Results 1 - 10
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106
Investigating behavioral variability in Web search
- In Proc. WWW
, 2007
"... Understanding the extent to which people’s search behaviors differ in terms of the interaction flow and information targeted is important in designing interfaces to help World Wide Web users search more effectively. In this paper we describe a longitudinal log-based study that investigated variabili ..."
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Cited by 125 (40 self)
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Understanding the extent to which people’s search behaviors differ in terms of the interaction flow and information targeted is important in designing interfaces to help World Wide Web users search more effectively. In this paper we describe a longitudinal log-based study that investigated variability in people’s interaction behavior when engaged in search-related activities on the Web. We analyze the search interactions of more than two thousand volunteer users over a five-month period, with the aim of characterizing differences in their interaction styles. The findings of our study suggest that there are dramatic differences in variability in key aspects of the interaction within and between users, and within and between the search queries they submit. Our findings also suggest two classes of extreme user – navigators and explorers – whose search interaction is highly consistent or highly variable. Lessons learned from these users can inform the design of tools to support effective Web-search interactions for everyone.
Analysis of navigation behaviour in web sites integrating multiple information systems
- THE VLDB JOURNAL
, 2000
"... The analysis of web usage has mostly focused on sites composed of conventional static pages. However, huge amounts of information available in the web come from databases or other data collections and are presented to the users in the form of dynamically generated pages. The query interfaces of suc ..."
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Cited by 96 (24 self)
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The analysis of web usage has mostly focused on sites composed of conventional static pages. However, huge amounts of information available in the web come from databases or other data collections and are presented to the users in the form of dynamically generated pages. The query interfaces of such sites allow the specification of many search criteria. Their generated results support navigation to pages of results combining cross-linked data from many sources. For the analysis of visitor navigation behaviour in such web sites, we propose the web usage miner (WUM), which discovers navigation patterns subject to advanced statistical and structural constraints. Since our objective is the discovery of interesting navigation patterns, we do not focus on accesses to individual pages. Instead, we construct conceptual hierarchies that reflect the query capabilities used in the production of those pages. Our experiments with a real web site that integrates data from multiple databases, the German SchulWeb, demonstrate the appropriateness of WUM in discovering navigation patterns and show how those discoveries can help in assessing and improving the quality of the site.
Keeping Found Things Found on the Web
- PROC. CIKM 2001
, 2001
"... This paper describes the results of an observational study into the methods people use to manage web information for re-use. People observed in our study used a diversity of methods and associated tools. For example, several participants emailed web addresses (URLs) along with comments to themselves ..."
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Cited by 88 (5 self)
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This paper describes the results of an observational study into the methods people use to manage web information for re-use. People observed in our study used a diversity of methods and associated tools. For example, several participants emailed web addresses (URLs) along with comments to themselves and to others. Other methods observed included printing out web pages, saving web pages to the hard drive, pasting the address for a web page into a document and pasting the address into a personal web site. Ironically, two web browser tools that have been explicitly developed to help users track web information -- the bookmarking tool and the history list -- were not widely used by participants in this study. A functional analysis helps to explain the observed diversity of methods. Methods vary widely in the functions they provide. For example, a web address pasted into a self-addressed email can provide an important reminding function together with a context of relevance: The email arrives in an inbox which is checked at regular intervals and the email can include a few lines of text that explain the URL's relevance and the actions to be taken. On the other hand, for most users in the study, the bookmarking tool ("Favorites" or "Bookmarks" depending on the browser) provided neither a reminding function nor a context of relevance. The functional analysis can help to assess the likely success of various tools, current and proposed.
The tangled web we wove: A taskonomy of WWW use
, 1999
"... A prerequisite to the effective design of user interfaces is an understanding of the tasks for which that interface will actually be used. Surprisingly little task analysis has appeared for one of the most discussed and fastest-growing computer applications, browsing the World-Wide Web (WWW). Based ..."
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Cited by 79 (1 self)
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A prerequisite to the effective design of user interfaces is an understanding of the tasks for which that interface will actually be used. Surprisingly little task analysis has appeared for one of the most discussed and fastest-growing computer applications, browsing the World-Wide Web (WWW). Based on naturally-collected verbal protocol data, we present a taxonomy of tasks undertaken on the WWW. The data reveal that several previous claims about browsing behavior are questionable, and suggests that that widgetcentered approaches to interface design and evaluation may be incomplete with respect to good user interfaces for the Web.
