Measurement of Task Performance Times and Ease of Use: Comparison of Various Menu Structures and Depth on the Web

Abstract

Five kinds of product search HTML pages -a four-level hierarchy (3 x 3 x 3 x 3), a three-level hierarchy (9 x 3 x 3), a two-level hierarchy (27 x 3), a one-level hierarchy (81 x 1), and a frame structure (9 x 3 x 3)were prepared. Two kinds of task, a simple task and a complex task, were prepared. For the most complex task, a total of 22 clicks were required to complete the task. Then the subjects were asked to search for products over the Internet. They were also asked to evaluate ease of use of the web pages. A total of 89 subjects accessed the experimental pages. The access log was later statistically analyzed. The results were very productive. In most advanced research up to now it has been shown that reducing the number of hierarchies and increasing the amount of information in one screen can reduce the task performance time. Our test results have also shown that this is what happens when a complex task is performed. However, a different conclusion is drawn when a simple task is performed. When a simple task is performed, there were no significant differences in the search time required, whether there were 81 products included in one screen (81 x 1), or in a four-level hierarchy (3 x 3 x 3 x 3). In this case, more people evaluated the four-level hierarchy as being easier to use than a one-level hierarchy. In this study it was found that task performance times and ease of use depend on task complexity and they were not always directly related.

Users’ perceptions of the arrangement of links in government websites: an investigation using think-aloud and interview methods

“…Many researchers investigated the effect of types of links in websites. Hochheiser and Shneiderman (2000) and Tsunoda et al (2001) found that for simple tasks the participants performed faster with sequential links than with simultaneous links, whereas for complex tasks the participants performed faster with simultaneous than with sequential links. Comparing sequential and expandable links Zaphiris, Shneiderman and Norman (2002) found that the participants performed faster with sequential links than with expandable links.…”