Major research studies have provided support for information scent based usability evaluation and have increased its parent theory's (Information Foraging theory) credibility in the HCI community. These studies have, directly and indirectly, found significant correlations between good information scent and good usability. We would like to investigate its application to less-studied platforms, such as web pages on PDAs and cell phones. The theory itself is not device specific and it implicitly assumes that information scent's importance is universal. However, all studies on the practical application of Information Foraging theory have been conducted with desktop computers. We would like to examine what role information scent plays in interfaces on mobile devices that are limited in usable screen space. For this project, we performed a controlled study with 28 participants on the BBC News web site and its PDA-optimized version. Various usability and information scent related indicators were measured and compared across devices. Contrary to our expectations, we did not find any statistically significant differences between the information scent indicators of the Desktop and PDA sessions and the paths across the devices were highly correlated. / Master of Science

<p>Detta arbete har utförts i samarbete med företaget <em>Compute</em> och fokuserar på att utveckla navigationsstöd för webbportaler med bokningssystem. Arbetet har delats upp i tre specifika mål: (1) integrera <em>Information Foraging Theory</em> (IFT) och <em>Graphical User Interface principles</em> (GUI-principer) genom att applicera dessa vid utvecklng av navigation för webbportaler med bokningssystem (2) konkretisera hur navigering kan förbättras på en webbportal med bokningssystem, utifrån ovanstående teroier och (3) arbetet skall resultera i en lista med rekommendationer som kan tillämpas vid utveckling av navigation. För att kunna  integrera IFT och GUI-principer har dessa i kombination med en teroertisk studie tillämpats vid prototyping. Prototyperna användes som verktyg för att konkretisera hur navigationen kunde förbättras på portalen. Prototyperna utvärderades och resulterade i en lista med rekommendationer. Resultaten från utvärderingen påvisade att en integrering av GUI-principer och IFT kan förbättra nvigationsförhållanden på en webbportal. Arbetes främsta bidrag är listan med rekommendationer som skall kunna tillämpas vid navigationsutveckling.</p><p> </p>

This dissertation sought to explain goal achievement at limited traffic “long tail” Web sites using Information Foraging Theory (IFT). The central thesis of IFT is that individuals are driven by a metaphorical sense of smell that guides them through patches of information in their environment. An information patch is an area of the search environment with similar information. Information scent is the driving force behind why a person makes a navigational selection amongst a group of competing options. As foragers are assumed to be rational, scent is a mechanism by which to reduce search costs by increasing the accuracy on which option leads to the information of value. IFT was originally developed to be used in a “production rule” environment, where a user would perform an action when the conditions of a rule were met. However, the use of IFT in clickstream research required conceptualizing the ideas of information scent and patches in a non-production rule environment. To meet such an end this dissertation asked three research questions regarding (1) how to learn information patches, (2) how to learn trails of scent, and finally (3) how to combine both concepts to create a Clickstream Model of Information Foraging (CMIF). The learning of patches and trails were accomplished by using contrast sets, which distinguished between individuals who achieved a goal or not. A user- and site-centric version of the CMIF, which extended and operationalized IFT, presented and evaluated hypotheses. The user-centric version had four hypotheses and examined product purchasing behavior from panel data, whereas the site-centric version had nine hypotheses and predicted contact form submission using data from a Web hosting company. In general, the results show that patches and trails exist on several Web sites, and the majority of hypotheses were supported in each version of the CMIF. This dissertation contributed to the literature by providing a theoretically-grounded model which tested and extended IFT; introducing a methodology for learning patches and trails; detailing a methodology for preprocessing clickstream data for long tail Web sites; and focusing on traditionally under-studied long tail Web sites.

Detta arbete har utförts i samarbete med företaget Compute och fokuserar på att utveckla navigationsstöd för webbportaler med bokningssystem. Arbetet har delats upp i tre specifika mål: (1) integrera Information Foraging Theory (IFT) och Graphical User Interface principles (GUI-principer) genom att applicera dessa vid utvecklng av navigation för webbportaler med bokningssystem (2) konkretisera hur navigering kan förbättras på en webbportal med bokningssystem, utifrån ovanstående teroier och (3) arbetet skall resultera i en lista med rekommendationer som kan tillämpas vid utveckling av navigation. För att kunna  integrera IFT och GUI-principer har dessa i kombination med en teroertisk studie tillämpats vid prototyping. Prototyperna användes som verktyg för att konkretisera hur navigationen kunde förbättras på portalen. Prototyperna utvärderades och resulterade i en lista med rekommendationer. Resultaten från utvärderingen påvisade att en integrering av GUI-principer och IFT kan förbättra nvigationsförhållanden på en webbportal. Arbetes främsta bidrag är listan med rekommendationer som skall kunna tillämpas vid navigationsutveckling.

No description available.

Internet portals are increasingly becoming a primary source of information. A portal is a gateway to information on the Internet or a hub from which users may locate relevant information (Strauss, 2000). Because university Web sites have various user classes, universities are beginning to adopt the portal concept for their Web sites. The study conducted aimed to determine the effect of tailoring information content and presentation style on a university Web portal. User ratings of information design on three metrics and user task performance measures of time and errors were compared for four prototypes. Three prototypes were built on the basis of user requirements and two Human-computer Interaction (HCI) theories and one was a replica of an existing academic information portal. The three metrics were derived from the HCI theories. The contributions of the study are a determination of user acceptance of and user performance with the tailored presentation styles and three metrics derived from HCI theories that can be used to compare alternative information presentation styles for portals. An important contribution is the remote data collection technique that was used in the study and a time-stamping technique that recorded clicks on hyperlinks. / Master of Science

No description available.