Measuring the accuracy of sessionizers for web usage analysis
- In Proc.of the Workshop on Web Mining, First SIAM Internat.Conf. on Data Mining
, 2001
"... Companies with web presence rely on web usage analysis to obtain insights on customer behavior, associations among products, impact of advertisement banners, web marketing campaigns and product promotions. The validity of these results depends heavily on the accurate reconstruction of the visitors & ..."
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Cited by 53 (3 self)
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Companies with web presence rely on web usage analysis to obtain insights on customer behavior, associations among products, impact of advertisement banners, web marketing campaigns and product promotions. The validity of these results depends heavily on the accurate reconstruction of the visitors ' activities in the web site. To this end, many sites employ cookies that distinguish among dierent users coming from the same proxy server or anonymizer. However, the set of activities thus grouped together refer to the whole lifetime of a cookie at the user's host. The activities performed during each visit to the web site, the \sessions", are not grouped properly, thus prohibiting the monitoring of changes in the user's behaviour and in her interaction with the site during each session. The reconstruction of user sessions, the so-called \sessionizing " is blurred by client caches and multiple instantiations of the user's browser. Sessionizing tools exploit infor-mation on the site's topology and statistics on its usage, in order to assess the correct contents of a user session. These tools are based on heuristic rules and on assumptions about the site's usage, and are therefore prone to error. In this study, we provide a formal framework for the evaluation of the accuracy of sessionizing tools. We introduce a set of measures that compute the extent to which real sessions are successfully reconstructed by dierent sessionizers. The wide range of measures proposed re
ects the fact that some web usage analysis applications require exact reconstruction of a session, while for others ordering and page revisits are not important. On the basis of these measures, we compute and evaluate a number of sessionizing tools using the log data of a real web site. 1
A Data Miner analyzing the Navigational Behaviour of Web Users
- In Proc. of the Workshop on Machine Learning in User Modelling of the ACAI99
, 1999
"... Web site design is currently based on thorough investigations about the interests of web site visitors and on less investigated assumptions about their exact behaviour. Concrete knowledge on the way visitors navigate in a web site could prevent disorientation and help owners in placing important inf ..."
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Cited by 45 (2 self)
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Web site design is currently based on thorough investigations about the interests of web site visitors and on less investigated assumptions about their exact behaviour. Concrete knowledge on the way visitors navigate in a web site could prevent disorientation and help owners in placing important information exactly where the visitors look for it. Our Web Utilization Miner tool can provide such knowledge. The general problem we address is: Given a number of traversed paths, discover subpaths with structural or statistical properties of interest. In fact, we anticipate that not all nodes in a subpath are of equal importance. Hence, we allow that subpaths having only some nodes in common be combined into a pattern that shows the desired properties as a whole. To capture the ambiguous expressions of this problem, we provide a powerful mining language, by which the expert can specify the desired structural and statistical properties of the patterns to be constructed. To efficient...
Once found, what then?: A study of 'keeping' behaviors in the personal use of web information
- Proceedings of ASIST 2002
, 2002
"... This observational study investigates the methods people use in their workplace to organize web information for re-use. In addition to the bookmarking and history list tools provided by web browsers, people observed in our study used a variety of other methods and associated tools. For example, seve ..."
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Cited by 43 (7 self)
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This observational study investigates the methods people use in their workplace to organize web information for re-use. In addition to the bookmarking and history list tools provided by web browsers, people observed in our study used a variety of other methods and associated tools. For example, several participants emailed web addresses (URLs) along with comments to themselves and to others. Other methods observed included printing out web pages, saving web pages to the hard drive, pasting the address for a web page into a document and pasting the address into a personal web site. Differences emerged between people according to their workplace role and their relationship to the information they were gathering. Managers, for example, depended heavily on email to gather and disseminate information and did relatively little direct exploration of the Web. A functional analysis helps to explain differences in “keeping” behavior between people and to explain the overall diversity of methods observed. People differ in the functions they require according to their workplace role and the tasks they must perform; methods vary widely in the functions they provide. The functional analysis can also help to assess the likely success of various tools, current and proposed.
