[NIFL-TECHNOLOGY:2795] Re: Question: Research on Webpages for

From: Lindsay (werekenn@sympatico.ca)
Date: Fri Apr 11 2003 - 12:36:19 EDT


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From: "Lindsay" <werekenn@sympatico.ca>
To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov>
Subject: [NIFL-TECHNOLOGY:2795] Re: Question: Research on Webpages for
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Absolutely interested in having the article in PDF format!
Lindsay



----- Original Message -----
From: "Hacker, Emily" <EHacker@fegs.org>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov>
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2003 11:43 AM
Subject: [NIFL-TECHNOLOGY:2791] Re: Question: Research on Webpages for


> Thank you Jeff for making us aware of the article, "Unweaving the Web: An
> Exploratory Study of Low-Literate Adults' Navigation Skills on the World
> Wide Web." I got in touch with one of the authors, Christina Zarcadoolas.
> She can make the full text of the article available to us in PDF format
and
> would be very interested in joining us for a discussion! I think this is a
> great opportunity, as this is one of a very limited number of research
> studies focused specifically on low-literate adults' web use. Here is a
> preview from the policy section of the article:
>
> "Ignoring fundamental principles of "low-barrier" design further
> disenfranchises a significant portion of the population who are already
> compromised in our society. Improving Web access and navigation can
> substantially empower that same group to obtain the information they need
to
> manage their daily affairs and improve their health and well-being."
>
> I need to hear back from you whether you are interested in reading the
> article and inviting Christina to discuss it with us. Attachments are not
> allowed on the NIFL discussion lists, but if enough of us are interested I
> can work out an alternative solution for distributing the article. Please
> respond to me or to the list about your interest within the next few days
> and we'll take it from there.
> Best,
> --Emily
>
> ************************************************************
> Emily Hacker
> Moderator - NIFL Technology
> Director, Learning Technologies
> F.E.G.S
> (212)366-8122
> ehacker@fegs.org
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeff Carter [mailto:jeff_carter@jsi.com]
> Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 9:59 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: [NIFL-TECHNOLOGY:2790] Re: Question: Research on Webpages for
> low-intermediate
>
>
> Folks,
>
> About a month ago, David Rosen queried the list about research on web
> design for low-intermediate literacy adults. A couple of folks from my
> office spent some time responding to the same query privately, but it
> occurred to me a little while ago that what we found never made it onto
> this list, so I thought I would share it. I know many of you on this
> list are interested in the topic.
>
> Turns out that NCSALL's Health Literacy Studies web site has annotated
> bibliographies (organized by year) for health and literacy articles,
> and that the 2002 bibliography lists some research articles that are
> related to design and content issues for low-literate adults. Thanks to
> Karen Rowe of NCSALL for pointing that out.
>
> <http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/healthliteracy/literature/lit_2002.html>;
>
> Unfortunately, there aren't any Web links to the references. However,
> there is definitely one paper that is worth getting a hold of if you
> are interested in this subject, called "Unweaving the Web: An
> Exploratory Study of Low-Literate Adults' Navigation Skills on the
> World Wide Web." Here's the full citation:
>
> > Zarcadoolas, C., Blanco, M., Boyer, J. (2002) Unweaving the Web: An
> > Exploratory Study of Low-Literate Adults' Navigation Skills on the
> > World Wide Web. Journal of Health Communication, Vol. 7: 309-324.
>
> For this study, they looked at how a group of 24 low-literate adults
> (average reading level of 5th-7th grade) navigated the Web. Some of the
> problems they found: people needed to be reminded about scrolling down
> to see more of the page; and had often had trouble finding key "action"
> buttons; working with pull-down menus are sometimes a problem; also
> using the back button. Moving from the body of the page to the address
> bar to ype a URL was often a problem, one that I've noticed when
> training Web novices, whatever the reading level.
>
> In fact, one of the things I thought while I was reading this was that
> many of the barriers cited might also be listed as barriers to anyone
> using a Web browser for the first time, whatever level they read at.
> Although of course there are language barriers as well. Anyway, it was
> an interesting study -- I'm not representing it well with this quick
> summary. I would encourage anyone else who has read it to comment.
>
> Jeff
>
> Jeff Carter
> World Education
> Boston, MA
> (617) 482-9485
> --------------
> e-mail: jcarter@worlded.org
> <http://www.worlded.org>
>
>
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