Web Navigation: The Role of Metaphor, Concept map, and Individual Differences Jim Jiunde Lee teljjl@ccu.edu.tw Assistant Professor Dept. of Communication & Graduate Institute of Telecommunication National Chung Cheng University Chia - Yi, Taiwan Yu -Chen Hsu ychsu@nthu.edu.tw Assistant Professor Center for General Education National Tsing Hua University Hsinchu, Taiwan Abstract: The flexible nature of hypermedia allows it to be tailored to an individual's needs. Despite the many degrees of navigational freedom, however, users of hypermedia often find difficulty locating information, feel disoriented, or even become "lost in hyperspace" within such large seas of data. Research findings suggest that the disorientation problem could be solved if users are able to hold a conceptual overview of the hypermedia structure. Variables such as the different ways of representing information structure cues and cognitive styles may affect learners' cognitive abilities in knowledge structuring and should be taken into account together. INTRODUCTION With the development of large information space such as digital libraries, however, users of hypermedia often experience difficulty locating information. Scholars (Beasley & Waugh, 1995; Dias & Sousa, 1997) have suggested that the navigational problem could be solved if users are able to hold a conceptual overview of the hypermedia structure. In other words, if users can substantially construct a structural knowledge (Jonassen, Beissner, & Yacci, 1993) of the information provided in the hypermedia system, their performance could be improved. In a hypermedia context, graphical browsers have been introduced as either schematic (concept map) or spatial (hyperlink) representations of the network. Both methods above represent what Halasz and Moran (1982) have called "conceptual models". Yet, it may not always be easy for novice learners to use an abstract conceptual model. If a supplied conceptual model is not familiar to the learner, then this strategy will not work (Halasz & Moran, 1982). Consideration of this issue suggests the usage of the metaphorical GUI (Carroll & Thomas, 1982; McKnight, Dillon, & Richardson, 1991;Rizk, Streitz & Andre, 1990), e.g., the office metaphor, to help with the development of new cognitive structures from existing ones. CONCEPT MAP AND METAPHORICAL GUI Despite of some exciting possibilities in the realm of user- centered learning, there is a fundamental problem regarding hypermedia; it provides too few structural cues for some users (Charney, 1987; McDonald & Stevenson, 1996; Dias & Sousa, 1997). They need to depend on some sort of consistent layout and structure for their understanding and would succumb to confusion or disorientation if their expectations were violated. Designers have to realize what types of structure cues hypermedia could adopt and then evaluate them at the planning stage. Concept maps (Nielsen, 1990; West, Farmer, & Wolff, 1991) are maps that display experts' knowledge structures graphically. This navigation tool is similar to the cognitive representation formed by the learners and is a mental representation of external spatial relations used to navigate in physical spaces (Dias & Sousa, 1997). In hypermedia -based instruction, concept maps are presented as templates to facilitate the novice's acquisition of experts' knowledge structures. The concept map has