University of Calgary
Calgary, Manitoba

WebView: A Graphical Aid For Revisiting Web Pages 

An independent study performed by the University of Calgary (1999) demonstrated the effectiveness of thumbnail screenshots as a web navigational aid.

Procedure 

With the use of a prototype software, called WebView, the subjects were able to visualize miniature screenshots of web page while navigating the Internet. The title and description were presented alongside each thumbnail.

The objective of the study is to gain insights into its usability and efficiency of various navigation methods. Seven volunteer subjects, all graduate Computer Science students or tutors participated in the study. All of the subjects used web-browsers as part of their daily work (6 using Netscape Navigator and one using Microsoft Internet Explorer), and all were very familiar with the structure and contents of the web site used for the evaluation tasks. Each participant received a 5-minute introduction to the system and completed a 25-minute evaluation test. The subjects were asked to navigate from a fixed location to various destinations using two Netscape browsers, the first with no thumbnails and the other with the thumbnails embedded. The time it took to complete each task were measured carefully. At the end of the test, the subjects were asked to answer a brief questionnaire and provide feedback in relations to the navigational task.

Observations & Results 

Preliminary results demonstrated the clear effectiveness of thumbnail screenshots in helping users to navigate previously visited sites. Users readily adapted to most of the new navigational facilities with no difficulty. All subjects successfully navigated to the intended destination faster and easier with the aid of thumbnail screenshots. It took, on average, four times longer to locate the destination when thumbnails were not available.

User Feedback 

Five out of seven users found the thumbnails useful as a navigational aid and can help increase the efficiency in locating web pages. The usability subjects were also generally enthusiastic about the support it provided.

"Five of the seven subjects were enthusiastic about the system, three of them extremely so, making statements such as "It’d be great to have a system like this.” When asked for comments about the thumbnails, several subjects stated that the thumbnails would probably be more useful when navigating through sites that they were unfamiliar with." 

"A preliminary evaluation indicates that [thumbnail images] ...can provide statistically significant improvements in efficiency in some navigational tasks. The usability subjects were also generally enthusiastic about the support it provided." 

Conclusion 

In relations to the study, Thumbshots present an effective tool in helping users to better navigate the Internet. Users gain acceptance quickly and easily. They are also extremely enthusiastic about thumbshots and graciously welcome the idea of preview functionality to help improve productivity.