An empirical study of Web browsing behaviour: Towards an effective Website design

Abstract Prior studies have suggested that a good Website design which facilitates a user’s Web browsing behaviour would generally lead to better user performance. In this research, we examine user Website behaviour as a way to understand Website design using a “think aloud” protocol analysis. Main theoretical contributions of this research are the illustration of the flow of cognitive processes during the Website browsing and the establishment of Website design dimensions – the meaning and content implied by Website content, its outward form, and the structure and navigation – in relation to user performance.

[1]  Efraim Turban,et al.  Determinants of successful Website design: relative importance and recommendations for effectiveness , 1999, Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences. 1999. HICSS-32. Abstracts and CD-ROM of Full Papers.

[2]  Jakob Nielsen,et al.  Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed , 2001 .

[3]  Chang Liu,et al.  Exploring the factors associated with Web site success in the context of electronic commerce , 2000, Inf. Manag..

[4]  Hanhwe Kim,et al.  Spatial metaphors and disorientation in hypertext browsing , 1995, Behav. Inf. Technol..

[5]  Stephen Kaplan,et al.  Environmental preference in a knowledge-seeking, knowledge-using organism. , 1992 .

[6]  Nectaria Tryfona,et al.  Structuring Space with Image Schemata: Wayfinding in Airports as a Case Study , 1997, COSIT.

[7]  R. Downs,et al.  Maps in minds : reflections on cognitive mapping , 1978 .

[8]  Prashant C. Palvia,et al.  Developing and validating an instrument for measuring user-perceived web quality , 2002, Inf. Manag..

[9]  Florence E. Mottay,et al.  Web Site Usability , 2001 .

[10]  Kevin Lynch,et al.  The Image of the City , 1960 .

[11]  Ping Zhang,et al.  A Comparison of the Most Important Website Features in Different Domains: An Empirical Study of User Perceptions , 2000 .

[12]  K. Anders Ericsson,et al.  Towards a procedure for eliciting verbal expression of non-verbal experience without reactivity: interpreting the verbal overshadowing effect within the theoretical framework for protocol analysis , 2002 .

[13]  D. B. MacKay,et al.  Cognitive Maps of Retail Locations: An Investigation of Some Basic Issues , 1975 .

[14]  Barbara Hayes-Roth,et al.  Differences in spatial knowledge acquired from maps and navigation , 1982, Cognitive Psychology.

[15]  Reginald G. Golledge,et al.  HUMAN WAYFINDING AND COGNITIVE MAPS , 2003 .

[16]  Patrick J. Lynch Web Style Guide , 1999 .

[17]  Jakob Nielsen,et al.  Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity , 1999 .

[18]  W. Bechtel,et al.  A companion to cognitive science , 1999 .

[19]  Romedi Passini,et al.  Wayfinding in Architecture , 1984 .

[20]  Olga De Troyer Designing Well-Structured Websites: Lessons to Be Learned from Database Schema Methodology , 1998, ER.

[21]  Eelko K. R. E. Huizingh,et al.  The content and design of web sites: an empirical study , 2000, Inf. Manag..

[22]  Andrew Dillon,et al.  â Itâ s the journey and the destinationâ : Shape and the emergent property of genre in evaluating digital documents , 1997 .

[23]  Mary Czerwinski,et al.  Web page design: implications of memory, structure and scent for information retrieval , 1998, CHI.

[24]  Ruth V. Small,et al.  Websites that satisfy users: a theoretical framework for Web user interface design and evaluation , 1999, Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences. 1999. HICSS-32. Abstracts and CD-ROM of Full Papers.

[25]  C. Ranganathan,et al.  Key dimensions of business-to-consumer web sites , 2002, Inf. Manag..

[26]  Paul P. Maglio,et al.  Facilitating navigation in information spaces: Road-signs on the World Wide Web , 1999, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[27]  Sean Larrangton-White Midm Designing Web Usability: The practice of simplicity , 2001 .

[28]  Kay M. Stanney,et al.  A Theoretical Model of Wayfinding in Virtual Environments: Proposed Strategies for Navigational Aiding , 1999, Presence.

[29]  David Modjeska Navigation in Electronic Worlds : Research Review for Depth Oral Exam , 1997 .

[30]  Keith S. Jones,et al.  Mental Representations of Hypermedia: An Evaluation of the Spatial Assumption , 2001 .

[31]  M. Posner Foundations of cognitive science , 1989 .

[32]  Jonathan W. Palmer,et al.  Web Site Usability, Design, and Performance Metrics , 2002, Inf. Syst. Res..

[33]  Stephen M. Fiore,et al.  A picture is worth a thousand connections: the facilitative effects of diagrams on mental model development and task performance , 2003, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[34]  J. Peponis,et al.  Finding the Building in Wayfinding , 1990 .

[35]  Keng Siau,et al.  Measuring information quality of web sites: development of an instrument , 1999, ICIS.

[36]  Izak Benbasat,et al.  Process Tracing Methods in Decision Support Systems Research: Exploring the Black Box , 1987, MIS Q..

[37]  Howard B. Lee,et al.  A first course in factor analysis , 1973 .

[38]  P. Johnson-Laird Mental models , 1989 .