Redesigning website navigation from content-based to task-based: a case study for Nuage website
Pan, Pan (2015)
2015
MDP in Human-Technology Interaction
Informaatiotieteiden yksikkö - School of Information Sciences
This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2015-06-23
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201601251117
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201601251117
Tiivistelmä
Modern web technology has brought information two clicks away from web users. A web-based application is capable of accomplishing as many complicated tasks as a desktop application. The website navigation system plays a crucial role in how efficient users are able to allocate the information and accomplish tasks using a website. This thesis describes an experimental project, in which I redesigned a website navigation system from content-based to task-based in order to improve its usability. The target website is called Nuage, a web application developed and used internally by Nokia.
In this thesis, I first describe the theory behind the website navigation, the information architecture and the website redesign process. Then I analyze the current Nuage website user interface and explain the subsequent redesigning of its navigation system. Finally, on the basis of a usability test I evaluate whether this navigation system can be more productive and bring more business value.
The usability test result shows the change in the navigation system has different levels of impact on different groups of users. The task-based navigation shows significant improve in the learnability and efficiency within limited changes in the website. The content-based navigation is, on the other hand, more logical and presents a big picture of the website structure.
My experiment shows the task-based navigation generally works better in the Nuage website by providing direct access to the actions and quick feedback on the completions of tasks.
In this thesis, I first describe the theory behind the website navigation, the information architecture and the website redesign process. Then I analyze the current Nuage website user interface and explain the subsequent redesigning of its navigation system. Finally, on the basis of a usability test I evaluate whether this navigation system can be more productive and bring more business value.
The usability test result shows the change in the navigation system has different levels of impact on different groups of users. The task-based navigation shows significant improve in the learnability and efficiency within limited changes in the website. The content-based navigation is, on the other hand, more logical and presents a big picture of the website structure.
My experiment shows the task-based navigation generally works better in the Nuage website by providing direct access to the actions and quick feedback on the completions of tasks.