svc

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Shop floor operators urgently need help to cope with the pressures of the present manufacturing context. One proposed solution is industrial hypermedia applications (IHA). A review of published papers on IHAs has shown that while the potential benefits of such applications, if accepted and used by operators, are well documented, user-interface design aspects are not. In other words, the rationale used for the user-interface design is not explained. This article fills the gap by drawing on human-computer interaction and hypermedia literature to present user-interface design guidelines or heuristics. The latter were incorporated in 2 IHAs developed for this study. Shop floor operators empirically assessed the IHAs through usability trials held in the workplace and provided data on their perceptions of the IHA's ease of use. The findings show that the 7 design heuristics contributed to the usability of the IHAs. However, developers should not apply the design heuristics in isolation but should also elicit user characteristics and task domain.

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Virtual hierarchies and virtual networks: some lessons from hypermedia usability research applied to the World Wide Web

Cited by 46 publications

References 25 publications

The Implications of Visualization Ability and Structure Preview Design for Web Information Search Tasks

The Implications of Visualization Ability and Structure Preview Design for Web Information Search Tasks

Contextual Navigation Aids for Two World Wide Web Systems

User‐interface design heuristics for developing usable industrial hypermedia applications

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