Using structural cues to guide readers on the internet

Information Design Journal

Volumn 15, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 242-259

  Spyridakis, Jan H ^a   Mobrand, Kathryn A ^a   Cuddihy, Elisabeth ^a   Wei, Carolyn Y ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON   (United States)

^b GOOGLE INC   (United States)

Author keywords

Hypertext comprehension; Hypertext navigation; Internet based research; Remote user testing; Signals; Structural cues; Website design; Website usability

Indexed keywords

EID: 51249145288     PISSN: 01425471     EISSN: 1569979X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1075/idj.15.3.06spy     Document Type: Article

References (57)

1. Bachiochi, D., Berstene, M., Chouinard, E., Conlan, N., Danchak, M., Furey, T., Neligon, C., & Way, D. (1997). Usability studies and designing navigational aids for the World Wide Web. Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, 29, 1489-1496.
2. Bartlett, F. C. (1932). Remembering. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3. Baylor, A. L. (2001). Perceived disorientation and incidental learning in a Web-based environment: Internal and external factors. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 10(3), 227-251.
4. Bernard, M. L., Hull, S., & Chaparro, B. S. (2005). Examining the performance and preference of embedded and framed/ non-framed hyperlinks. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 35(2), 139-147.
5. Blasko, D. G., & Connine, C. M. (1993). Effects of familiarity and aptness on metaphor processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 19(2), 295-306.
6. Brinkerhoff, J. D., Klein, J. D., & Koroghlanian, C. M. (2001). Effects of overviews and computer experience on learning from hypertext. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 25(4), 427-440.
7. Brooke, J. (1996). SUS: A "quick and dirty" usability scale. In P. Jordan, B. Thomas & B. Weerdmeester (Eds.), Usability Evaluation in Industry (pp. 189-194). UK: Taylor and Francis.
8. Brooks, L. W., & Dansereau, D. F. (1983). Effects of structural schema training and text organization on expository prose processing. Journal of Educational Psychology, 75(6), 811-820.
9. Burbules, N. C. (1998). Rhetorics of the Web: Hyperreading and critical literacy. In I. Snyder (Ed.), Page to Screen: Taking Literacy into the Electronic Era (pp. 102-122). New York: Routledge.
10. Conklin, J. (1987). Hypertext: an introduction and survey. Computer, 20(9), 17-41.
11. Conway, M. A., & Dewhurst, S. A. (1995). Remembering, familiarity, and source monitoring. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 48a(1), 125-140.
12. Cress, U., & Knabel, O. B. (2003). Previews in hypertexts: effects on navigation and knowledge acquisition. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19, 517-527. (Pubitemid 38422743
13. Dalal, N. P., Quible, Z., & Wyatt, K. (2000). Cognitive design of home pages: an experimental study of comprehension on the World Wide Web. Information Processing & Management, 36(4), 607-621.
14. Degand, L., & Sanders, T. (2002). The impact of relational markers on expository text comprehension in L1 and L2. Reading and Writing, 15(7-8), 739-758.
15. Dumais, S. T., & Landauer, T. K. (1983). Using examples to describe categories. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 112-115). Boston: ACM.
16. Eysenck, M. W., & Keanne, M. T. (1990). Cognitive Psychology: A Student's Handbook. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
17. Fraser, F., & Locatis, C. (2001). Effects of link annotations on search performance in layered and unlayered hierarchically organized information spaces. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 52(14), 1255-1261.
18. Harp, S. F., & Mayer, R. E. (1998). How seductive details do their damage: A theory of cognitive interest in science learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90(3), 414-434.
19. Hartley, J. (1987). Designing electronic text: the role of printbased research. Educational Communication and Technology, 34(1), 3-17.
20. Hartley, J., Kenely, J., Owen, G., & Trueman, M. (1980). The effect of headings on children's recall from prose text. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 50(3), 304-307.
21. Huhmann, B. A., Mothersbaugh, D. L., & Franke, G. R. (2002). Rhetorical figures in headings and their effect on text processing: the moderating roles of information relevance and text length. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 45(3), 157-169.
22. Hyona, J., & Lorch, R. F. (2004). Effects of topic headings on text processing: evidence from adult readers' eye fixation patterns. Learning and Instruction, 14(2), 131-152.
23. Kamalski, J., Sanders, T. J. M., & Lentz, L. (in press). Coherence marking, prior knowledge and comprehension of informative and persuasive texts: Sorting things out. Discourse Processes.
24. Kintsch, W. (1998). Comprehension: A Paradigm for Cognition. New York: Cambridge University Press.
25. Koved, L., & Shneiderman, B. (1986). Embedded menus: Selecting items in context. Communications of the ACM, 29(4), 312-318.
26. Lee, E., Whalen, T., McEwen, S., & Latremouille, S. (1984). Optimizing the design of menu pages for information retrieval. Ergonomics, 27, 1051-1069.
27. Lorch, R. F., & Lorch, E. P. (1996a). Effects of organizational signals on free recall of expository prose. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88(1), 38-48.
