Authors:

Joon Kim - jyk@wam.umd.edu
Ya-Shian Li - liya@wam.umd.edu
Natalie Moy - nmoy@wam.umd.edu
Mike Ni - mike_ni@yahoo.com

Abstract

Web site navigation has become a significant issue in web usability. As the information load of the Internet continues to grow, it becomes difficult to find the target information sought by the user. As a case study, we examine the E-Maryland site to determine the usability of the site’s menus and site navigational structure. Several issues are considered. The original main portal into the site contains an interactive menu where the icons react to mouse over interactions. However, studies have shown that a static index is more efficient for expert Internet users. Another issue of navigational efficiency involves the structure of the site. Currently, the site has a deep structure, where most of the links are about four levels from the index. The study includes the original version, a static index menu and narrow, deep structure version, and a static index with a broad, shallow structure version. The time it takes to find a specified link is used as a performance metric. In this study of 24 subjects, the results from the static index with a broad structure version of the E-Maryland site were statistically significant and indicated that this version produced the lowest search times. However, users preferred the visual appeal of the original version.