© 2002 jason withrow choosing the best path: techniques for assessing and improving information...

© 2002 Jason Withrow

Choosing the Best Path: Techniques for Assessing and Improving Information Scent

Jason WithrowInternet Professional Instructor

Washtenaw Community College


Overview

• Introducing Information Scent

• Developing Good Scent

• Assessing Scent Quality

• Supporting Scent


Introducing Information Scent

• What is Information Scent?– How do you get from here to there in an

information space? – Visual and verbal cues guide the way– Looking for a movie DVD on a website?

• Choose the global navigation link labeled ‘Films’ before the links labeled ‘Music’ and ‘Software’

• But what if you want a movie soundtrack?


Theoretical Foundations

• Information Foraging Theory– Humans are informavores– We ‘forage’ through information spaces,

looking for the best information, with parallels to how animals hunt

– We move on when a certain threshold is reached, either high or low

– Poor information scent could provide the justification for moving on


Research Foundations

• Work on information foraging and information scent started in the 90s and has primarily been by researchers, many in the area of information visualization

• Xerox PARC (Peter Pirolli, Stuart Card, Ed Chi, among others)

• Additional researchers (e.g., George Furnas, UM School of Information)


Web Information Scent

• Scent applies to any information space

• Our focus is on the web

• Both browsing and search

• With browsing, good labeling is vitally important in getting users to the desired destinations

• With search, the goal is to get the user to the right ‘neighborhood’ on the website


Understanding Information Scent

• Each label on a website has a semantic relationship with the links to which it leads

• Think of the top-level label as carrying a ‘residue’ of the lower-level labels. This residue is the scent we follow.

• ‘Careers’ carries a strong, distinct residue for the ‘Open Positions’ and ‘Employee Benefits’ subnavigation links.


The Perils of Unclear Scent

• Where do I go to buy their software? ‘Products’ or ‘Store’?

• Scent should be strong and distinct, leading users both towards and away from certain sections of a website.

Source: http://www.barebones.com


Scent and Information Processing

• Choosing among information scents seems to involve preconscious processing

• Scent draws on our existing semantic networks, vast numbers of nodes (with one node per concept) interconnected in various relationships


Semantic Networks

Blue

Red

Sky

Shirt

Clouds

Pants

Green

FireTie

GrassAirplane

Plants


Spreading Activation

• Activation of one node spreads down the paths to related nodes, in a ripple effect

• As the activation spreads further from the source, it decreases in strength

• Distance of nodes from one another, as well as the weight (strength) of the connection, is based on how closely related they are in your experience


Spreading Activation and Scent

• The labels chosen for links activate these nodes and cause the spreading activation

• We choose the link label with the strongest relationship to what we are seeking, based on what we have encoded in our semantic networks


Determining Good Scent

• Browsing: The user starts at the home page and arrives at the desired information simply by choosing the ‘best link’ at each level of the site.

• Search: The user searches and either finds the desired information or arrives at a page where local navigation conveys sufficient scent to reach the goal.


Three Indicators of Poor Scent

• Indecision (Which path to take? More than one looks like a possibility.)

• Frustration (None of these look good!)

• Confusion (What does this word even mean?)


Why It Matters to Get Scent Right

• Saved time

• Saved patience

• Increased productivity

• Increased satisfaction

• Increased usability


Developing Good Scent

• When designing/redesigning a website, aim for a broad, shallow structure

• Why breadth over depth?– Top level labels must provide scent for all

levels further down– Degree of labeling ambiguity corresponds to

degree of scent ambiguity


The Value of BreadthCHI 2001 CHI 2002- Expanded breadth (11 to 14 links)

- Better scent:

Call for Participation --> Submissions,

Volunteering

Introduction & Overview --> FAQ,

Conference Overview

Presenters --> For Presenters

- User testing supported changes

Sources: http://www.acm.org/chi2001, http://www.acm.org/chi2002


Establishing Breadth: Card Sorting

• Exploratory card sorting can be helpful

• Provide users with the content pieces and have them sort the content into related groupings, then label the groupings

• This is useful primarily for establishing breadth and site structure (hierarchy)

