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45 : 1 (Fall 2007) : 33-53 II * E-mail: llai@mail.tku.

1 45 : 1 (Fall 2007) : II * llai@mail.tku.edu.tw WWW WWW * 2007/05/08 ; 2007/09/01 ; 2007/09/03

2 34 45 : 1 (Fall 2007) Wilson 2000 physical situational factors cognitive style socio-culture usability engineering

3 II 35 Hargittai 2004 ㈠㈡㈢㈣ Choo 2000 Ellis 1989 starting chaining browsing differentiating monitoring extracting Morkes & Nielsen, 1997; Kari, 2004; Wang et al., 2000 Rieh 2004 Rieh, 2004; Choo et al., 2000 Wang 2000 Tombros 2005 brief-first Jenkins et al., 2003; 2002 Kim, 2001 Wang et al., 2000; Chen et al., 2005; Harrison & Rainer, 1992 Group Embedded Figure Test Field Dependent, FD Field Independent, FI Martzoukou, 2005; Chen & Macredie, 2002 Kim 2001 Chen 2005 FI FD 1999 menu Gullikson et al., 1999

4 36 45 : 1 (Fall 2007) ㈠ mailing list BBS ㈡ schematahillier, 2003 CSS JavaScript PHP Shneiderman & Hochheiser 2001 technology variety gaps in user knowledge purposeful action Chen et al., 2005Baecker, 2000 Robins & Kelsey, 2002; Lazar et al., 2003; Wang et al., 2000 Preece 1998

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15 II 47 NSC-2815-C H Preece, J. 1998A guide to usability-human factors in computing 1993 Rosenfeld, R., & Morville, P. 2004Information architecture for the World Wide Web Baecker, R., Booth, K., Jovicic, S., McGrenere, J., & Moore, G. (2000). Reducing the gap between what users know and what they need to know. In Proceedings of the ACM conference on universal usability (pp ). Washington, DC: ACM. Bond, C. S. (2004). Web users information retrieval methods and skills. Online Information Review, 28(4), Chen, S. Y., & Macredie, R. D. (2002). Cognitive styles and hypermedia navigation: Development of a learning model. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53(1), Chen, S. Y., Magoulas, G. D., & Dimakopoulos, D. (2005). A flexible interface design for Web directories to accommodate different cognitive styles. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 56(1), Choo, C. W., Detlor, B., & Turnbull, D. (2000). Information seeking on the Web: An integrated

16 48 45 : 1 (Fall 2007) model of browsing and searching. First Monday, 5(2). Retrieved June 6, 2005, from Ellis, D. (1989). A behavioural model for information retrieval system design. Journal of Information Science, 15(4/5), Gullikson, S., Blades, R., Bragdon, M., McKibbon, S., Sparling, M., & Toms, E. G. (1999). The impact of information architecture on academic Web site usability. Electronic Library, 17(5), Hargittai, E. (2004). Classifying and coding online actions. Source Social Science Computer Review Archive, 22(2), Harrison, A. W., & Rainer, R. K. (1992). The influence of individual differences on skill in enduser computing. Journal of Management Information Systems, 9(2), Hillier, M. (2003). The role of cultural context in multilingual Web site usability. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 2(1), Jenkins, C., Corritore, C., & Wiedenbeck, S. (2003). Patterns of information seeking on the Web: A qualitative study of domain expertise and Web expertise. IT & Society, 1(3), Kari, J. (2004). Web information seeking by pages: An observational study of moving and stopping. Information Research, 9(4). Retrieved July 20, 2006, from net/ir/9-4/paper183.html Kim, K. S. (2001). Information seeking on the Web: Effects of user and task variables. Library & Information Science Research, 23(3), Lazar, J., Bessiere, K., Ceaparu, I., Robinson, J., & Shneiderman, B. (2003). Help! I m lost: User frustration in Web navigation. IT & Society, 1(3), Martzoukou, K. (2005). A review of Web information seeking research: Considerations of method and foci of interest. Information Research, 10(2). Retrieved January 20, 2006, from Morkes, J., & Nielsen, J. (1997). Concise, scannable, and objective: How to write for the Web. Retrieved February 14, 2006, from Norman, D. A., & Draper, S. W. (1986). User centered system design: New perspectives on human-computer interaction, Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Rieh, S. Y. (2004). On the Web at home: Information seeking and Web searching in the home environment. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 55(8), Robins, D., & Kelsey, S. (2002). Analysis of Web-based information architecture in a university library: Navigating for known items. Information Technology and Libraries, 21(4), Shneiderman, B., & Hochheiser, H. (2001). Universal usability as a stimulus to advanced interface design. Behaviour & Information Technology, 20(5), Tombros, A., Jose, J. M., & Ruthven, I. (2005). How users access web pages for information seeking. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 56(4), Wang, P., Hawk, W. B., & Tenopir, C. (2000). Users interaction with World Wide Web resourc-

