The tangled Web we wove: a taskonomy of WWW use

  • Authors:
  • Michael D. Byrne;Bonnie E. John;Neil S. Wehrle;David C. Crow

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA;Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA;School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA;Trilogy Development Group, 6034 West Courtyard Dr., Austin, TX

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
  • Year:
  • 1999

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Abstract

A prerequisite to the effective design of user interfaces is anunderstanding of the tasks for which that interface will actuallybe used. Surprisingly little task analysis has appeared for one ofthe most discussed and fastest-growing computer applications,browsing the World-Wide Web (WWW). Based on naturally-collectedverbal protocol data, we present a taxonomy of tasks undertaken onthe WWW. The data reveal that several previous claims aboutbrowsing behavior are questionable, and suggests that thatwidget-centered approaches to interface design and evaluation maybe incomplete with respect to good user interfaces for the Web.