28. Lorch, R. F., & Lorch, E. P. (1996b). Effects of headings on text recall and summarization. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 21, 261-278.
29. Lorch, R. F., Lorch, E. P., McGovern, L., & Coleman, D. (2001). Effects of headings on text summarization. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 16(2) 171-191.
30. McDaniel, M. A., Einstein, G. O., & Lollis, T. (1988). Qualitative and quantitative considerations in encoding difficulty effects. Memory and Cognition, 16(1), 8-14.
31. McNamara, D. S., Kintsch, E., Songer, N. B., & Kintsch, W. (1996). Are good texts always better? Interactions of text coherence, background knowledge, and levels of understanding in learning from text. Cognition and Instruction, 14(1), 1-43.
32. Mobrand, K., & Spyridakis, J. H. (2007). Explicitness of local navigational links: Comprehension, perceptions of use, and browsing behaviour. Journal of Information Science, 33(1), 41-61.
33. Mullen, D., & Koester, A. (1975). LaREC; Language through Recreation. A Handbook for Program Developers. Prince Albert, Saskatchewan: Information Canada.
34. Muller-Kalthoff, T., & Moller, J. (2003). The effects of graphical overviews, prior knowledge, and self-concept on hypertext disorientation and learning achievement. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 12(2), 117-134.
35. Murray, J. D., & McGlone, C. (1997). Topic overviews and the processing of topic structure. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89(2), 251-261.
36. Niederhauser, D. S., Reynolds, R. E., Salmen, D. J., & Skolmoski, P. (2000). The influence of cognitive load on learning from hypertext. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 23(3), 237-255.
37. Nielsen, J. (1998). Using link titles to help users predict where they are going. Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for January 11, 1998. http://www.useit.com/ alertbox/980111.html.
38. Potelle, H., & Rouet, J. F. (2003). Effects of content representation and readers' prior knowledge on the comprehension of hypertext. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 58(3), 327-345.
39. Puntambekar, S., Stylianou, A., & Hubscher, R. (2003). Improving navigation and learning in hypertext environments with navigable concept maps. Human-Computer Interaction, 18(4), 395-428.
40. Salmeron, L., Canas, J. J., Kintsch, W., & Fjardo, I. (2005). Reading strategies and hypertext comprehension. Discourse Processes, 40(3), 171-191.
41. Sanchez, R. P., Lorch, E. P., & Lorch, R. F. (2001). Effects of headings on text processing strategies. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 26(3), 418-428.
42. Sanders, T. J. M., & Noordman, L. G. M. (2000). The role of coherence relations and their linguistic markers in text processing. Discourse Processes, 29(1), 37-60.
43. Schraw, G. (1998). Processing and recall differences among seductive details. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90(1), 3-12.
44. Schultz, L. D., & Spyridakis, J. H. (2004). The effect of heading frequency on comprehension of online information: A study of two populations. Technical Communication, 51(4), 504-516.
45. Snowberry, K., Parkinson, S. R., & Sisson, N. (1985). Effects of help fields on navigating through hierarchical menu structures. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 22(4), 479-491.
46. Spool, J., Scanlon, T., Schroeder, W., Snyder, C., & DeAngelo, T. (1997). Web Site Usability: A Designer's Guide. North Andover: User Interface Engineering.
47. Spyridakis, J. H. (1989a). Signaling effects: a review of the research-part I. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 19(3), 227-240.
48. Spyridakis, J. H. (1989b). Signaling effects: increased content retention and new answers-part II. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 19(4), 395-415.
49. Spyridakis, J. H. (1991). An emerging model of signaling effects. Technical Communication, 38(4), 600-603.
50. Spyridakis, J. H. (2000). Guidelines for authoring comprehensible Web pages and evaluating their success. Technical Communication, 47(3), 359-382.
51. Spyridakis, J. H., Wei, C., Barrick, J., Cuddihy, E., & Maust, B. (2005). Internet-based research: providing a foundation for Web design guidelines. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 48(3), 242-260.
52. Thuring, M., Hannemann, J., & Haake, J. M. (1995). Hypermedia and cognition: designing for comprehension. Communications of the ACM, 38(8), 57-66.
53. Vora, P. R., Helander, M. G., & Shalin, V. (1994). Evaluating the influence of interface styles and multiple access paths in hypertext. Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI94 (pp. 323-329). Boston, MA: Association for Computing Machinery.
54. Waller, R. (1982). Text as diagram: using typography to improve access and understanding. In D.H. Jonassen (Ed.), The Technology of Text: Principles for Structuring, Designing and Displaying Text (pp. 137-166). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Ed Tech Publications.
55. Wei, C. Y., Evans, M. B., Eliot, M., Barrick, J., Maust, B., & Spyridakis, J. H. (2005). Influencing web browsing behaviour with intriguing and informative hyperlink wording. Journal of Information Science, 31(5), 433-445.
56. Welsh, T. M., Murphy, K. P., Duffy, T. M., & Goodrum, D. A. (1993). Accessing elaborations on core information in a hypermedia environment. Educational Technology Research and Development, 41(2), 19-34.
57. Zhao, Z., O'Shea, T., & Fung, P. (1994). The effects of visible linktypes on learning in the hypertext environment: an empirical study. Computers in the Schools, 10(3/4), 353-370.