Frequency distributions of hypertext path patterns: A pragmatic approach

Qiu, Liwen

doi:10.1016/0306-4573(94)90028-0

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Motivations in this framework relate to affective states that Kuhlthau (1993) and Nahl (1997) consider as one of the main factors influencing information-seeking activities. Qiu (1994) modeled the path patterns users followed in navigating an early hypertext system (i.e., Hyperties). The author found that Zipf's distribution was the best fit for the frequency of user node visiting.…”

Section: Information Seeking Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differences and similarities in information seeking: children and adults as Web users

Bilal

Kirby

2002

Information Processing & Management

219

155

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This study examined the success and information seeking behaviors of seventh-grade science students and graduate students in information science in using Yahooligans! Web search engine/directory. It investigated these users' cognitive, affective, and physical behaviors as they sought the answer for a factfinding task. It analyzed and compared the overall patterns of children's and graduate students' Web activities, including searching moves, browsing moves, backtracking moves, looping moves, screen scrolling, target location and deviation moves, and the time they took to complete the task. The authors applied Bilal's Web Traversal Measure to quantify these users' effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of moves they made. Results were based on 14 children's Web sessions and nine graduate students' sessions. Both groups' Web activities were captured online using Lotus ScreenCam, a software package that records and replays online activities in Web browsers. Children's affective states were captured via exit interviews. Graduate students' affective states were extracted from the journal writings they kept during the traversal process. The study findings reveal that 89% of the graduate students found the correct answer to the search task as opposed to 50% of the children. Based on the Measure, graduate students' weighted effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of the Web moves they made were much higher than those of the children. Regardless of success and weighted scores, however, similarities and differences in information seeking were found between the two groups. Yahooligans! poor structure of keyword searching was a major factor that contributed to the ''breakdowns'' children and graduate students experienced. Unlike children, graduate students were able to recover from ''breakdowns'' quickly and effectively. Three main factors influenced these users' performance: ability to recover from ''breakdowns'', navigational style, and focus on task. Children and graduate students made recommendations for improving Yahooligans! interface design. Implications for Web user training and system design improvements are made. Ó

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Section: Information Seeking Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differences and similarities in information seeking: children and adults as Web users

Bilal

Kirby

2002

Information Processing & Management

219

155

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“…Some of these studies have employed "static" measures related to numbers of nodes or links accessed, measures of time and path length [29,26,191 or analyzed selected episodes of movement, tabulating navigation within or across sections of a network [29]. Some investigators have applied statistical techniques to identify "clusters" of nodes and interpret user navigation in terms of these constructs [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visualizing and assessing navigation in hypertext

McEneaney

1999

Proceedings of the Tenth ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia : Returning to Our Diverse Roots: Returning to Our Diverse

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User navigation has been a central theme in both theoretical and empirical work since the earliest days of hypertext research and development. Studies exploring user navigation have, however, tended to rely on indirect navigational measures and have rarely tried to relate navigation to performance solving problems or locating information.The purpose of this paper is to propose methods that lead to a more direct representation and analysis of user movement in hypertext and to empirically explore the relationship of resulting measures to performance in a hypertext search task. Results of this study support the claim that the proposed graphical and numerical methods have empirical significance and may be useful in applications related to assessing and modeling user navigation.

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“…A task is an essential factor in the information seeking process. Research has shown that the type of task a user is given influences the user's information seeking, information use, and success (Bilal, 2000, 2001; Borgman et al, 1995; Bystrom & Jarvelin, 1995; Dimitrof & Wolfram, 1995; Hirsh, 1997; Marchionini, 1989, 1995; Qui, 1994; Schacter, Chung, & Dorr, 1998; Solomon, 1993, 1994; Vakkari, 1999). As Figure 1 shows, tasks vary by type (i.e., open‐ended vs. closed), nature (complex vs. simple), and the way they are administered (i.e., fully assigned, semiassigned, fully self‐generated).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children's use of the Yahooligans! Web search engine. III. Cognitive and physical behaviors on fully self‐generated search tasks

Bilal

2002

J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci.

188

162

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This article presents the third part of a research project that investigated the information-seeking behavior and success of seventh-grade science children in using the Yahooligans! Web search engine/directory. In parts 1 and 2, children performed fully assigned tasks to pursue in the engine. In the present study, children generated their tasks fully. Children's information seeking was captured from the cognitive, physical, and affective perspectives using both quantitative and qualitative inquiry methods. Their information-seeking behavior and success on the fully self-generated task was compared to the behavior and success they exhibited in the two fully assigned tasks. Children were more successful on the fully self-generated task than the two fully assigned tasks. Children preferred the fully self-generated task to the two fully assigned tasks due to their ability to find the information sought and satisfaction with search results rather than the nature of the task in itself (i.e., selfgenerated aspect). Children were more successful when they browsed than when they searched by keyword on the three tasks. Yahooligans! design, especially its poor keyword searching, contributed to the breakdowns children experienced. Implications for system design improvement and Web training are discussed.

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Frequency distributions of hypertext path patterns: A pragmatic approach

Cited by 13 publications

References 9 publications

Differences and similarities in information seeking: children and adults as Web users

Differences and similarities in information seeking: children and adults as Web users

Visualizing and assessing navigation in hypertext

Children's use of the Yahooligans! Web search engine. III. Cognitive and physical behaviors on fully self‐generated search tasks

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