Analysis of users’ website navigation can provide developers with solutions for improving the information structure and design of the website. However, website structure does not render real spatiality and cannot provide tangible navigation, yet similarities exist in website navigation and the real environment. In website navigation, users click the button that leads to the next page, and the webpage changes directly from page to page without leaving a record of user’s experience. Hyperlinks cut off the continuity of navigation memory and thus affect way-finding behavior. In conclusion, the differences between web navigation and navigation in the real environment are: first, there’s no sense of movement when browsing the internet. Second, there is no compass or direction on the internet. Third, there is no referential point on the internet. Downs and Stea (1973) submit that when users navigate, they are not simply carrying out a single task or even just trying to determine the relative locations of themselves, the space, and the target. Rather, they learn, through continual exploration, whether it is appropriate to try a new route or adopt new strategies. They also discover how the outside environment differs from the inner operations of their minds. Cognitive way-finding processes are closely related to spatial knowledge. Kosslyn (1987) suggests two kinds of knowledge representations: categorical information (or route spatial knowledge) and coordinate representation (or survey spatial knowledge). In a virtual space interface,
route knowledge is incorporated with the characteristics of the information structure, and the movements among information nodes are linear. Route knowledge is better employed when there is simple page representation and fewer functions, with only a small amount of information shown at one time. This decreases information overload.
However, a less complete information structure can be a disadvantage.
Analysis of users’ website navigation can provide developers with solutions for improving the information structure and design of the website. However, website structure does not render real spatiality and cannot provide tangible navigation, yet similarities exist in website navigation and the real environment. In website navigation, users click the button that leads to the next page, and the webpage changes directly from page to page without leaving a record of user’s experience. Hyperlinks cut off the continuity of navigation memory and thus affect way-finding behavior. In conclusion, the differences between web navigation and navigation in the real environment are: first, there’s no sense of movement when browsing the internet. Second, there is no compass or direction on the internet. Third, there is no referential point on the internet. Downs and Stea (1973) submit that when users navigate, they are not simply carrying out a single task or even just trying to determine the relative locations of themselves, the space, and the target. Rather, they learn, through continual exploration, whether it is appropriate to try a new route or adopt new strategies. They also discover how the outside environment differs from the inner operations of their minds. Cognitive way-finding processes are closely related to spatial knowledge. Kosslyn (1987) suggests two kinds of knowledge representations: categorical information (or route spatial knowledge) and coordinate representation (or survey spatial knowledge). In a virtual space interface,route knowledge is incorporated with the characteristics of the information structure, and the movements among information nodes are linear. Route knowledge is better employed when there is simple page representation and fewer functions, with only a small amount of information shown at one time. This decreases information overload.However, a less complete information structure can be a disadvantage.
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