Extending a Conceptual Modelling Approach to Web Application Design
- In 12 th International Conference on Advanced Information Systems (CAiSE’00
, 2000
"... Abstract This article presents OO-HMethod, an extension of the OO-Method conceptual modelling approach to address the particulars associated with the design of web interfaces. It is based on the OO-Method class diagram, which captures the statics of the system. The design of the interface appearance ..."
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Cited by 42 (12 self)
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Abstract This article presents OO-HMethod, an extension of the OO-Method conceptual modelling approach to address the particulars associated with the design of web interfaces. It is based on the OO-Method class diagram, which captures the statics of the system. The design of the interface appearance and the navigation paths are driven by the user navigation requirements. To achieve its goal, OO-HMethod adds several navigation and interface constructs to the OO-Method conceptual model, which define the semantics suitable for capturing the specific functionality of web application interfaces. A new kind of diagram, the ’Navigation Access Diagram ’ (NAD) is introduced. All the concepts represented in the NAD are stored in a repository, and from there a functional interface is generated in an automated way. One of the main contributions of this paper is not the proposal of yet another method for web modelling but the extension of an existing conceptual modelling approach. 1
Keeping and re-finding information on the web: What do people do and what do they need? Proceedings of the American ZIP prefix Region # users co/prog en/actors h/medi n/radio r/gambl r/trav sci/agricult 10
- 15.2k .39 .01 .43 .25 .80 3.83 .08 25*** Charleson, West Virginia 5,954 .31 .00 .40 .18 .49 2.34 .17 58*** North Dakota 3,182 .48 .00 .31 .22 .53 2.74 .34 69*** North Plate, Nebraska 895 .37 .01 .25 .35 .64 2.97 .59 82*** Wyoming 3,039 .32 .01 .27 .25 .51
"... KFTF) investigated the methods that people use in their workplace to re-access web information. People were observed using many different methods to keep web information for later use including the use of Bookmarks (or Favorites), self-addressed email, hand-written notes, and paper print-outs. Each ..."
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Cited by 40 (4 self)
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KFTF) investigated the methods that people use in their workplace to re-access web information. People were observed using many different methods to keep web information for later use including the use of Bookmarks (or Favorites), self-addressed email, hand-written notes, and paper print-outs. Each keeping method provided a range of functions but none of the observed methods allowed for all desired functions. Participants in the KFTF study were also tested for their ability to return to a web site and several re-finding methods were observed and identified. When prompted with web site descriptions they had generated three to six months earlier, participants had a 95 % or better success rate in returning to the cued-for web sites. Moreover, two thirds of these re-finding methods required no explicit keeping behavior. Common re-finding methods included the use of: 1.) A search service. 2.) Partial completion of a site’s web address and acceptance of a suggested completion to this address (the auto-complete function). 3.) Hyperlinks from another web site. Results underline the importance of a reminding function. This paper also reports the data collected from a web survey conducted after the keeping and re-finding observations. 214 participants completed the survey. The data from the survey validated and elaborated the various methods that people use to keep web information for later re-use that were identified in earlier observational studies.
Patterns of information seeking on the Web: A qualitative Study of domain expertise and Web expertise." IT& Society 1(3): 64
- IT & Society
, 2003
"... This research examines the pattern of Web information seeking in four groups of nurses with different combinations of domain expertise and Web expertise. Protocols were gathered as the nurses carried out information-seeking tasks in the domain of osteoporosis. Domain and Web novices searched breadth ..."
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Cited by 30 (0 self)
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This research examines the pattern of Web information seeking in four groups of nurses with different combinations of domain expertise and Web expertise. Protocols were gathered as the nurses carried out information-seeking tasks in the domain of osteoporosis. Domain and Web novices searched breadth-first and did little or no evaluation of the results. Domain expert/Web novices also searched breadth-first but evaluated information more thoroughly using osteoporosis knowledge. Domain novice/Web experts searched in a mixed, breadth-first/depth-first pattern and attempted to evaluate information using general criteria. Domain expert/Web experts carried out depth-first searches, following deep trails of information and evaluated information based on the most varied and sophisticated criteria. The results suggest that there are distinct differences in searching patterns related to expertise. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are provided.
