Cultural Differences in the Allocation of Attention to Information Architecture Components

Well-designed web information architecture (IA) supports the findability and usability of web content, with the wider aim of ensuring efficient, positive user experiences. Accordingly, this study investigates cultural differences in how web visitors allocate their attention to the four main IA components: labeling, organization, navigation, and searching. We conducted a user study with 33 student participants from Taiwan and the United States, comprising observation tasks, note-taking sessions, and questionnaires regarding participants' attention allocation, as well as background questionnaires covering demographic, cultural, and personal factors. Our results indicated that, in general, the less complicated content a website displayed, the more aware the participants were of IA and its components. We also found that the US participants usually paid more attention to text labels on a webpage, whereas their Taiwanese counterparts were more likely to evenly distribute their attention across both text and image objects. These results shed new light on the cultural specificity of how existing IA is interpreted in global web communities and thus have important implications for future IA design.

關鍵字

Information Architecture ； Web Design ； Cultural Dimensions

並列摘要

良好的網站資訊架構能夠強化網站內容的可尋性與易用性，亦能確保良好的使用者體驗。本研究欲探索使用者將其注意力分配予四項資訊架構要素（命名、組織、導覽與搜尋系統）時所存在的文化差異。本研究招募33位來自臺灣及美國的大專學生進行使用者研究，上述測試涵蓋注意力分配、族群、文化、個人等因素。研究結果顯示，當網站內容的複雜性越低，則整體受測者對網站資訊架構要素的覺察程度越高。來自美國的受測者通常更注意網頁的文字標示，而臺灣受測者則較傾向將注意力平均分配予文字及圖像物件。本研究揭示全球異質化的網路社群在理解、消化資訊架構要素的歧異度，對於未來的資訊架構之設計具有重要啟示。

並列關鍵字

資訊架構；網頁設計； Hofstede文化維度理論

參考文獻

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國際替代計量

Cultural Differences in the Allocation of Attention to Information Architecture Components

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