Discussion of navigation buttons in instructional hypermedia programs focuses on a study of college students that investigated the effectiveness of buttons with pictorial representations, buttons with text and pictorial representations, and buttons with text only. Findings indicate that buttons with text labels reduce user confusion concerning…

There are several approaches a World Wide Web site designer considers in developing a menu structure. One consideration is the content of the menus (what choices are available to the user). Another consideration is the physical layout of the menu structure. The physical layout of a menu may be described as being one of at least three different…

Users of content-based software programs, including hypertexts and instructional multimedia, rely on the navigation functions provided by the designers of those program. Typical navigation schemes use abstract symbols (arrows) to label basic navigational functions like moving forward or backward through screen displays. In a previous study, the…

This study investigated performance differences between three different World Wide Web-based navigation models: linear, persistent, and semi-persistent menu structures. Subjects, 44 graduate and undergraduate students at Indiana University and public school teachers, were placed into one of the three navigation conditions and completed…