| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000)
Fiscal Year 2005: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000)
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| Research Abstract |
As the Internet prevails in our society, information retrieval systems like OPAC in the libraries and the search engines have become commonly used. Now the enormous amount of information is accessible by using PCs. Because of this, it seems that users could obtain much convenience. However, they are not actually able to access the information they need efficiently. One of the reasons is that there are problems in the user interface of the retrieval systems. Generally, whether the system is easy to be used or not can be analyzed from the viewpoint of usability. To improve the interface of the retrieval system and to make users access easily to the information they need, we have to contrive interfaces with high usability.
In this research I conducted experiments of measuring eye movements in order to investigate the usability of the retrieval systems. Subjects were asked to use the retrieval systems of the public libraries and to find the place where the indicated book was held. Eye tracks of the subjects during searching were recorded and analyzed from the viewpoint of fixation patterns, and the usability of the systems was evaluated. Retrieving systems of the four libraries, which had different navigation by menu bars, were compared with regard to the useless movements and time. The results show that efficiency of the retrieving is influenced by the design of the pages. The pages which have simple and large menu bars, straightforward buttons to indicate the necessary actions, and appropriate expressions to show the meaning of the words offer efficiency in the navigation for searching books. The results suggest the guidelines for designing retrieval systems with high usability.
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