Cognitive Architecture for Website Design and Usability Evaluation: Comprehension and Information Scent in Performing by Exploration

CoLiDeS is a model of how people navigate a complex website to find information and is the youngest member in a family of models for human-computer interaction situations where users rely primarily on skilled reading and action planning as the core cognitive processes. All models in this family are based on Kintsch’s (1998) constructionintegration (C-I) cognitive architecture. This paper describes CoLiDeS in relation to C-I, highlighting features of CoLiDeS that distinguish it from SNIF-ACT, a competing model of website navigation based on the ACT-R cognitive architecture combined with Information Foraging theory. Highlighting differences between CoLiDeS and SNIF-ACT yields insights into the consequences of selecting one cognitive architecture over another, helping us uncover the future potential for cognitive architectures in HCI. Controlled laboratory studies of the Cognitive Walkthrough for the Web (CWW), an engineering approximation of CoLiDeS, offer strong empirical evidence for the psychological validity and reliability of CoLiDeS and suggest a promising future for C-I in HCI.