It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it: Design guidelines to better support online browsing

Many authors have proposed guidelines for online browsing systems, however recently empirical research has added depth to these requirements. There has also been a spate of development in online browsing systems, particularly for library shelf browsing. These strands of research are clearly in service of providing better browsing options in an increasingly online library environment, however they have not yet been brought together. In this paper we use a recent empirical study and a survey of the literature to generate a comprehensive list of requirements for browsing interfaces. We will then compare that list to the interface features of a range of different book browsing interfaces, demonstrating why they may be more or less effective, and signpost development of more effective online browsing.

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