The experiment results have shown that the use of history mechanisms in web browsers may not have a direct effect on user performance or satisfaction when revisiting web pages. Research needs to be conducted on individual components of web history mechanisms to see what impact they may have on web revisitation patterns. In our experiment we noted that the subjects depended on web page titles or URLs. This information was provided as tooltips or status bar information to accomplish the web search tasks. The hierarchial structure of the text and graphics, in some cases, seemed supplemental to this information. The three history styles we studied were tabular text, hierarchial text and hierarchial graphics.
We believe that this experiment could be improved by increasing the size of the display monitor to 21 inches and reducing the ambiguity and number of the task questions. Improvement of these factors would reduce the observed frustration level and may decrease future performance times of page revisitation and increase subjective satisfaction. Future research also needs to be conducted to determine if a relationship exists between the history style used in web browsers and its affect on short term memory of cognitive tasks. There was some evidence in our memory recall test that suggested that such a relationship may exist.
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Last modified: May 11, 1998