David R. Danielson’s research while affiliated with Stanford University and other places

No Abstract. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61241/1/1440410114_ftp.pdf

In this study 2,684 people evaluated the credibility of two live Web sites on a similar topic (such as health sites). We gathered the comments people wrote about each siteís credibility and analyzed the comments to find out what features of a Web site get noticed when people evaluate credibility. We found that the ìdesign lookî of the site was mentioned most frequently, being present in 46.1% of the comments. Next most common were comments about information structure and information focus. In this paper we share sample participant comments in the top 18 areas that people noticed when evaluating Web site credibility. We discuss reasons for the prominence of design look, point out how future studies can build on what we have learned in this new line of research, and outline six design implications for human-computer interaction professionals.

Understanding the specific nature of disorientation in hyperspace will benefit from a battery of characterizations of the space being navigated, the user navigating the space, and their interaction. This study focuses on a particular consideration for understanding the "lost-in-hyperspace" problem, namely "transitional volatility". Metrics investigated in relation to disorientation and Web site mental models include: 1) the navigational and content changes of a Web site's interface in page-to-page transitions, and 2) the users' ability to reorient themselves to these changes. Metrics to relate to disorientation and Web site mental models include the extent to which 1) a navigation session is volatile, 2) a user is typically habituated in navigation patches, and 3) a user can predict navigation support changes at destination pages. The primary concern of the study was the effects of the navigational volatility on disorientation and Website mental models for two common hierarchical navigational schemes: partial overview and local context support. The results suggest an interesting pattern of interaction effects: When users are provided with partial overview navigation support, navigational volatility predicts increased disorientation, decreased perceived global coherence and decreased ease of navigation. In contrast, when provided with a more locally focused navigation scheme, navigational volatility predicts increased perceived site size and increased perceived global coherence. The results generally supported a model with a direct causal link from navigational volatility to disorientation.

Knowledge regarding how Web information-seekers behave with respect to the structures and cues they are provided with may shed light on general principles of navigation in electronic spaces, and assist designers in making more informed structural decisions. This study examines user movement through hierarchically structured Web sites and the behavioral effects of a constantly visible, textual contents list for relatively small sites or more extensive local views than are generally used on the Web today. The site overview resulted in users abandoning fewer information-seeking tasks. Users with such context dig deeper into the site structure, make less use of the browser's Back button, and frequently make navigational movements of great hierarchical distances. Navigational correlates of success and reported confidence for users with the overview differ from those without such context. Both with and without a constant overview, the relationship between the source and destination pages may help predict the amount of time spent at the destination. Experimental reports are preceded by a review of click-stream navigation behavior research.