Exploring navigational patterns on the Web

Reports on our preliminary analyses of our research which was designed to determine the navigational patterns that users follow in the World Wide Web and hierarchical Web sites. In all, 33 participants completed the study using a within-subjects Greco-Latin design, where each person viewed two sites - one organized in a Web structure and one organized in a hierarchical structure. The results suggest no significant difference in the participants' perceptions of their navigation of the sites, the sites' ease of use, feeling lost in hyperspace, and the organization of the sites.