Abstract
In the past decade, the World Wide Web has been subject to dramatic changes. Web sites have evolved from static information resources to dynamic and interactive applications that are used for a broad scope of activities on a daily basis. To examine the consequences of these changes on user behavior, we conducted a long-term client-side Web usage study with twenty-five participants. This report presents results of this study and compares the user behavior with previous long-term browser usage studies, which range in age from seven to thirteen years. Based on the empirical data and the interview results, various implications for the interface design of browsers and Web sites are discussed.
A major finding is the decreasing prominence of backtracking in Web navigation. This can largely be attributed to the increasing importance of dynamic, service-oriented Web sites. Users do not navigate on these sites searching for information, but rather interact with an online application to complete certain tasks. Furthermore, the usage of multiple windows and tabs has partly replaced back button usage, posing new challenges for user orientation and backtracking. We found that Web browsing is a rapid activity even for pages with substantial content, which calls for page designs that allow for cursory reading. Click maps provide additional information on how users interact with the Web on page level. Finally, substantial differences were observed between users, and characteristic usage patterns for different types of Web sites emphasize the need for more adaptive and customizable Web browsers.
- Abrams, D., Baecker, R., and Chignell, M. 1998. Information archiving with bookmarks: personal Web space construction and organization. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'98), Los Angeles, CA, ACM Press, 41--48. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Baker, K. R. 2003. The impact of paging vs. scrolling on reading online text passages. Usability News 5, 1. http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/51/paging_scrolling.htm.Google Scholar
- Barrett, R., Maglio, P. P., and Kellem, D. C. 1997. How to personalize the Web. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '97), Atlanta, GA: ACM Press, 75--82. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Bernard, M., Baker, K. R., and Fernandez, M. 2002. Paging vs. scrolling: Looking for the best way to present search results. Usability News 4, 1. http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/41/paging.htm.Google Scholar
- Capra, R. and Pérez-Quiñones, M. 2003. Re-finding found things: An exploratory study of how users re-find information. Tech. Rep. cs.HC/0310011, Computing Research Repository (CoRR).Google Scholar
- Catledge, L. D. and Pitkow, J. E. 1995. Characterizing browsing strategies in the World-Wide Web. Comput. Netw. ISDN Syst. 27, 6, 1065--1073. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Chisholm, W., Vanderheiden, G., and Jacobs, I. 1999. Web content accessibility guidelines 1.0. World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation. http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/.Google Scholar
- Cho, J. and Garcia-Molina, H. 2000. The evolution of the Web and implications for an incremental crawler. In Proceedings of 26th International Conference on Very Large Databases. Cairo, Egypt. 200--209. http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/cho00evolution.html. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Choo, C. W., Detlor, B., and Turnbull, D. 2000. Information seeking on the Web: An integrated model of browsing and searching. First Monday Online J. 5, 2. http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue5_2/choo/index.html.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Cockburn, A. and Mckenzie, B. 2001. What do Web users do? An empirical analysis of Web use. Inter. J. Hum.-Comput. Stud. 54, 6, 903--922. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Cockburn, A., Mckenzie, B., and Jasonsmith, M. 2002. Pushing back: Evaluating a new behavior for the back and forward buttons in Web browsers. Inter. J. Hum.-Comput. Stud. 57, 5, 397--414. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Conklin, J. 1987. Hypertext: An introduction and survey. IEEE Comput. 20, 9, 17--41. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Cunha, C. R., Bestavros, A., and Crovella, M. E. 1995. Characteristics of WWW client-based traces. Tech. Rep. BU-CS-95-010, Computer Science Departments, Boston University. http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/44710. Google ScholarDigital Library
- ECMA-262. 1999. ECMAScript language definition. ECMA International. http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ecma-st/ECMA-262.pdfGoogle Scholar
- Fetterly, D., Manasse, D., Najork, D., and Wiener, J. 2003. A large-scale study of the evolution of Web pages. In Proceedings of the 12th International World Wide Web Conference. Budapest, Hungary, 669--678. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Greenberg, S. and Cockburn, A. 1999. Getting back to back: Alternate behaviors for a Web browser's back button. In Proceedings of 5th Human Factors and the Web Conference, Austin, TX.Google Scholar
- Haas, S. W. and Grams, E. S. 1998. A link taxonomy for Web pages. In Proceedings of the 61st Annual Meeting of the Information Access in the Global Information Economy (ASIS'98). Information Today, Medford, NJ, 485--495.Google Scholar
