Web Navigation:
Resolving Conflicts between the Desktop and the Web

Classification of Web Usage

As we were discussing usability issues, we discovered that usage had a strong bearing on the navigational problems we set out to discuss. One of the first things we did in the workshop was to classify uses of the Web. We determined there were three general classifications into which all activities fell:

• Browsing
• Performing transactions
• Web applications

Each category is described below and some of the usability problems are mentioned. Some design recommendations are also given. (The problems mentioned for browsing apply to the other categories as well, but they are not repeated.)

Introduction

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Browsing