Implications of user characteristics in information seeking on the World Wide Web

The study described in this article investigated how differences in cognitive style and on-line search experience influence the search performance and navigational pattern of individuals utilizing a university World Wide Web (WWW) site. Forty-eight undergraduate students with diverse academic backgrounds participated in the study. On the basis of cognitive style and prior experience with online database search, the participants were assigned to 1 of the following groups: (a) field-dependent (FD) with little or no online search experience, (b) FD with substantial online search experience, (c) field-independent (FI) with little or no online search experience, and (d) FI with substantial online search experience. It was found that cognitive style influenced search time, whereas online search experience affected navigational style, such as jumps and layer traversal. Cognitive style and online search experience also interacted to influence search performance and navigational style. FDs with little or no online search experience navigated the WWW in a fairly linear mode, using embedded links frequently. They also tended to visit more nodes and used "Home" more frequently than the rest. The results imply that as FD searchers gain more online search experience, their navigational style and search performance change and become comparable to that of FDs. Based on these findings, some suggestions are made to improve the WWW interface and WWW user training programs.