- Halasz, F. G. 1988. Reflections on notecards: Seven issues for the next generation of hypertext systems. Commun. ACM 31, 7, 836--852. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Herder, E. 2006. Forward, back and home again---analyzing user behavior on the web. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Twente, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
- Hoffman, M. 1997. Enabling extremely rapid navigation in your web or document, 2nd Version, (Dec.) http://www.hypertextnavigation.com/infoaxcs.htm.Google Scholar
- Hyams, J. and Sellen, A. 2003. Gathering and sharing web-based information: Implications for ePerson concepts. HP Labs: Tech. rep. HPL-2003-19.Google Scholar
- Hyatt, D. 2001. XML user interface language (XUL) 1.0. technical specification, Mozilla project. http://www.mozilla.org/projects/xul/xul.html.Google Scholar
- ISO 9241/110. 2006. Ergonomics of human-system interaction---Part 110: Dialogue principles. International Standards Organization.Google Scholar
- Jansen, B. J. and Pooch, U. W. 2000. A review of Web searching studies and a framework for future research. J. ASIS 52, 3, 235--246. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Jansen, B. J., Spink, A., and Saracevic, T. 2000. Real life, real users and real needs: A study and analysis of user queries on the Web. Inform. Proc. Manag. 36, 2, 207--227. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Jansen, B. J. and Spink, A. 2005. How are we searching the World Wide Web? A comparison of nine search engine transaction logs. Inform. Proc. Manag. 42, 248--263. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Jones, W., Bruce, H., and Dumais, S. 2001. Keeping found things found on the Web. In Proceedings of 10th International Conference Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM), 119--134. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kaasten, S. and Greenberg, S. 2001. Integrating back, history and bookmarks in Web browsers. In Extended Abstracts of Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'01), Seattle, WA. 379--380. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kehoe, C., Pitkow, J., Sutton, K., Aggarwal, G., and Rogers, J. 1998. 10th GVU WWW user survey. http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys/survey-1998-10.Google Scholar
- Kellar, M., Watters, C., and Inkpen, K. M. 2007. An exploration of Web-based monitoring: Implications for design. In Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'07), San Jose, CA, 377--386 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Knight, A., Pyrzak, G., and Gree, C. 2007. When two methods are better than one: Combining user study with cognitive modeling. In (CHI'07) Experience Reports, ACM Press, 1783--1788 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Lynch, P. J. and Horton, S. 2002. Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites. Yale University Press, Yale. Google ScholarDigital Library
- McKenzie, B. and Cockburn, A. 2001. An empirical analysis of Web page revisitation. In Proceedings of Howai International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'01), Maui, Hawaii. IEEE Computer Society Press, 501--509. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Meschkat, S. and Mittleman, J. 2007. Keeping the Web in Web 2.0: An HCI approach to designing Web applications. CHI 2007 Course, http://ajaxchi.googlepages.com/.Google Scholar
- Milic-Frailing, N., Jones, R., Rodder, K., Smyth, G., Blackwell, A., and Sommerer, R. 2004. Smartback: Supporting users in back navigation. In Proceedings of 13th International World Wide Web Conference. ACM Press, 63--71. http://www2004.org/proceedings/docs/1p63.pdf. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Morkes, J. and Nielsen, J. 1997. Concise, SCANNABLE, and objective: How to write for the web, Sun Microsystems. http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html.Google Scholar
- Moyle, M. and Cockburn, A. 2003. The design and evaluation of a flick gesture for “back” and “forward” in Web browsers. In Proceedings of the 4th Australasian User Interface Conference. Adelaide, Australia. 39--46. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Nicholas, D., Huntington, P., Jamali, H. R. and Tenopir, C. 2006. What deep log analysis tells us about the impact of big deals: Case study OhioLINK, J. Document. 62, 4, 482--508Google ScholarCross Ref
- Nielsen, J. 1997. The tyranny of the page: Continued lack of decent navigation support in version 4 browsers. Useit Alertbox, Nielsen Norman Group. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9711a.html.Google Scholar
- Nielsen, J. 2004. The need for Web design standards. Useit Alertbox, Nielsen Norman Group. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20040913.html.Google Scholar
- Nielsen, J. 2005. Ten best intranets of 2005. Useit Alertbox, Nielsen Norman Group. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20050228.html.Google Scholar
- Nielsen, J. 2006. F-shaped pattern for reading web content. Useit Alertbox, Nielsen Norman Group. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html.Google Scholar
- Nielsen, J. 2006b. Screen resolution and page layout. Useit Alertbox, Nielsen Norman Group. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/screen_resolution.html.Google Scholar
