Investigating the Effect of Hyperlink Information Scent on Users' Interaction with a Web Site

Authors:
Nikolaos Tselios;Christos Katsanos;Nikolaos Avouris
Affiliations:
Human-Computer Interaction Group, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Patras, Rio Patras, Greece GR-265 00;Human-Computer Interaction Group, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Patras, Rio Patras, Greece GR-265 00;Human-Computer Interaction Group, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Patras, Rio Patras, Greece GR-265 00
Venue:
INTERACT '09 Proceedings of the 12th IFIP TC 13 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Part II
Year:
2009

Citing 7
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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".