Abstract
Introduction
Experiment
Results
Discussion
Conclusions

Acknowledgements
References
Appendices
Credits
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Text vs. Graphical Links in an E-commerce Website

Results 

The experiment measured three items about the tasks performed: the number of additional pages visited (i.e. the total number of pages visited minus the minimum number of pages to be visited to complete the task), the time to completion of the task, and the subject's rating on ease of navigation of each site. Since the subjects performed two tasks per treatment, the two data values for each subject were averaged together. The Mean and Standard Deviation for each set of data is listed below. All of the statistical calculations were done using Microsoft Excel 97. The raw data collected can be found in the appendices.

Below are graphs displaying the Mean and Standard Deviation for each aspect of the experiment that was measured. Also include with each chart is an ANOVA for each statistic measured. The Mean, Standard Deviation, ANOVA and charts were calculated and generated using Microsoft Excel 97. Since the experiment was designed as a 1X3 experiment and each subject performed tasks on with each treatment of link styles, a Single-Factor within groups analysis ANOVA with alpha = 0.05 was conducted for each statistic measured.

• This first chart shows the number of additional pages subjects traversed when searching for products in each of the three treatments of link styles (Text, Text + Graphics, Graphics). There is an obvious difference in the Mean of the Graphical link site and the Text and Text plus Graphics site. Over half of the subjects (14 out of 24) visited at least one unnecessary, additional page when traversing the graphical link site. Subjects visited extra pages the least on the Text links site.


























Anova: Single Factor
SUMMARY

Groups	Count	Sum	Average	Variance
Text Links Only Site	24	2	0.083	0.101
Text + Graphics Links Site	24	4	0.167	0.254
Graphic Links Site	24	15.5	0.646	0.467

ANOVA

Source of Variation	SS	df	MS	F	P-value	F crit
Between Groups	4.424	2	2.130	8.072	0.0007	3.130
Within Groups	18.906	69	0.286
Total	23.330	71

The ANOVA run on the data for the number of extra pages visited by subjects revealed that the results are statistically significant. The F value for the data was 8.072, which is greater than the Fcrit value of 3.130. In addition, the P-value for the ANOVA was 0.0007, which is less than the alpha value of 0.05 set when we ran the ANOVA.
 

• The second chart displays the time subjects took to complete the tasks at hand. The Means for the Text and Text plus Graphics sites are suprisingly close to one another. The Text plus Graphics navigation, though, exhibits a higher standard deviation, suggesting a larger fluxuation in the time subjects took. Overall, subjects appeared to take the longest on the Graphics site. Due to the fact that each page was preloaded on the testing machine and cache locally on the hard drive, this difference is unlikely to be due to the downloading time of the images on the graphics site.


























Anova: Single Factor
SUMMARY

Groups	Count	Sum	Average	Variance
Text Links Only Site	24	449	18.708	76.650
Text + Graphics Links Site	24	470	19.583	101.797
Graphic Links Site	24	632	26.333	173.906

ANOVA

Source of Variation	SS	df	MS	F	P-value	F crit
Between Groups	835.75	2	417.875	3.578	0.0332	3.130
Within Groups	8058.13	69	116.784
Total	8893.88	71

The ANOVA run on the data for the time subjects took to complete the navigation tasks revealed that the results are statistically significant. The F value for the data was 3.578, which is greater than the Fcrit value of 3.130. Also, the P-value for the ANOVA was 0.0332, which is less than the alpha value of 0.05 set when we ran the ANOVA, further validating the statistical significance of the data.
 

• The final chart highlights the subjects' ratings of the ease of navigation for each treatment. Subjects used a scale of 0 to 9, with 0 being easy and 9 representing hard to rate the ease of navigation of each treatment for link style. Subjects rated the Text plus Graphics site as the easiest to navigate. The fact that the Means for the other two treatments are relatively close appears to place Text and Graphic Link navigation at the same level of difficulty.



























Anova: Single Factor
SUMMARY

Groups	Count	Sum	Average	Variance
Text Links Only Site	24	79	3.292	7.781
Text + Graphics Links Site	24	32	1.333	1.623
Graphic Links Site	24	91	3.792	5.737

ANOVA

Source of Variation	SS	df	MS	F	P-value	F crit
Between Groups	81.028	2	40.514	8.027	0.0007	3.130
Within Groups	348.25	69	5.047
Total	429.278	71

The ANOVA run on the data for the subjects' rating on the ease of navigation through each site revealed that the results are statistically significant. The F value for the data was 8.027, which is less than the Fcrit value of 3.130. Also, the P-value for the ANOVA was 0.0007, which is less than the alpha value of 0.05 set when we ran the ANOVA.

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