Influence of spatial ability in navigation: using look-ahead breadcrumbs on The Web
by Ishtiaq Ahmed, James Blustein
International Journal of Web Based Communities (IJWBC), Vol. 2, No. 2, 2006

Abstract: Breadcrumbs are a type of navigational aid intended to help users of large well-structured websites by providing information about the location of the current webpage within the site's structure. The phenomenon of user disorientation (feeling lost) when using hypertext in abstract information-rich environments such as WWW-based directories is well known. Earlier experiments have been unable to explain why visual mediators that improve navigation for people with lower Spatial Ability (SA) seems to have the opposite effect for other people. Results from our experiment indicate that spatial ability influenced navigation efficiency in navigating a vast hierarchical website. Users in the higher SA group were more efficient and had a different (marginally significant) preference for website's breadcrumbs over the browser's Back button. There was no significant difference for time or accuracy between the two groups. Those results suggest that users with lower SA use different approaches to navigating websites than others.

Online publication date: Thu, 13-Jul-2006

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Web Based Communities (IJWBC):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

    Username:        Password:         

Forgotten your password?


Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com