Articulating Pattern Differences in WWW Navigation for Culturally-Diverse User Groups Through Descriptive Analysis and Data Visualization

Abstract

As the proliferation of the WWW continues globally, the challenge of providing a usable navigation experience for culturally-diverse user groups becomes increasingly significant. One aspect of developing such an experience includes describing, categorizing, and visualizing the differences in Internet use for diverse audiences. Previously, semantic network analysis has been used to successfully identify and visualize clusters of employee Internet navigation in two U.S. companies (Langhorne, 2000). This method is further applied to analyzing the WWW behavioral patterns of a sample of ethnically-diverse students and faculty at the University of Dayton. This paper includes an account of the methods used to describe the Internet navigation of users and recommendations for future network analyses are discussed as options for articulating the characteristics of WWW navigation patterns across multicultural groups. The log files of Internet navigation histories for 66 users were analyzed using traditional descriptive statistical techniques. Implications for applying semantic analysis to the same data set are discussed.