Over 70 United States federal government agencies collect and store statistical data that are made available to the general public over the World Wide Web. A common portal with an easy-to-use interface was designed starting in 1997 to ensure that the general public could find appropriate data tables and reports easily (http://www.fedstats.gov/). This study analyzes the FedStats Web site to determine its usefulness to citizens, by way of a usability test with 15 subjects who responded to three scenarios. The results show that out of 45 attempts, only 7 were successful in finding the correct answer. Also, more than 50% of the subjects reported dissatisfaction and high levels of frustration with the Web site's usefulness and ease-of-use and with the lack of results they obtained. The article recommends incorporating into the Web site accessibility and universal usability design principles that could improve the dissemination of statistical information.

Computers can be valuable tools, and networked resources via the Internet can be beneficial to many different populations and communities. Unfortunately, when people are unable to reach their task goals due to frustrating experiences, this can hinder the effectiveness of technology. This research summary provides information about the user frustration research that has been performed at the University of Maryland and Towson University. Causes of user frustration are discussed in this research summary, along with the surprising finding that nearly one-third to one-half of the time spent in front of the computer is wasted due to frustrating experiences. Furthermore, when interfaces are planned to be deceptive and confusing, this can lead to increased frustration. Implications for designers and users are discussed.

With the rapid spread of the Internet across society, government institutions are taking advantage of digital technology to distribute materials to citizens. Is merely having a Web site enough, or are there certain usability considerations site creators must keep in mind to assure efficient public access to online materials? This project looked at typical people's ability to locate various types of content online, in particular, their ability to find tax forms on the Web. Findings suggest that people look for content in a myriad of ways, and there is considerable variance in how long people take to complete this online task. Users are often confused by the ways in which content is presented to them. In this paper, two common sources of confusion in users' online experiences with locating tax forms online are distinguished: (1) URL confusion and (2) page design layout. Ways are also suggested to decrease these two sources of frustration, yielding less exasperating and more productive user experiences.

The present study utilized the card-sorting technique and cluster analysis to define the best information architecture of Web-based health information for older users. Some 16, older computer users participated in the card sorting, 20 in category identification and thirteen in category labeling experiments of 64 health and agingrelated Web pages from http://www.dmoz.org/. The participants tended to group the items conceptually at higher levels of the hierarchy, but they tended to group the items based on similar words found in the titles at the lower level of the hierarchy. The study also found that user grouping produced more heterogeneous structure than the experimenters' predefined information architecture. Category labels suggested by seniors were observed to be less formal and perhaps more useful than the category labels from http://www.dmoz.org/.

This research examines the pattern of Web information seeking in four groups of nurses with different combinations of domain expertise and Web expertise. Protocols were gathered as the nurses carried out information-seeking tasks in the domain of osteoporosis. Domain and Web novices searched breadth-first and did little or no evaluation of the results. Domain expert/Web novices also searched breadth-first but evaluated information more thoroughly using osteoporosis knowledge. Domain novice/Web experts searched in a mixed, breadth-first/depth-first pattern and attempted to evaluate information using general criteria. Domain expert/Web experts carried out depth-first searches, following deep trails of information and evaluated information based on the most varied and sophisticated criteria. The results suggest that there are distinct differences in searching patterns related to expertise. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are provided.

The increased use and growing popularity of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) means users now have access to information on a variety of platforms. As people move or migrate between devices, from their desktops, to their laptops and to their PDAs, there is a need to maintain the integrity and context of information designed for the large screen when displayed on the small screen. Four common approaches to migration are outlined: direct migration, data modification, data suppression and data overview. For each approach, the potential impact on subsequent navigation of a web page is examined with different data types performing both simple tasks of browsing and reading and complex tasks of comparison using small screen devices. Based on this analysis, a chart compares navigation for different migration techniques and web tasks. The chart can be used to guide the migration of information from the large screen to the small screen and optimize navigation for specific tasks.