• User-supplied labels can sometimes be good at conveying scent


Exploratory Card Sort Process

1. Orient the user (What is the site? Task?)

2. The user groups related cards into piles

3. The user assigns one label to each pile

4. Can the piles be subdivided further?

5. Label each of the smaller sub-piles

6. Sometimes further subdivision is needed

7. Record the groupings and labels

8. Repeat with another user


Card Sorting Example: Election Website

Candidate’s bio Election issues Press releases

Campaign events Speeches Campaign donations

Media coverage Campaign timeline Voter registration

Website feedback Newsletter Endorsements

Ask the candidate a question

On-the-road journal

Candidate’s record and accomplishments

Let a friend know about this website Candidate comparison

Privacy policyRelated links

Sitemap

VolunteeringCampaign staff and openings

Frequently asked questions


Create Primary Groups

Candidate’s bio


On-the-road journal

Campaign timeline

Media coverage

Candidate comparison

Speeches

Privacy policy

Newsletter

Endorsements

Voter registration

Campaign donations

Website feedback

Let a friend know about this website

Election issues

Related links


Sitemap

Volunteering

Campaign staff and openings

Campaign events


Press releases


Label Primary Groups

Candidate’s bio


On-the-road journal

Campaign timeline

Media coverageCandidate comparison

Speeches

Newsletter

Endorsements

Voter registration

Campaign donations


Election issues


Volunteering


Campaign events


Press releases

Getting Involved

About the Candidate Privacy policy

Website feedback

Related linksSitemap

News & Events

On The Issues


Create Secondary Groups

On-the-road journal

Campaign timelineMedia coverage

Speeches

Newsletter

Campaign events Press releases

News & Events


Label Secondary Groups

On-the-road journal

Campaign timelineMedia coverage

Speeches

NewsletterCampaign events Press releases

News & Events

News from the Candidate

Events In the Media


Analyzing the Data

• ‘Eyeball’ the data for common groupings and number of top level categories

• Use a program for analysis (as well as administration of the card sort):– EZSort/USort– WebCAT

• Cluster analysis, a statistical technique, is useful for identifying groupings


Breadth and Similarity Matching

• User rates on a scale of 1-10 the similarity of every possible pairing of content cards

• Cluster analysis creates the groups by crunching the numbers and seeing which items are rated as being most similar

• No labels are suggested for each cluster of content items, but hopefully a clear label emerges from examining the groupings


Assessing Scent Quality

• Two techniques help in assessing the quality of information scent:– Confirmatory card sorting – User testing


Confirmatory Card Sorting

• Conducted after the site architecture has been developed

• Asks the question: Do users expect to find content under the ‘right’ label?

• If users sort content under the ‘wrong’ label (or cannot place the content at all), that strongly suggests scent issues with the current labeling


Confirmatory Card Sort Process

1. Orient the user (What is the site? Task?)

2. Lay out cards with global navigation labels

3. User puts content cards under the appropriate global navigation label

4. Lay out cards with second-level labels

5. User subdivides content cards under new second-level labels

6. Lay out third-level cards and sort further


Provide Global Navigation Cards

Getting Involved

On The IssuesNews & Events

About the Candidate

Privacy PolicyWebsite Feedback

Related Links Sitemap


First Pass at Dividing Cards

Getting Involved

On The IssuesNews & Events

About the Candidate

Privacy PolicyWebsite Feedback

Related Links SitemapCandidate’s bio




Candidate comparison

Election issues


On-the-road journalCampaign timelineMedia coverageSpeechesNewsletterCampaign events

Press releases

Endorsements

Voter registration

Campaign donations



Provide Second-Level Labels

News & Events

News from the CandidateEvents In the Media

Campaign timeline

Media coverage

Speeches

Newsletter

Campaign events

Press releases

On-the-road journal


Further Subdivision Occurs

On-the-road journal

Campaign timeline Media coverage

Speeches

NewsletterCampaign events Press releases

News & Events

News from the Candidate

Events In the Media


User Testing and Scent

• User testing of information scent tends to work best with focused, information-seeking tasks


Quantitative User Test Metrics

• Path directness– determine ‘optimal path’ and number of clicks– calculate number of clicks it takes user to

reach destination and compare

• Path frequency– which paths are chosen most frequently?

• Time & Completion Rate

• Satisfaction


Qualitative User Test Metrics

• User comments– both written and verbal

• Signs of indecision– hovering back and forth between two global

navigation links

• Indications of frustration and confusion


Supporting Information Scent

• From user testing in particular lots of suggestions arise for supporting information scent

• These often relate more to interface design decisions than to conceptual design


Support Options

• Scope indications

• ‘See Also’ links

• Facet-based browsing

• Scent stress test for search


Indicating Scope

• Scope refers to the nature and extent of content in a specific part of a website

• Scope helps establish context for top-level labels, clarifying their scent

• Scope can be represented through:– Textual description– List of subnavigation links


Text Description of Scope

Source: http://www.ustransplant.org

Link descriptions can also be provided using the title attribute.


Scope Links

Source: http://dmoz.org


Scope and Graphical Rollovers

Source: http://www.interlinknetworks.com


‘See Also’ Links

• Often during card sorting a piece of content can potentially go into two piles

• Once a final location for that content is determined, provide a ‘See Also’ link to the location from the other part(s) of the site where it could have been located

• This will help the users that follow the ‘wrong’ scent initially


Standard ‘See Also’ Links

Source: http://www.ehawaiigov.org


Contextual ‘See Also’ Links

Source: http://www.sims.berkeley.edu


Facet-Based Browsing

• Rather than trying to capture the whole scent in one label, another option is to allow browsing by facet

• A facet is an aspect or dimension of an object or piece of information

• Each facet is a scent trail that can lead to the object or information


Facet-Based Browsing

Source: http://www.wine.com


Scent Stress Test for Search

• Users can enter your site at any page (assuming the website is not using frames)

• If they enter at a subpage, what scent will there be to assist in navigation?

• To support scent at those lower levels, a stress test can be performed


Stress Test Criteria

• Looking at the subpage, identify the following items:– The name of the website– The title of the page– The section of the website you are in– The path from the home page to your location– Other pages at the same level– Pages further down from your location


Summary

• The value of information scent

• Incorporating scent into conceptual design and interface design

© 2002 jason withrow choosing the best path: techniques for assessing and improving information...

Documents

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jason withrow overview

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low poor information

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