Comparing link marker visualization techniques: changes in reading behavior

Links are one of the most important means for navigation in the World Wide Web. However, the visualization of and the interaction with Web links have been scarcely explored, although Links have severe implications on the appearance and usability of Web pages and the World Wide Web as such.This paper presents two studies giving first insights of the effects of link visualization techniques on reading habits and performance. The first user study compares different highlighting techniques for link markers and evaluates their effect on reading performance and user acceptance. The second study examines links-on-demand, links that appear when pressing a dedicated key, and discusses their possible effects on reading and browsing habits.The findings of the conducted studies imply that the standard appearance of link markers has seriously underestimated effects on the usability of Web pages. They can significantly reduce the readability of the text, and alternatives should be carefully considered for the design of future Web browsers.

[1]  Kenton O'Hara,et al.  A comparison of reading paper and on-line documents , 1997, CHI.

[2]  Winfried Lamersdorf,et al.  Scone: Ein Framework zur evaluativen Realisierung von Erweiterungen des Webs , 2003, KiVS.

[3]  Les Carr,et al.  Looking for linking: associative links on the Web , 2002, HYPERTEXT '02.

[4]  Harri Oinas-Kukkonen,et al.  Fourth generation hypermedia: some missing links for the World Wide Web , 1997, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[5]  James E. Pitkow,et al.  Characterizing Browsing Strategies in the World-Wide Web , 1995, Comput. Networks ISDN Syst..

[6]  Sandra K. Parker,et al.  Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites , 1999 .

[7]  Norbert A. Streitz,et al.  SEPIA: a cooperative hypermedia authoring environment , 1992, ECHT '92.

[8]  Lloyd Rutledge,et al.  Improving Media Fragment Integration in Emerging Web Formats , 2001 .

[9]  J. Lythgoe.  The Ecology of vision , 1979 .

[10]  Steven M. Drucker,et al.  Intermedia: the concept and the construction of a seamless information environment , 1988, Computer.

[11]  Niels Olof Bouvin,et al.  Augmenting the Web through open hypermedia , 2002, New Rev. Hypermedia Multim..

[12]  M. Andreessen.  MCSA Mosaic Technical Summary , 1993 .

[13]  Janet H. Walker,et al.  Document Examiner: delivery interface for hypertext documents , 1987, Hypertext.

[14]  James F. Allen.  Automatic hypertext link typing , 1996, HYPERTEXT '96.

[15]  Winfried Lamersdorf,et al.  Concepts for improved visualization of Web link attributes , 2000, Comput. Networks.

[16]  Keith Andrews.  Browsing, Building, and Beholding Cyberspace: New Approaches to the Navigation, Construction, and Visualisation of Hypermedia on the Internet , 1996 .

[17]  Ramana Rao,et al.  Silk from a sow's ear: extracting usable structures from the Web , 1996, CHI.

[18]  Winfried Lamersdorf,et al.  The look of the link - concepts for the user interface of extended hyperlinks , 2001, Hypertext.

[19]  Paul P. Maglio,et al.  Intermediaries personalize information streams , 2000, CACM.

[20]  Ben Shneiderman,et al.  Embedded menus: selecting items in context , 1986, CACM.

[21]  Carolyn Snyder,et al.  Web Site Usability: A Designer's Guide , 1997 .

[22]  Jakob Nielsen,et al.  Hypertext and hypermedia , 1990 .

[23]  Saul Greenberg,et al.  How People Recognise Previously Seen Web Pages from Titles, URLs and Thumbnails , 2001 .

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

[25]  Vannevar Bush,et al.  As we may think , 1945, INTR.

[26]  Randall Hagner Trigg,et al.  A network-based approach to text handling for the on-line scientific community , 1983 .

[27]  Saul Greenberg,et al.  How people revisit web pages: empirical findings and implications for the design of history systems , 1997, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..