- Obendorf, H., Weinreich, H., and Hass, T. 2004. Automatic support for Web user studies with SCONE and TEA. In Extended Abstracts of CHI'04. Vienna, Austria. 1135--1138. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Obendorf, H., Weinreich, H., Herder, E., and Mayer, M. 2007. Web page revisitation revisited: Implications of a long-term click-stream study of browser usage. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'07). San Jose, CA. 597-- 606. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Ottaway, M. 2004. Nielsen/Netratings data support TVNZ's widescreen Web decision. Nielsen/Netratings. http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_040504_nz.pdf.Google Scholar
- Outing, S. and Ruel, L. 2004. The best of Eyetrack III: What we saw when we looked through their eyes. Eyetrack III, http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/main.htm.Google Scholar
- Peterson, E. 2004. Which screen resolution should you be using? Jupiterresearch Analyst Weblogs. http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/peterson/archives/003965.html.Google Scholar
- Pitkow, J. E. 1998. Summary of WWW characterizations. The Web J. 2, 1, 3--13. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Rose, D., and Levinson, D. 2004. Understanding user goals in Web search. In Proceedings of 13th International Conference on World Wide Web. ACM Press. 13--19. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Schmidt-Maenz, N. and Koch, M. 2006. A general classification of (search) queries and terms. In Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations. Las Vegas, NV. IEEE Xplore, 375--381. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Sellen, A. J., Murphy, R. M., and Shaw, K. 2002. How knowledge workers use the Web. In Proceedings of SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'02), Minneapolis, MN. ACM Press, 227--234. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Shrestha, S. and Lenz, K. 2007. Eye gaze patterns while searching vs. browsing a Website. Usability News 9, 1, January 2007, Software Usability Research Lab, Wichita State University.Google Scholar
- Spiliopoulou, M., Mobasher, B., Berendt, B., and Nakagawa, M. 2003. A framework for the evaluation of session reconstruction heuristics in Web usage analysis. INFORMS J. Comput. 15, 2, 171--190. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Spool, J., Scanlon, T., Schroeder, W., Snyder, C., and Deangelo, T. 1998. Web Site Usability: A Designer's Guide. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, CA. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Tauscher, L. and Greenberg, S. 1997. How people revisit Web pages: Empirical findings and implications for the design of history systems. Inter. J. Hum. Comput. Studies 47, 1, 97--138. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Teevan, J., Alvarado, C., Acherman, M., and Karger, D. 2004. The perfect search engine is not enough: A study of orienteering behavior in directed search. In Proceedings of SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'04). Vienna, Austria. ACM Press, 415-- 422. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Teevan, J., Adar, E., Jones, R., and Potts, M. 2006. History repeats itself: Repeat queries in Yahoo's logs. In Proceedings of the 29th Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference (SIGIR'06). (Poster Sessions), Seattle, WA, 703--704. Google ScholarDigital Library
- The Counter, 2007. Global Screen Resolution Statistics. Jupitermedia Corporation.Google Scholar
- University of Southern California. 2007. Digital Future Report. Annenberg School, Center for the Digital Future. http://www.digitalcenter.org/pages/current_report.asp?intGlobalId=19.Google Scholar
- Weinreich, H. and Lamersdorf, W. 2003. Eine Umfrage zu Link- und Objekt-Attributen im Web. In Proceedings of Mensch und Computer. Stuttgart, Germany. Teubner Verlag, 387--390. http://vsis-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/getDoc.php/publications/121/weinreich-umfrage-2003.pdf.Google Scholar
- Weinreich, H., Obendorf, H., and Herder, E. 2006. Data cleaning methods for client and proxy logs. In Proceedings of the Workshop of the World Wide Web Conference. Edinburgh, UK. http://torch.cs.dal.ca/~www2006/Workshop_submissions.html.Google Scholar
- White, R. W. and Drucker, S. M. 2007. Investigating behavioral variability in Web search. In Proceedings of 16th International World Wide Web Conference 2007. Banff, Canada. ACM Press, 21--30. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- Not quite the average: An empirical study of Web use
Recommendations
Web page revisitation revisited: implications of a long-term click-stream study of browser usage
CHI '07: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsThis paper presents results of an extensive long-term click-stream study of Web browser usage. Focusing on character and challenges of page revisitation, previous findings from seven to thirteen years ago are updated. The term page re-visit had to be ...
Off the beaten tracks: exploring three aspects of web navigation
WWW '06: Proceedings of the 15th international conference on World Wide WebThis 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 ...
A study of tabbed browsing among mozilla firefox users
CHI '10: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsWe present a study which investigated how and why users of Mozilla Firefox use multiple tabs and windows during web browsing. The detailed web browsing usage of 21 participants was logged over a period of 13 to 21 days each, and was supplemented by ...
Comments