In recent years, considerable attention in Canada has been focused on strengthening relationships between the voluntary sector, government and industry. Information technology is an important tool for the sector, but systems are often difficult and costly to purchase and maintain - particularly for small - and medium - sized groups. Unlike e-business and the private sector, little attention has been paid to how the Internet can be used in the voluntary sector. This article addresses three specific research questions: 1) How are national Canadian voluntary sector organizations using Web sites? 2) How well-designed are these Web sites in terms of usability and aesthetics and 3) How can Canadian voluntary organizations improve their Web sites to meet organizational objectives?

Some 184 English language, national Canadian voluntary organizations' Web sites were rated, using a standardized tool to assess organizational objectives and to evaluate functionality, navigation and aesthetics. These sites currently offer limited functionality, and many are not well-designed. The article draws lessons from information technology theory and practice to demonstrate how the functionality and design of voluntary sector Web sites (in Canada and elsewhere) can be improved, to better support organizational objectives and to reduce the "digital divide" between the profit and nonprofit sectors.

Understanding the specific nature of disorientation in hyperspace will benefit from a battery of characterizations of the space being navigated, the user navigating the space, and their interaction. This study focuses on a particular consideration for understanding the "lost-in-hyperspace" problem, namely "transitional volatility". Metrics investigated in relation to disorientation and Web site mental models include: 1) the navigational and content changes of a Web site's interface in page-to-page transitions, and 2) the users' ability to reorient themselves to these changes. Metrics to relate to disorientation and Web site mental models include the extent to which 1) a navigation session is volatile, 2) a user is typically habituated in navigation patches, and 3) a user can predict navigation support changes at destination pages. The primary concern of the study was the effects of the navigational volatility on disorientation and Website mental models for two common hierarchical navigational schemes: partial overview and local context support.

The results suggest an interesting pattern of interaction effects: When users are provided with partial overview navigation support, navigational volatility predicts increased disorientation, decreased perceived global coherence and decreased ease of navigation. In contrast, when provided with a more locally focused navigation scheme, navigational volatility predicts increased perceived site size and increased perceived global coherence. The results generally supported a model with a direct causal link from navigational volatility to disorientation.

Several years of research suggest improvement is needed in how people return to their previously visited Web pages. Web page revisitation is one of the most frequent actions in computer use, so any interface improvements in this area can have a very large effect. Five categories of revisitation research are involved: 1) Characterizations of user behavior; 2) System models of navigation and their impact on the user's understanding; 3) Interface methods for increasing the efficiency of the Back button; 4) Alternative system models for navigation; and 5) Alternative methods for presenting Web navigation histories. Revisitation is a dominant activity, with an average of 80% of page visits being to previously seen pages. The Back button is heavily used, but poorly understood.

Three interface strategies for improving Web page revisitation are described: 1) A gesture-based mechanism for issuing the frequent Back and Forward commands addresses low-level interface issues; it is shown to be both popular and effective; 2) A "temporal" behavior for the Back and Forward buttons aims to overcome the problems associated with poor understanding of the current behavior of Back, strongly suggesting that revisitation can be improved by providing temporally ordered lists of previously visited pages; 3) Next-generation browsers could integrate the current tools for revisitation into a single utility, thus allowing simple visualization methods to aid users in identifying miniature target pages.

The growth in complexity of the World Wide Web, matched by the increase in user sophistication, has transformed the notion of user disorientation. While the retrieval of visited Web pages has been studied, the particular class of Web pages not initially recognized as being important enough to return to merits closer examination. Such pages, referred to as Post-Valued Recall (PVR) Web pages, tend to sit at the interface between the solitary act of surfing the Web and the social act of interacting with colleagues, who will often trigger the realization that a particular page is, in fact, of value. Results from a user study illustrate the effect of PVR in a social environment, as well as offer design guidelines for browser utilities that could diminish the negative impact of PVR.

The World Wide Web plays an important role in our society - enabling broader access to information and services than was previously available. However, Website usability and accessibility are still a problem. Numerous automated evaluation and transformation tools are available to help Web developers build better sites for users with diverse needs. A survey of these automated tools is presented in the context of the user abilities that they support. Furthermore, the efficacy of a subset of these tools based on empirical studies is discussed, along with ways to improve existing tools and future research areas.