Introduction to Volume 1, Issue 3: Web Navigation Why a Special Issue? Focus and Implications of These Articles

The amazing wealth of information and profusion of services available on the Internet are only useful when people can access them successfully. Unsophisticated and erratic search strategies make it hard to find desired services, and poor site designs confuse users. Therefore expanded research on diverse aspects of Web navigation i s welcome: innovative approaches to designing Web sites for improved navigation, streamlined browser design to facilitate Web navigation, better training methods, and enhanced customer support. Information architects, Internet service providers, browser designers, Web designers, Webmasters and Web programming tool developers all have a role to play in making the Web easier to use. As the nature of the Web has changed, the user population, and thus user behavior, has also changed. At the beginning of the 1990s, the Web was used by a small number of technically sophisticated users, who used it primarily for discretionary professional exchanges. People 'surfed' the Web, seeing what they would encounter. As the Web has become a standard part of the personal computer, the Web has expanded from exploratory entertainment to a primarily goal-directed activity: finding information, purchasing products, communicating with others, or performing other work-related tasks. The population of Web users is no longer primarily technical professionals. Web users include the full range of people: the retired, teenagers, users with varying levels of education and motivation, users with disabilities, and users with a wide range of technical or computing experience. However, the disparity in access to technology, often called the digital divide, presents new challenges for designers and policymakers. Economics plays a key role as the cost is still high for many people, but even if it were free, there would still be impediments to broad adoption. Understanding these barriers to adoption, which exist in Web site interfaces and Web browser interfaces, and how they can be overcome, is a goal of this special issue. As more government information and services are placed on the Web, expectations change for what users consider to be an acceptable level of usability. In the past, a software application or Web site was considered successful if, say, 85% of users could interact and reach their task goals successfully. When government information and services are presented on the Web, 85% success is no longer acceptable. Because citizens have a right to access this information and enjoy these services, a 100% success rate, or universal ease of use (usability), should …