Off the Beaten tracks: Exploring Three Aspects of Web Navigation

H. Weinreich, H. Obendorf, E. Herder, M. Mayer

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

    98 Citations (Scopus)
    305 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    This paper presents results of a long-term client-side Web usage study, updating previous studies that range in age from five to ten years. We focus on three aspects of Web navigation: changes in the distribution of navigation actions, speed of navigation and within-page navigation. “Navigation actions��? corresponding to users’ individual page requests are discussed by type. We reconfirm links to be the most important navigation element, while backtracking has lost more than half of its previously reported share and form submission has become far more common. Changes of the Web and the browser interfaces are candidates for causing these changes. Analyzing the time users stayed on pages, we confirm Web navigation to be a rapidly interactive activity. A breakdown of page characteristics shows that users often do not take the time to read the available text or consider all links. The performance of the Web is analyzed and reassessed against the resulting requirements. Finally, habits of within-page navigation are presented. Although most selected hyperlinks are located in the top left corner of the screen, in nearly a quarter of all cases people choose links that require scrolling. We analyzed the available browser real estate to gain insights for the design of non-scrolling Web pages.
    Original languageUndefined
    Title of host publicationProceedings of the 15th International Conference on World Wide Web, WWW'06
    EditorsH. Edmonds, K. Hawkey, M. Kellar, D. Turnbull
    Place of PublicationNew York
    PublisherACM Press
    Pages133-142
    Number of pages10
    ISBN (Print)1-59593-323-9
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 23 May 2006
    Event15th International World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2006 - Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    Duration: 23 May 200626 May 2006
    Conference number: 15

    Publication series

    Name
    PublisherACM Press
    Number1636734 (P

    Conference

    Conference15th International World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2006
    Abbreviated titleWWW
    Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
    CityEdinburgh
    Period23/05/0626/05/06

    Keywords

    • EWI-9159
    • HMI-IE: Information Engineering
    • IR-66895
    • METIS-237941
    • HMI-HF: Human Factors

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