Return-Path: <nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h4AKlMC19759; Sat, 10 May 2003 16:47:37 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 16:47:37 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3EBD62BD.40907@theworld.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "David J. Rosen" <DJRosen@theworld.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-TECHNOLOGY:2827] Comments on the Unweaving the Web Study X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Status: O Content-Length: 2315 Lines: 58 Hello Christina, The "Unweaving the Web" Study is very helpful. Below are some of my initial thoughts about it: The study confirms the widely observed importance of (and my 1995-1996 research on) content interest such as: health information, school/homework information, child care/parenting, Web-based job searches, Web-based apartment searches, and home country information. "News" "weather," "history," "church/religion", "maps," "literature/poetry," "real estate/finance," "languages" and "chat/e-mail" did not show up in my early research. The observations on the kinds of assistance Web users sought was interesting: e.g. reminders needed to scroll, and to look for action buttons. The scrolling and action button problems are not a surprise to me, but it was good to see these issues are confirmed. I was reassured to see that unlabeled graphic links was found to be a problem. I have observed this problem with many new Web users, especially low literate users. I hadn't thought about pull down menus as a problem. But, of course, they would be if one had not seen this feature before. I didn't know back arrows were a problem for some people. Of course, typing Web addresses is a problem for many people -- especially for those who do not write well. The observation that typing Web addresses was experienced as a difficult transition, the 'dynamic jump from the body ...to the small URL address window," was new for me. Searching, of course, has many challenges, some of which your study documented, as does judging reliability of Web information. Your study supports the Children's' Partnership study findings that busy Web pages are not attractive to low literate adults, and that they present multiple barriers. The problem of translation mirror sites which you raised was interesting -- I hadn't thought about this. The whole Further Study and Recommendations Section was great -- I especially liked the user path history suggestion. Christina, I am interested to know if you are aware of other studies of low literate adults use of the Web which have been completed or which may be in progress. I would be interested to know, too, what struck others as interesting -- What did the study confirm for you? What was new? All the best, David J. Rosen >
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