Full reference: J. Marshall (2002). An Exploratory Study in Managing World Wide Web History. Masters Thesis, Lancaster University, 2003. Download : full dissertation (PDF, 1.44Mb) Cited in : A. Dix, J. Marshall (2003). At the right time: when to sort web history and bookmarks. In Volume 1 of Proceedings of HCI International 2003. J. Jacko and C. Stephandis (ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003. pp. 758-762 abstract and paper   Alan Dix, Andrew Howes, Stephen Payne (2003) Post-web cognition: evolving knowledge strategies for global information environments International Journal of Web Engineering Technology, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2003. pp. 112-126. abstract and draft paper

abstract

An exploratory experimental study was conducted investigating the use and development of World Wide Web History Mechanisms. The study employed two stages of investigation. A combination of screen evaluations and interviews were used with six participants to create a research agenda of key usability issues within the history domain. The participants revealed a strong preference for sorting (organising) information whilst browsing, personalising pages more, and text based hierarchical systems. It was decided that further examination of sorting strategies would yield the greatest potential for augmenting history mechanism design.

In consequence, the second stage required a more quantitative means to compare the sorting strategies. Ten participants performed a repeated web sorting and retrieval task with Microsoft Internet Explorer “Favourites” over two days. The results contradicted the user’s preferences in the first study where sorting the web information after browsing induced significantly better retrieval times, accuracy, and subjective satisfaction. Surprisingly, sorting information after browsing took significantly longer to store and organise the web pages, and induced significantly more title annotations. No significant main effects were found for time, familiarity with the material, and sorting composition.

The paper provides a number of implications for interface design and browsing strategy. Further research is required to isolate the experimental parameters and implement the recommended interface changes to improve history mechanism design.