Application of Human-computer Interaction Theories to Information Design on Internet Portals

Internet portals are increasingly becoming a primary source of information. A portal is a gateway to information on the Internet or a hub from which users may locate relevant information (Strauss, 2000). Because university Web sites have various user classes, universities are beginning to adopt the portal concept for their Web sites. The study conducted aimed to determine the effect of tailoring information content and presentation style on a university Web portal. User ratings of information design on three metrics and user task performance measures of time and errors were compared for four prototypes. Three prototypes were built on the basis of user requirements and two Human-computer Interaction (HCI) theories and one was a replica of an existing academic information portal. The three metrics were derived from the HCI theories. The contributions of the study are a determination of user acceptance of and user performance with the tailored presentation styles and three metrics derived from HCI theories that can be used to compare alternative information presentation styles for portals. An important contribution is the remote data collection technique that was used in the study and a time-stamping technique that recorded clicks on hyperlinks.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2002

Author dc:creator

• Rao, Sushma

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Smith-Jackson, Tonya L.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Williges, Robert C.
• Scales, Glenda R.

• Information Foraging Theory
• Human-computer Interaction
• Web Information Design
• Remote Data Collection
• Information Scent
• Internet Portals
• HCI Theories

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-11192002-164448

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/35756