17 II 49 es: An exploratory study using a holistic approach. Information Processing and Management, 36(2), Wilson, T. D. (2000). Human information behavior. Informing Science, 3(2),

18 Journal of Educational Media & Library Sciences 45 : 1 (Fall 2007) : Constructing Information Services II: A Study on Web Designers Ling-Ling Lai* Assistant Professor llai@mail.tku.edu.tw Min-Wei Chung Undergraduate Student Department of Information & Library Science Tamkang University Taipei, Taiwan Abstract This paper presents the result of the second phase of a study focusing on the comparison of Web users behavior and Web designers design concept. The literature of Web user behavior forms the first phase of the study and provides a foundation for the study to be built upon. The study continues to conduct indepth interviews with Web designers in order to understand their design goals as well as the design principles that they believe to be influential for the ultimate use of the Web. The researchers analyze the viewpoints of the two parties and conclude that in general Web designers understand the needs of their users and recognize the importance and benefits of a user-centered design; however, the final products of their design are often compromised. Possible reasons are the lack of support from the upper management, the difficulty of ensuring large quantity and high quality of the Web content, and undefined issues related to information architecture, such as navigation system, labeling system, and search functions. Keywords: Information behavior; Web user; Web designer; Information service; Information architecture Summary This paper presents the results of the second phase of a study focusing on the comparison of Web users behavior and Web designers design principles. In the first phase of the study, the researchers reviewed the literature on Web user behavior. The literature provides a foundation for the second phase of the study to be built upon. The researchers continued the study with in-depth interviews with Web designers in order to understand their design goals as well as the design principles that they believe to be important for their Web users. The organization * principal author for all correspondence

19 Ling-Ling Lai, & Min-Wei Chung: Constructing Information Services II: A Study on Web Designers 51 of the paper is as follows: The first section of the paper is a general discussion of related literature on the information behavior of Web users. The researchers present the general characteristics of Web users searching and browsing behavior found in the related literature. Research methods and the results of the data analysis compose of the second and third part of the paper. The fourth part of the paper is the comparison between the needs and wants of Web users concluded from the literature and the Web designers understanding and practices in their actual job. The last part of the paper is the conclusion and suggestions for future studies. The study took the qualitative approach with in-depth interviews with 10 professional Web designers. Open-ended interview questions that were designed based on the literature review in the first phase of the study were used to guide the interview process. With the participants consensus, the conversations were recorded. Participants were solicited from organizations including universities, libraries, museums, research centers, hospitals, and associations. Ten participants were selected for the study. Each interview session lasted from 30 to 90 minutes. The interview sessions started from December, 2005 to January, There are 6 male and 4 female Web designers participated in this study; the participants have 4 years of work experience on average. The results of the data analysis can be summarized as follows: 1. Content provider Web designers understand the fact that when users come to a Web site, they want to find the most updated information provided by the organization. This also corresponds to Tombros (2005) finding that in the process of information seeking, content is the key indicator for users to determine whether a Web site is considered valuable. However, the designers shared that in most cases they are not the content providers of an organization. A Web site could be easily stuffed with outdated information that has limited value for users, especially when an organization does not see the importance of providing the most updated information for its users. It is also shared when content providers are located in different sectors within an organization, it is challenging as to how to efficiently integrate the content. The designers believe that maintaining a quality Web site depends heavily on updated content and its providers. However, the responsibility of providing the most updated content for a Web site is usually not of the designers. Such a dilemma needs to be solved by establishing effective communication channels between the content provider and the Web designer. 2. Simple and easy to use Web site The participants shared that they usually do not make the interface particularly artistic. Their main concern of the design is whether the interface is simple,

