Eye-movement Anaysis Of The Impact Of Weboage Information Organization On Visual Information Search

Along with the gradual popularity of the Internet, researchers have been paying more and more attention onto the usability of web pages. Visual attention, as a relatively reliable and objective way in exploring individual’s cognitive process, has an unparalleled advantage in evaluating the usability of web pages.It is generally believed that by studying webpage usability the matching between user cognition and web content structure would be optimized. Moreover, web content structure is used to organize information based on information classification, and its important semantic sign is category labels. Consequently, using eye-tracking technology and post-test questionnaires, this study aims to explore the role of category label in webpage usability.In this study, two independent variables are seted:the label relativity and the experimental instruction. Label relativity, which refers to the degree of relativity between searching target and category label, includes two levels:Related group which means category label and searching target are highly related, and Unrelated group which means category label and searching target share little semantic connection. Likewise, there are two kinds of experimental instruction used in this study: Instruction A tells subjects to conduct information searching task according to their usual searching habit, and Instruction B prompt subjects to pay close attention to labels in conducting searching task, for labels can help them rule out non-target information and find target information. The former variable, label relativity, is used to explore how information classification and the accuracy of label naming impact information searching process. The latter variable, experimental instruction, is used to explore how individual using category label during usual information search.Combined behavioral analysis and eye movement analysis, this study has obtained the following conclusions:1. Both visual organization structure of information chunk and category label in webpage can guide individual’s usual information search. Besides, information classification and the accuracy of label naming can help users to find target information and rule out irrelevant information faster and more accurate.2. Information classification, label naming accuracy and individual’s awareness of label impact can increase the Guide Effect of labels on individual information search behavior.