Methods for Manipulating Electronic Documents in Relation to Information Retrieval

Abstract

This study is part of preliminary work aiming to find out which graphic elements help users navigate in electronic information space. The study explores alternative methods that can be used to manipulate the content of web pages, looking at their effects on finding specific material and acquiring an understanding of the content. Four versions of an extract from a Human Computer Interaction (HCI) textbook were created: 1) a scrolling document; 2) a document with links; 3) a paging document; 4) a document with frames. A series of tasks was carried out by two different groups of readers. Readers within each group were divided between the four versions of the document, with each reader reading only one version. Readers were asked to find information; read a text; answer a question; write a synopsis. Measures were taken of speed to locate information, comprehension of an issue and comprehension and memory of the text read. The results indicated that the paging document and document with links enabled readers to find information more quickly. There were no differences among versions in the time taken to read the text, but second semester students read faster than seventh semester. The methods of manipulating electronic documents offer advantages and disadvantages depending on the purpose of the text and the readers’ tasks. It seems that if readers wish to find information quickly from an electronic document, the method of manipulating the document should be different from that applied to a large document that needs to be remembered.