Abstract
In the study presented in this paper we investigate how variations of information scent of hyperlinks of a webpage influence users’ behavior in terms of attention-focusing, confidence, effectiveness and efficiency, while exploring a website. In the reported study, 19 participants completed eight different tasks associated with eight simplified websites. Analysis of the results showed that even small differences in the target-link’s information scent can substantially affect users’ performance, distribution of attention and confidence. The study contributes to the related literature by quantifying the impact of even small differences in the target-link’s scent on users’ success ratio, time for first click, confidence and distribution of attention. In addition, a scent threshold value was identified, below which all the measured variables were substantially affected, and thus the link could be characterized as of “weak scent”.
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© 2009 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
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Tselios, N., Katsanos, C., Avouris, N. (2009). Investigating the Effect of Hyperlink Information Scent on Users’ Interaction with a Web Site. In: Gross, T., et al. Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2009. INTERACT 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5727. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03658-3_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03658-3_18
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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