Kathryn A. Mobrand

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

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.

A Web-based study of user performance with enhanced local navigational cues

The goal of this study was to contribute to the body of empirical research on how users comprehend expository information presented in hypertext documents on the Web, to help authors find methods for enhancing user comprehension and perceptions of use, and to look specifically at the effect of local navigational cues in hypertext documents using a Web-based methodology. Subjects participated in this study remotely. Preliminary results indicate effects for navigational cues on comprehension as well as correlations between several user characteristics and performance.

Web page previews: effect on comprehension, user perceptions, and site exploration

Informational websites that contain pages of related hyperlinked information are often organized in a hierarchical tree, such that child-node pages contain primary content and higher-level parent-n...Informational websites that contain pages of related hyperlinked information are often organized in a hierarchical tree, such that child-node pages contain primary content and higher-level parent-node pages link to sets of related child-node pages. In such designs, the parent-node page content can act as topic previews for content contained in their child pages. This article describes a 3 × 2 factorial experiment that examined the effect of preview styles and hierarchical navigation menus on website users’ reading comprehension, perceptions of user experience and site exploration behaviour. Significant differences were found for inferential reading comprehension, with higher comprehension occurring when readers were exposed to previews with embedded links, even though previews with embedded links negatively affected user perceptions. Presence or absence of hierarchical menus did not affect comprehension but lack of menus significantly degraded usability perceptions and site exploration. Recommendations for informational website designs are discussed based on these findings.

The Effect of Structural Cues on User Comprehension, Navigational Behavior, and Perceptions

Web authors need writing strategies based on empirical studies of real Web users, strategies that will produce comprehensible Web documents that facilitate readers on the Web. The study reported here investigated the effect of structural cues (text previews and navigational tab menus) on user comprehension, navigational behavior, and perceptions. We found that text previews with embedded links to related pages (children nodes) enhance comprehension and discourage site exploration. We also found that lists of links (in lieu of previews) encourage site exploration and are well liked. And, we found that navigational tab menus encourage site exploration and enhance user perceptions. Our findings underscore that good Web design must be context specific - structural cues that promote understanding are not necessarily those that promote exploration or enjoyment. Keywords: hypertext comprehension, navigation, perceptions of use, remote user testing, signaling, structural cues.