20 52 Journal of Educational Media & Library Sciences 45 : 1 (Fall 2007) easy to use, clear, and organized. In this study, there are 5 participants who worked together with outsourced Web design firms to deign their organizational Web sites. Some of them shared that after the design project is finished, they would not do anything about it if they found some minor art design problems later. It is mainly because there is no dedicated art designer in the organization and the in-house designers think maintaining an easy to use Web site is sufficient. Other Web designers shared that the nature of their institution does not require the Web site to be artistic and in style; they believe the most important element of their Web site is the information it delivers. The only exception is the National Palace Museum. Because of the nature of the museum, the design team cares much more about the overall style and the message the Web site sends out to its audience. It is also found in the literature that a simple and clear design of the Web site is easier to be accepted by most users (Chen et al., 2005). A simple design helps users not to be distracted by flashy words and colors, but to be able to focus on searching and browsing. The participants shared that if a Web site is complicated in its structure or needs to carry a lot of information on each page, the designer has to pay special attention to the easiness of use that most people prefer. In addition, it is shared that designers need to remember users interact with Web interface with certain mental models, which they possibly have learned from their previous experiences with other Web sites. This insight indicates designers realize the design principles discussed in the area of information architecture. 3. Usability testing Preece (1998) points out that usability testing is a key process of Web design. Designers realized the importance of getting feedback from users, but due to budget constraint, it is often difficult to carry out the idea of usability testing. Some designers were able to share how they practically considered and integrated users feedback regarding the Web site to their redesign. Different approaches were used to obtain feedback from users, such as previous experience with users they encountered, interviews with users, events designed to promote users to return feedback. On the other hand, it is revealed that the support from the upper management is important in recruiting users feedback through constant usability testing. Especially in a small design team, usability testing is often put off because of limited support. 4. Expectations of users Designers revealed that there are sometimes necessary sacrifices that needed to be made when they design a Web site. For instance, designers are asked to incorporate the rules and standards of Web accessibility in order to provide all users with as much accessibility as possible to the Web site. These considerations

21 Ling-Ling Lai, & Min-Wei Chung: Constructing Information Services II: A Study on Web Designers 53 could be viewed as users expectations, but at the same time are design limits and challenges for designers speaking from the artistic point of view. On the other hand, Bond (2004) states that users usually expect to see certain information available on an organization s Web site. Designers admitted that they, or the content provider, are often lack of such an understanding. They shared that they should pay more attention to the organization s main functions, its mission statement, and its expected interaction with its users, so that the Web site can better meet users expectations. 5. Information architecture It is found that designers touched upon issues related to information architecture during the interviews. For instance, participants shared that it is their hope that users can find needed information within certain numbers of clicks, or that their design can help users have a good sense of direction when browsing the site. However, it is also revealed that information architecture is not the main focus for the interviewed designers. In other words, the principles of information architecture did not play a crucial role in the process of designing the Web sites for these participants. Other challenges that the participants shared and are topics frequently discussed in the area of information architecture are as follows: (1) Complicated nature of the content (2) Large amount of the content (3) Appropriate organization of information and navigation system (4) Effective labeling system (5) Effective search function In conclusion, the researchers analyzed the viewpoints obtained from the literature and compared with the results of a study with Web designers, and found that in general Web designers understand the needs of their users and recognize the importance and benefits of a user-centered design; however, the final products of their design are often compromised due to a number of reasons summarized above. The limited insights and discussions regarding information architecture from the participants in this study could be a direction for future researchers who are interested in understanding Web designers viewpoints in this area. Another possible direction is to separate the organizations in which the Web design is outsourced and done by Web design firms from the organizations that have in-house design team. It would be interesting to focus on these outsourced designers and study the viewpoints of this group of designers when they construct Web sites for an organization that they do not belong.

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