A flexible interface design for Web directories to accommodate different cognitive styles: Research Articles

  • Authors:

  • Sherry Y. Chen;George D. Magoulas;Dionisios Dimakopoulos

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Information Systems and Computing, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, United Kingdom;School of Computer Science and Information Systems, Birkbeck College, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, United Kingdom;School of Computer Science and Information Systems, Birkbeck College, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, United Kingdom

  • Venue:
  • Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

Search engines are very popular tools for collecting information from distributed resources. They provide not only search facilities, but they also offer directories for users to browse content divided into groups. In this paper, we've adopted an individual differences approach to explore user's attitudes towards various interface features provided by existing Web directories. Among a variety of individual differences, cognitive style is a particularly important characteristic that influences the effectiveness of information seeking. Empirical results indicate that users' cognitive styles influence their reactions to the organization of subject categories, presentation of the results, and screen layout. We developed a set of design guidelines on the basis of these results, and propose a flexible interface that adopts these guidelines to accommodate the preferences of different cognitive style groups. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.