Abstract:
This paper presents the results of the first study in a series of experiments that were designed to examine gender differences in web navigation. In this study participants were asked to locate the answers to ten questions via navigation through a large university website. A variety of behavioural and self-report measures were used to examine gender differences in navigational efficiency, navigational strategy and user confidence. The results show that although there were no overall differences between males and females in terms of navigational efficiency, male participants expressed a significantly greater degree of confidence in their ability to navigate through the web than female participants. The results also show that gender differences are apparent in the types of navigational strategies used, with female participants relying predominately on landmark information to guide their navigational choices. These results are discussed in relation to their implications for the design of web-based navigational aids that support the differing navigational strategies favoured by male and female users.
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© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Mcdonald, S., Spencer, L. (2000). Gender Differences In Web Navigation. In: Balka, E., Smith, R. (eds) Women, Work and Computerization. IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing, vol 44. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35509-2_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35509-2_21
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