To date, hypertext and hypermedia research has principally studied the influence of separate features of hypermedia texts on information retrieval. By contrast, this thesis explores the meanings of hypermedia texts and the effects of these meanings on free website exploration. In particular, the study focuses on those meanings which can reveal how information is organised in websites and on the construal of such meanings through the interplay of hyperlinks, visual, verbal, audio and kinetic resources in generically hybrid hypermedia texts. This focus is motivated by research showing that understanding how information is organised in hypermedia texts is crucial for users' successful orientation within them. To achieve its aim, this research studies six websites for children and the navigation paths of fourteen children through one of them, and draws on interviews with the websites' producers and the children. The thesis connects the professional field of hypermedia design with systemic functional theory and systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis (SF MDA). As a result, it offers two tools for hypermedia discourse analysis, which are based on and illustrated through the analyses of five of the websites. The first is the system of HYPERTEXTUAL DISTANCE. Designed to analyse the potential of hyperlinks to reveal, obscure or transcend the textual organisation of a website, this system is built by reconceptualising from a SF MDA perspective a central principle for organising information in websites - website hierarchy. The second tool is the framework for analysing logicosemantic relations in hypermedia. Its categories describe the ideational relations that hold together information presented on the same webpage or on different webpages, which may or may not be hyperlinked with each other. Through the analyses of the sixth website and the navigation paths through it, the thesis exemplifies how both tools, independently and together, can be employed to explore the interdependence of website design and navigation. The discussion of selected results from these analyses, supported by the views of the research participants, identifies ways in which the tools proposed in this thesis can be applied in hypermedia design, evaluation and literacy education and complemented with other tools for hypermedia discourse analysis.

This thesis investigates the visual aesthetic performance of Web sites. An experiment was conducted in which a Web site, designed with three controlled levels of 'visual enrichment', was evaluated on a number of measures by two subject groups. The measures used represent facets of the Categorical-Motivation model of aesthetics, plus others directly related to the performance of Web sites. The results of the experiment indicate that the drivers of site evaluation were primarily exploratory variables that represent 'novelty', 'interest' and 'fun'. This supports the argument that an important question to consider when designing a Web site is not merely 'can the site's audience use the Web site?', but also 'does the site's audience want to use the Web site?' Visual, audio and interactive appeal are, as the findings show, very important design considerations. This research adds to a body of knowledge that seeks to understand aesthetic phenomena and develops a theoretical framework that will prove useful for the investigation of visual interfaces.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, August, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Mémoire de master en sciences de l'information et des bibliothèques : services documentaires numériques : Villeurbanne, ENSSIB : 2007. / Texte intégral. Résumé en français et en anglais. PEEP : Parents d'élèves de l'école publique. Bibliogr. f. 45. Sitographie : 45-46.

The use of mobile devices to access the World Wide Web is becoming more prevalent. When browsing webpages on small-screen devices, it is difficult to locate information of interest since the limited screen space can be fully packed with information. Also, browsing Web tables on small-screen devices is a non-trivial problem. To fit a large table in a small-screen device, the association between data values and their corresponding headers may be disrupted. It is difficult to locate information accurately if the data meanings are lost. For visually impaired users, the problem is even more challenging. Sequential presentation of the webpage by a screen reader is too time-consuming if the information of interest is placed at or near the end of the webpage. Therefore, there is a need to re-organize useful information in webpages in order to enhance information finding on small-screen devices. In this thesis, various adaptations are proposed by exploring and exploiting relationships between Web elements in the webpage. In the current literature, some proposed heuristics are based on specific HTML elements, which cannot be generalized. Some other algorithms assume a correct DOM structure, which would fail if the webpage is not properly marked up. Many algorithms extract blocks without assigning them the proper titles. A gap needs to be filled, such that extracted blocks will be given a proper title through exploring the relationships between semantic elements. In this thesis, I propose to integrate relationship analysis and DOM-tree structure traversal for identifying logical sections together with their section headings. By extracting all the section headings, a table of content can be constructed to provide direct access to interested sections in an efficient way. Relationship analysis is a critical complement to the DOM structure for identifying the semantic content hierarchy when a webpage is not properly marked up. By exploring relationships between table cells, the structure of an unstructured Web table can be extracted. The semantic meanings of the data values are retained by preserving the data values and their corresponding headers. A novel way of accessing a webpage, which converts the page itself and its Web table into menu-based presentation, is then proposed. Converting the webpage into an Interactive Voice Response System introduces yet another mode of access which can enhance the accessibility of the webpage. In addition to improving mobile accessibility, the proposed adaptations can also benefit the visually impaired users. Experiments show that the average effectiveness and efficiency of adaptation with direct access are improved by 18% and 15% respectively, which are clearly better than the case without adaptation. Also, by adapting the Web table into a series of menu pages, the effectiveness and efficiency are improved by 61% and 37% respectively. For the evaluations with visually impaired users, the adaptation with direct access can greatly improve efficiency by 85%. Some complicated Web tables in fact could not be properly interpreted by visually impaired users; the Web table adaptation makes them accessible. Information finding indeed becomes more efficient and effective when using the adapted versions. / published_or_final_version / Computer Science / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

They say marriages are made in heaven, but in today’s digital, wired world, they are increasingly made online. But they still have to be solemnized in the offline world, especially in India, where the entire extended family is involved in the sacred process. It is this echoing sentiment in the Indian cultural code that is driving singles to matrimonial Web sites – creating a concept where tradition marries technology. And despite the constant evolution of these sites that include membership fees and increased risk of the misuse of personal information displayed in members’ profiles, there are more users now than ever before. / text

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Thesis (MBus) -- Auckland University of Technology, 2002. / Also held in print (46 leaves, ill., 30 cm.) in Wellesley Theses Collection. (T 338.47910688 VAN)

Thesis (M.S.E.)--University of Wisconsin -- La Crosse, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.