Expanding Hypertext: Does It Address Disorientation? Depends on Individuals' Adventurousness

Abstract

This article investigates how individuals' adventurousness (a personality characteristic) influences their experience with different types of computer text formats and whether expanding hypertext, a new hybrid hypertext format, addresses the most frequently cited hypertext problem, disorientation. Two hundred and one college students participated in an experimental study which evaluated three variations of computer text formats. Specifically, the study investigated how individuals with different levels of adventurousness exhibited different preferences for, and disorientation with, different computer text formats. Participant adventurousness was found to interact with text format on participant feelings of disorientation. The participants prefered the paged hypertext and the expanding hypertext over the scrolling text format.

Using the Internet: Skill related problems in users’ online behavior

“…Cross-referencing characterises a difficult problem for users of the Internet (Kwan, 2001). Without a sense of location, distance, and necessary direction, it is not surprising that users often have a strong sense of disorientation (Kwan, 2001), the most frequently cited problem in hypermedia use (Lee, 2005). Users might become disoriented and lost in the non-linear structure of the Internet (Nielsen, 1990).…”

Online News Production, Consumption and Immediacy: The Remediation Perspective

“…Cognitive load is defined as "the amount of mental effort required to locate specific information and understand how this information is oriented within a larger information source" (Eveland & Dunwoody, 2001). Disorientation and cognitive load effects coincide to the extent that previous studies tend to use the two terms interchangeably (Lee, 2005). In more recent work, cognitive overload has also been seen as a kind of breakdown; a state in which all communication input cannot be utilized or processed effectively.…”

“…A number of researchers (e.g., Dillon, 1996;McDonald & Stevenson, 1996;McKnight, 1996) who examined users' experience of the Internet found a common drawback: a feeling of being disoriented or getting lost in the vast hypermedia space. E-ISSN: 2289-1528 https://doi.org/10.17576/JKMJC-2017-3303-15 Lee (2005) has explained that the feeling of becoming lost in hyperspace -not knowing where one is or where to go next -is not the only type of disorientation. Users can also experience disorientation when they have difficulty achieving a coherent understanding of the content because of cognitive overload -also known as cognitive disorientation.…”

“…Yet, the evidence is far from conclusive. As new technology is introduced, Lee (2005) argues, unfamiliarity with the new interface causes disorientation, especially among the less adventurous. In the current context, then, online users are continuously embracing new technologies that demand extra mental effort from them to learn the newer version -and unlearn the older-as well as to adapt to altered Web interfaces in order to stay current (Rutkowski & Saunders, 2010).…”

Internet skills

“…The most frequently cited problem in hypermedia use is disorientation (Ahuja & Webster, 2001;Lee, 2005). Most traditional media are linear, giving the user little control over the flow of information.…”